OPC Gymnasts Win Title As Best Team In State

With her gymnasts lined up waiting on results at the recent Elite Bunny Hop event, Oxford Park Commission gymnastics coach Lisa Mitchell remembers telling a fellow coach that she was praying for them. She wanted their hearts to be open to whatever the final results of the meet were.

Moments later, the good news started to flow as the team garnered multiple first-place finishes to ultimate become the best all-around team in the state of Mississippi.
“I was pleasantly surprised and very thankful,” Mitchell said about the results of the 13 gymnasts who took part in the meet held at Metry McGaughy’s Elite II gym. “We’ve gone to this meet and we have done well before. We have had some first place individually but this is the first time that we’ve gone under one category and the first time we’ve come back with a unified team trophy.”
Alexa Farese earned the overall high individual score for the OPC team to secure the highest all around team scores. Other members of the first-place team included Kaitlyn Johnson, Izzy Langendoen, Hope Sullivan, Veronika Krievskaya, Lainey Schuesselin, Addison and Julia Winburn, Collins Walker, Layla Farese, Jarah Jones, Gray Flowers, Avery Vanderford and Chloe Harrington.
There were a lot of smiles on faces of the gymnasts following the meet. Many of them have been in the OPC program for several years. The results have been good for several years, Mitchell said, but the difference now as opposed to the past revolve around the numbers.
“We haven’t had the number we need to make sense to have a big, competitive team to do much more than what we’ve done over the past years,” Mitchell said. “We actually have gone to state before and have had our own OPC gymnast qualify for state and do very well. This is the first time that we’ve had at least a half dozen that have been interested in continuing to do more. In the past when we had them qualify for state, it was just one other besides my own girls.”
The parental support increased as well and after the Bunny Hop, Mitchell felt an even bigger push for the program and team do more. Intermediate gymnastics started younger and Mitchell feels like they can really move up in the sport. There are number of hard workers in the group, and Mitchell reminded that “hard work beats talent when talent hardly works.”
Competitive gymnastics has been a part of the OPC program for the past seven to eight years. Mitchell has been teaching the past 10 to 12 years.
“Gymnastics teaches you a whole lot more than just physical skills. It’s the dedication, the determination. The fun is working and being challenged especially working with girls who are quick to say they can’t do this,” Mitchell said. “I’ve seen them grow. I’ve seen them chose and work through their fear and see the things they have accomplished. It all equals that you can do this. There is a whole lot of that going on to where you mentally choose, am I going to believe the fear? Or am I going to believe the evidence in what my coaches are telling to make that decision and go for it. There are those life lessons, obedience, encouraging each other, that they learn from that. It may be an individual sport, it’s also good to be in a group of other girls that are also working and struggling and obtaining and gaining and growing.”
There are a number of classes offered by the OPC throughout the year. Mitchell has seen consistent growth both in the number of kids participating as well as the number of kids that want to be in the gym even longer.
“I’m seeing that the kids want more and that’s usually a pretty good indication that they love it and enjoy spending time on their hands,” Mitchell said. “It’s great for them to work so hard and have the benefits of them enjoying it. I’m really proud to be a part of a city-based program that is very community oriented. It’s a support system that has brought us all together. I don’t think those benefits can be ascertained inside the gymnastics room. I think you see that coming in and out of the building and walking in and out of the activity center with different folks. That’s a neat benefit that doesn’t have everything to do with gymnastics but with the Oxford Park Commission and what is ultimately a stabilizing factor in our community.”
Mitchell reminded that another good reason for parents to sign up their children for gymnastics is that it gives them a break.
“It wears them out,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “It supports what the parents are trying to get into their kids. I don’t want to hear the word camp, especially at the intermediate and advanced levels. There are immediate consequences. Delayed obedience is disobedience and there are natural consequences that are understood. There is so much that goes into the growth and support of the kids and their mentality and their choices of right and wrong and choices. Truly it takes a community to raise kids and being in that type of loving and yet in a firm environment is really important as well.”
Gymnastics classes begin as early as age 4 at the OPC. Classes for the summer are currently registering. For more information, visit www.oxfordparkcommission.com..

John Davis and the Oxford Park Commission
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