Gymnasts Take Message to School

Monday, March 18, 2002

By Corey Roepken
College Notes

Being a college athlete is more than practice and competition. It has a lot to do with being a role model, and the female gymnasts at the University of Michigan are doing their part.

On March 7, the Wolverines traveled to the Vetal School on the northwest side of Detroit to talk to fourt-graders and put on an exhibition as part of K-grams, a nonprofit organization focused on building relationships between college students and elementary pupils.

"It offers both sides a comfortable way to get to know each other," said Rishi Moudgil, the president of K-grams and a former U-M student. "It establishes that connection between two groups of students that normally wouldn't happen."

On the way into the building, if the kids had walked any closer behind the gymnasts, they would have stepped on their heels. The reaction from the young students once inside was simply fantastic.

The kids aren't from the most upscale of neighborhoods and have not had the same opportunities or seen the same things as a lot of college students, so when senior Amy Kuczera did the splits and coach Bev Plocki pulled up on one of Kuczera's legs, it was, at the time, the coolest - and most excruciating - thing they had ever seen. They also cheered loudly when they found out sophomore Elise Ray was the captain of the 2000 Olympic team and that sophomore Calli Ryals was the nation's top all-around gymnast this season.

The fascination didn't stop there. They screamed their approval, oddly enough, when senior Shannon MacKenzie said she wanted to be a math teacher. When given the opportunity to ask the gymnasts anything they wanted, the kids came up with, "What's your favorite cartoon?" and " Do you know karate?" - to which Ryals, who proved her kung fu abilities at a social event during last season's NCAA championship meet, answered yes.

The main message the Wolverines passed along was that with hard work and commitment, anyone can succeed and go to college. They wanted the kids to know anything was possible.

"It's nice to get out and do something in the community, and it's really, really nice to get to know the kids," Ray said. "Hopefully, at least something we say will stick and give them inspiration."