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Delivering Community News to Eagle, Star & W. Ada County Volume 6 • Issue 4
APRIL 2015
www.theindnews.com
EVERYONE HAS A STORY: Eagle High Student Flying High as Level 9 Gymnast
By Philip A. Janquart Gymnasts are arguably the hardest working athletes around. After all, who else dedicates a minimum of 23 hours per week to training, not including competition? Eagle High School student Courtney Bonnema has been a gymnast, you might say, since she was knee-high to a grasshopper, which is somehow not so exaggerated considering her tiny stature. The 14-year-old freshman has been training since she was two. She is small, but mighty, and the hard work is paying off as she enters her second year as a Level 9 gymnast. In February, she nailed a personal best 9.875 vault and the first-place Level 9 vault crown at the 2015 Pikes Peak Cup, a “Gymnastike” televised event held at the Colorado Aerials Gymnastics Center in Colorado Springs. “Ten is the highest level before becoming an elite gymnast, and there are only about 80 of those in the country,” said Coach Rick Bonnell, owner of Mountain West Gymnastics in Boise. Bonnell is a member of the U.S. Elite Coaches Association, a JO National Certified Level 10 coach and four year staff member of Geddert’s Twistars training camp. He was also the 2012 USA Olympic Head Coach. “I opened Mountain West in 2012 to give kids in Boise another option on how to train upper level gymnastics,” he said. “That’s why we opened Mountain West Gymnastics. Courtney has done just spectacular along with our other Level 9 and 10 athletes.” Mountain West is the perfect training atmosphere for Bonnema, who has great all around gymnastic skills, but especially excels at the vault. She has placed at all five meets she has attended so far this year, capturing the Level 9, 2015 Pikes Peak Cup vault crown, following up a week later with a win at the IGI Chicago Style Gymnastics meet Level 9, 14-15 division. The meet, the largest of its kind in the world and listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, attracts some 4,000 of the toughest competitors in the country. She also won at the 2015 Arizona Grand Invitational in January and the Missy Marlowe Invitational in Salt Lake City. Courtney’s current ranking on vault is second in the country. “We have a lot of good kids, but she has
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Courtney’s Gymnastics Highlights
Level 9 2014:
Level 9 Western Championships: 4th vault (9.4) Region 2 Championships: 1st vault (9.7), 9th bars, 4th AA (36.625) Idaho State Championships: 3rd vault, 1st bars, 4th AA Spirit of the Flame Challenge: 2nd vault, 3rd bars IGI Chicago Style: 1st vault, 9th AA Arizona Sunrays Classic Rock Invitational: 1st vault
Level 8 2012-2013:
Bonnema with Coach Rick Bonnell at the Pikes Peak meet.
been really successful at her level,” said Bonnell. “She placed third (vault) at the Boise State University Open last week, but she has been battling a little bit of a back injury.” In 2014, she captured the regional vault title and earned a bronze at the 25-state Western National Championship, which was hosted last May in Boise at Century Link Arena. With five meets already behind her, Bonnema is focusing on the state competition, which is the precursor to regionals. “I’m feeling pretty good,” she told The Independent at a recent training session. “We have a couple weeks off until state and we want to do well. We are trying to make regionals.” As for the long hours in the gym, Bonnema said it is all she really knows and, in not so many words, indicated there is no other place she would rather be. “I’ve been doing this since I was two, so about 12 years,” she said. “I like it; most of my friends are here.” Bonnell said that while he is proud of Bonnema’s success on the vault, he is also impressed with her work on the bars and that she “is a really good tumbler.” Courtney is currently training towards level 10. Team Mountain West Mountain West finished fourth as a team overall in Chicago. “Region 2 consists of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and Hawaii,” Bonnell explained. “Washington is the strongest state in our region, but it goes by population. They have a couple
of elites over there and more than a few competitive gyms. Mountain West has two level 10 gymnasts with one committed and one pending for full ride scholarships in the fall of 2015.” It’s easy to see why Mountain West is beginning to churn out top level athletes when you take a look at the coaching lineup, which includes, in part, Summer Reid-Nelson, a seven-time national team member and elite gymnast who was the NCAA beam champion at the University of Utah; Rachael Tart, a former Level 10 gymnast; Kelsey Black, a former Boise State University gymnast who was named 2013 “Most Valuable Gymnast” and scored a season-best 9.925 on the vault at the Western Athletic Conference Championships; and Mckenna Bird, a former Boise State University Gymnast, who captured the 2011 Idaho State beam title and the Level 9 Junior Olympic Western National beam championship that same year. Her mother is the current co-head Boise State University gymnastics coach. Bonnema, whose younger sister Maddie is a level 7 gymnast, says she loves the sport and plans on continuing her career at a college “somewhere in the Midwest.” “Gymnastics has taught me that with hard work and determination you can achieve anything,” she says on the Mountain West website. “I hope to continue my gymnastics career in college while majoring in biology.” See Courtney’s First Place 9.875 Pikes Peak vault here: https://courtneybonnema.shutterfly.com
Region 2 Championships: Idaho All-Star Team, 9.9 vault Region 2 Championships: 1st vault, 3rd floor, 2nd AA (37.625) Idaho State Championships: 1st vault, 3rd bars, 2nd floor, 3rd AA (37.125) IGI Chicago Style: 1st vault, 4th floor, 2nd AA (37.35) National Judges Cup: 2nd bars, 4th floor, 2nd AA (36.00)
Level 7 2011-2012:
Idaho State Championships: 2nd vault, bars, 1st floor, 1st AA (37.3) Charity Choice Invitational: 1st vault, 2nd beam, 1st AA (37.15) National Judges Cup: 1st vault, competed for Idaho All-Star State Team
Bonnema is all smiles after her 9.875 vault at the Pikes Peak meet.
Jump off the beam, flip off the bars, follow your dreams, and reach for the stars ~Nadia Comaneci