Point your toes, squeeze your legs, stay tight. Now, full turn left, leap and jump. Spot, spot, dismount. Finally, salute the judges. All of these are thoughts that race through freshman Sawyer Whitcher’s head as she glides through her beam routine during her gymnastics competition. For some, having this many thoughts swirling through your head at once could be overwhelming. However, for Whitcher, this is all a part of how she makes sure she is the best she can be.
Whitcher is a gymnast who competes for both the The New England Academy of Gymnastics and the newly formed Wayland-Weston high school gymnastics team (WWGT), which is part of the Dual County League (DCL). She started her gymnastics career at the age of five, when her parents enrolled her into classes and from there, Whitcher found her passion. She made her way up the levels, eventually moving on from regular classes to the Junior Olympic team. A Junior Olympic team is a gymnastics team that is part of the USA program and provides training and competitions to athletes. Currently, Whitcher competes at the platinum level which is where she has stayed for two years. The platinum level is the fourth highest level out of six levels.
“Honestly once you start, it’s hard to stop,” Whitcher said. “I spend a lot of time on gymnastics, so to just stop doing it would be really weird.”
By earning herself the title of MVP along with DCL All Star, Whitcher can be considered one of the most highly decorated gymnasts on the team. The DCL All Star award is given to athletes who have made a notable impact on their team. This award is a prestigious one to receive as it is decided by coaches all around the league. Before accepting the DCL All Star, Whicher didn’t even know what the award was. She found out she was chosen for the award from her mom on Instagram.
“[Receiving] DCL All Star was cool because those are coaches that I’ve never met in my life that thought I could get that award,” Whitcher said. “It’s just nice to get up on that podium and recognize that I put in hard work.”
One criteria for the DCL All Star Award is the athlete’s contribution to the team. Whitcher checked off that box by being one of the top scorers for the WWGT. She was one of two gymnasts on the team who competed in all the events, the other being WWGT senior captain Nicole Angelova. During the season, the WWGT had seven meets in total, and Whitcher did all-around in each of those meets.
“She was definitely one of our strongest team members,” Angelova said. “[She] contributed to the score a lot.”
While there are certain gymnastic seasons for high school and club, Whitcher makes sure to keep up her training year-round in order to keep her skills. She practices approximately nine hours a week. During the winter, Whitcher would leave early from her club practices just to get to the WWGT practices. Despite scrambling around all the time, WWGT coach Julia Shaefer shared that Whitcher was always one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave.
“She had a work ethic that I wish every gymnast had,” Shaefer said. “She was a great athlete to coach.”
Shaefer said that Whitchers talent shines the strongest through both her floor and beam routines. During the WWGT’s league meet, Shaefer also mentioned that her floor routine was a standout and a great way to end the season.
“She just had an incredible routine,” Shaefer said. “It was just great to see her progress so far, and see all her hard work come together on the floor.”
Not only was Whitcher helpful in upping the team’s score, she was also a great teammate according to Shaefer and Angelova. Shaefer and Angelova stated that Whitcher went out of her way to get to know everyone on the team, cheered for her teammates and helped other athletes with their skills which is another quality that DCL All Stars must have.
“She was a really good teammate because she was super supportive of everyone on the team,” Angelova said.
Each athlete has a variety of reasons for why they continue with their sport. For Whitcher, she appreciates the freedom of the movements and the choreography gymnastics brings her. She also enjoys the fact that gymnastics is a team sport, where athletes train closely together.
“There’s just a lot of freedom to do what I feel comfortable with,” Whitcher said. “It’s fun to just compete and try my best with my team.”
Whitcher’s favorite memory from her high school gymnastics career was a pasta party that the gymnasts at WWGT held. She said she cherishes that memory because the team got to connect even more with each other. Another of her favorite memories was when she won gold at states two years ago, and getting to stand on the podium with her friends beside her.
“It was just really fun because [I got to] celebrate the hard work we put in that year,” Whitcher said.
For the years ahead, Whitcher said that she is looking forward to continuing high school gymnastics and reaching for higher levels in gymnastics. She also looks forward to mastering harder skills and upping her start value which will help the team more.
“I really can’t stress enough how amazing Sawyer was in this first year,” Shaefer said. “I really look forward to [coaching] her for three more years.”