East Bradenton's South Florida Gymnastics: a championship-producing gym

BRADENTON -- Within the unassuming South Florida Gymnastics building in East Bradenton, young gymnasts spring from boards, flip from high bars, display strength and dexterity on the rings and brave gravity-defying skills on the parallel bars.

From the youngest of competitors, around 6 years old, to seasoned veterans of 17, the gymnasts showcase dynamic skills from floor exercises to head-spinning full-body twists and turns while launching themselves through the air in vault competition.

It's not hard to understand why South Florida Gymnastics men's coach Jason Collins was named USA Gymnastics Florida coach of the year considering his young team hasn't lost a meet since he took over the program some 18 months ago.

Among the victories this year was the state championship, and the team is training hard for the regional championship in West Palm Beach this week.

The program struggled in recent years because of coaching shortages, but as soon as Collins walked through the door, he saw something special.

"We had the talent, we just didn't have a clear direction or focus at the time," said Collins. "This team is pretty dedicated, but I had to instill that. There was a lot of retraining that needed to be done."

Collins, a former professional opera singer, began coaching female gymnas

tics several years ago and when he made the transition to coaching boys, he said he found no need to change his philosophy -- save one aspect.

"Coaching boys is like breaking wild horses," said Collins. "They were used to training on their own and not having a forced regimen of time and basic training. That's what I brought into it. That's what they wanted and they've responded."

Collins said it's all about fundamentals and repetition and he re-dedicated the boys program back to the basics of focus, unity as a team and lots of conditioning. A virtual perfect coaching record and 25 members of the boys team winning 77 individual all-around events at state is hard to argue.

Clayton Spencer, 17, noticed gymnastics in 2011 when he watched his sister take it up at the recreation level. He trains about 24 hours a week and competes in all six events at meets.

"I get nervous when I see the crowds at meets, but I love the competition and love seeing how we all did as a team after it's over," said Spencer, who said he has aspirations of competing at a higher level.

Florida doesn't have a high school gymnastics program, but ironically, the University of Florida's women's program boasts back-to-back national championships.

Only the highest level of USAG gymnasts can qualify for the national event and Spencer has a legitimate shot at doing just that, following this week's regionals, which is heavily scouted by universities. At the elite qualifier in Orlando this year, Spencer scored better than 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Danell Leyva.

Spencer was one of those youngsters who loved to flip himself around the house at an early age.

"When I came here and saw the right way to do it, I really started having fun," he said.

Collins said there is no better sport than gymnastics to prepare an athelte for other sports because it requires serious core muscle training.

"The agility, dexterity and strength you learn is everything when it comes to translating to other sports," he said.

A love for gymnastics

But many just fall in love with gymnastics and don't want to do anything else, according to young athletes such as Danny Ferber, 11, Colby Prince, 11, and Garrett Schooley, 10. Danny, who has been in gymnastics for five years, said the sport is teaching him how to excel in life and doesn't care for other things boys his age might be doing after school, such as playing video games.

"I'm always in the gym," he said. "For me, I just want to get better. I don't care about the score, I just want to feel like I did better than the last time. It's a sport that you can't make harder if you tried. There is nothing you can do that will be perfect and you always have to fix what you are doing. It gives me an adrenalin rush because I know I can do it better. I want to do it better."

Colby said he's giving up other sports to focus on gymnastics. He's been training for three years and said he loves the progression of skill difficulty.

"Doing one skill leads to doing harder skills," he said. "It's about getting this basic thing down and going on to have more fun. I like to see my score improve, but only because I like to know I'm improving and if my score is better, then that means the team score is going to be better."

Garrett, too, decided to leave other sports behind to focus on "my favorite sport. I started gymnastics when I was 3 years old. It never gets easier. It always gets harder. And it's funner than other things in my life, like my three sisters, who are at my house all the time."

The women's program at South Florida Gymnastics is an up-and-coming program. The girls have not enjoyed the same amount of success as has the boys team in the past few years, but program director Kim Friday said that's changing.

"There is a lot of different knowledge we are bringing in on the girls side," said Friday, who has 22 years of coaching experience. An example of the experience is assistant compulsory/optional coach Maria Iancova, who was an Olympic qualifier for Bulgaria in 1988. Collins and Friday said the gym is blessed with a many years of gymnastics experience. Collins said he would not have been able to achieve this level of success so early on without his assistant coach Steven Schmerber.

There is a small army of coaches in the overall program, from competitive to recreational, where many get their first real taste of the sport. Friday, with her assistant program director Shawndra Sublett, oversees it all and Collins credits the gym leaders for giving him the freedom he needed to turn the men's program around.

Friday said the women's program has about 85 participants and is doing well. "We haven't won everything like our boys have," she said. "Not yet."

To learn more about South Florida Gymnastics, 3241 59th Drive E., and the other programs offered, visit sfgymcheer. com or call 941-758-5775.

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter @urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published April 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "East Bradenton's South Florida Gymnastics: a championship-producing gym ."