Owls senior aims to break school records in multiple sports

February 5, 2019

Avery DeHart said she has enjoyed her teammates and coaches while being on the gymnastics and track and field teams at Seymour High School, and is hoping to set school records in both sports.

“Every person that I’ve met here that I was friends with I’m definitely going to remember the rest of my life,” DeHart said.

DeHart began gymnastics as an 8-year-old at Seymour Gymnastics Center at Girls Inc.

After competing for a few years, she took some time off.

“I took a break for a little bit. My body was a little bit done. Then I came back for high school gymnastics,” DeHart said.

She returned to the sport her freshman year at SHS, and has competed all-around all four years.

“Gymnastics has always been part of my life, and when it wasn’t I had nothing to do,” DeHart said. “I was so bored. The second I went to Gymnastics Lane a part of me just went back. I like either beam or floor the best because you kind of get to put your own personality into your routines. We’ve been putting in new (beam) skills lately, things I didn’t think I could have done a couple weeks ago.”

In floor exercise, DeHart feels the athletes get to put personality into the routine.

“You get to show off not only your tumbling, but also your dancing skills and I think that is really fun,” DeHart said. “The team, we’re all different. We all get to put our own touches into our routines and it’s not all the same like our bar routine or our vault routines.”

DeHart said competing in all-around her freshman year was challenging.

“I was very intimidated just because I had gone to Girls Inc., and Girls Inc. is kind of Gymnastics Lane’s rival, so I kind of felt intimidated going into the new environment and seeing the people and meeting the new coaches,” she said. “I was just not in my comfort zone, but now I don’t want to leave the gym most of the time. It’s my home pretty much now.”

She said practice is important in gymnastics.

“We all have our off days, but coming into practice our coach usually has our workout written, so we know the stuff we need to get done, and we need to get working on it because if we don’t then our scores are going to show that we didn’t work that week,” DeHart said. “I’ve always kind of struggled with bars. The past two years I’ve really been trying to make that one of my main events that I try to go to every day. I’ve been trying to put in some new skills. They’re getting there. Bars is just hard to get bonus on.

The senior has enjoyed being a team captain.

“It was a really good feeling knowing that my teammates felt that way about me knowing that I could take on that roll and be that person for them,” DeHart said.

As the postseason approaches, DeHart has her sights focused.

“My focus right now is beam because that is the event I know I can up my skills,” DeHart said. “All the other stuff is pretty much solid. My vault and my bars are pretty solid. Floor and beam are the two I’m really focusing on.”

Avery said she enjoys working with her younger sister, Allie.

She looks forward to pole vaulting, running the 100 hurdles and the 4×100 relay this spring.

Her best pole vault has been 9-foot, 6-inches.

“I’ve done 10-feet at practice. The school record is 10-feet 3/4 of an inch so hopefully I can get it this year,” DeHart said. “The way to get a good vault is by having your feet up, you almost want to be upside down and hold onto the pole as long as you can.

“I figured that part out at regionals last. It was kind of late so this year I can go into it knowing that this is what I need to do. It’s nice being able to go to those big meets. You may not be the best vaulter there but you get watch the really good vaulters and see what their form is and that kind of thing. It’s a good experience.

She said she keeps busy going back-and-forth between her events.

“Usually I’ll start with pole vault and then I’ll have to go do hurdles, and then go back to pole vault and then run 4×100,” DeHart said.

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Name: Avery DeHart

High school: Seymour

Parent: Heather DeHart

Siblings: Allie, Bradley

Sports: gymnastics 4 years, track and field 4 years

Athletic highlights: gymnastics: qualified for regional, state in 2018; track: two-time sectional champions, regional qualifier in 100 hurdles, 4×100 relay, pole vault 3 years.

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