By Gail Wood
No one knows better than Ashley Ostrand that doing a flip is risky and difficult.
Mess up and it hurts.
Yet Ostrand, ignoring the fear factor and the risk, is turning out for gymnastics, twisting and flipping her way across the mat, high beam or uneven parallel bars. Now a senior at Olympia and down to her last chance, Ostrand decided, to the delight of her coach and teammates, “what the heck, I’ll give it a try.”
“She’s really talented,” Olympia coach Sally Poe said. “She’s picking it up fast. I just wished she had turned out last year.”
While she’s turning out for high school gymnastics for the first time, Ostrand isn’t a rookie gymnast. She grew up doing flips as she started turning out for a club team when she was 6. But four years have passed since she last trained in gymnastics.
“I was tired of it and didn’t really want to do it anymore,” Ostrand said. “I had broken a lot of bones. That’s why I got kind of scared of everything.”
The fear is gone.
“In a way, it’s like riding a bike,” Poe said. “You never forget how.”
However, you might expect a little rust. But not for Ostrand. In her first meet of the season, she competed in all the events but floor exercise because she didn’t quite have her full routine down. However, by the team’s second meet, she competed in the all-around, placing fourth. Ignoring that inner voice that occasionally reminds her “you can get hurt on this one,” Ostrand is already gracefully performing on the vault the tsukarhar, a difficult hand spring.
“Ashley was really strong in that first meet,” Poe said. “I think it surprised even her. For her to be out of gymnastics for four years and to come back into it is awesome.”
Ostrand just might be a candidate for the TV show Fear Factor.
“She is amazing,” Poe said. “Every year the kids would talk about Ashley and say she might turn out, but she didn’t. Then out of the blue she decided to turn out this year. Boy, she’s a nice addition.”
Even though this is Ostrand’s first year in high school gymnastics, Poe put her among the team’s top four along with Andrea Clarke, Lexi Bonbright and Mackenzie Andrews. Clarke and Andrews are both returning state qualifiers.
Clarke, now a senior, competed in three events at state last year, placing 16th in both the bars (8.17) and the vault (9.10). Andrews, as a freshman last year, also competed in three events at state, placing 17th in the floor (9.42), 21st on the beam (8.60) and 23rd on the bars (7.87).
Clarke won the all-around in the second meet of the season, which was at Interlake in Bellevue. Bonbright and Ostrand tied for second and Andrews was fourth, giving the Bears the top four spots.
Amazingly, neither Clarke nor Andrews compete on a club team year around. That’s a contraction to the majority of state qualifiers, who are usually year-around devotees. Instead, Clarke pole vaults in track in the spring and swam on the school team in the fall. She’s also been a cheerleader. Besides her involvement in school sports, she also coaches a youth program at Black Hills gymnastics, helping little kids learn how to do flips. Clarke coaches on the club team along with Ostrand. That exposure in coaching, along with Clarke’s encouragement to turnout, got Ostrand thinking about turning out for gymnastics her senior year.
Ostrand wasn’t all that anxious about doing her first flip.
“It wasn’t hard at all,” she said. “It just came back fast.”
She said she’s pretty much dread free, not anxious about doing difficult routines. But when she was younger, after breaking her foot and her thumb, she had some anxiety issues.
Clarke has dealt with her own anxiety about gymnastics.
“When I was younger, I quit gymnastics because of a fear of getting hurt,” she said. “Now that I’m older I’m more mature and can think of the logic behind it. You say it should be scary, but it’s actually surprisingly easy.”
Clarke is a team captain along with Bonbright, giving the Bears two inspirational leaders. Clarke is a solid all-around competitor.
“I’d say her favorite events would include floor and a toss up between beam and bar,” Poe said. “She a very good leader. Very enthusiastic.”
Poe wasn’t surprised by what Andrews did last season as a freshman.
“I knew she’d be pretty good,” the Olympia coach said. “I expect her to be better this year. She understands what she’s going into.”
Poe, in her eighth season as the Bears head coach and her 28th season overall, has 20 turning out for gymnastics
