Gymnastics Fanatics
The entire Portage community rallied behind the state champion gymnastics team after the lady-Indians brought the hardware home from Ball State by upending Valparaiso and earning the school’s first state championship since 1975. However, PHS Principal Caren Swickard and Athletic Director Kelly Bermes may rank at the forefront of that support group.
“I think they’re our biggest supporters,” senior gymnast Mackenzie Barcelli said. “Mrs. Bermes and Mrs. Swickard were both crying after the meet. They gave us kisses.”
Both Swickard and Bermes are former PHS gymnasts and gymnastics coaches. Swickard serves as the public address announcer for home meets during the regular season and both have maintained a special interest in their former program.
“They’re wonderful; I was so happy that they were there to share it with us,” head coach Karen Barcelli said. “I know that they worked hard at this being gymnasts and coaches themselves. I hope that they lived it right along with us, because it’s every bit as much their doing as ours. They’ve been so supportive.”
Barcelli also said that very few athletic programs have an athletic director that knows and cares so much about gymnastics.
A Week of Celebration
The Portage gymnastics team enjoyed a week of celebration, while being swarmed by congratulatory messages and interview requests. The team was also recognized in front of the Portage Township School Board.
“Sunday, wherever I went there was someone that was like, ‘Congratulations, how awesome,” Mackenzie Barcelli said.
Both the gymnasts and coaches were overwhelmed by the tremendous wave of support they received.
“It’s been wonderful,” Karen Barcelli said. “We’ve definitely pulled a following within the last couple of years, but people have been so positive with us and it is really important that we get the community involved. We’ve really tried hard the last couple of years to do that. I mean them thanking us for winning is really kind of funny.”
Coaching Adjustments
Karen Barcelli feels that she has come a long way since taking over as the Portage gymnastics coach.
“When I first started, I didn’t know high school sports,” she said. “I did club gymnastics. I was not a high school athlete. I really didn’t know anything about coaching high school sports, I knew how to coach gymnastics, so I taught skills. Within the first couple of years, I learned that that’s not what it was all about. I started coaching a team and trying to get that team aspect of it. We talked about community involvement and creating more pride.”
The Turning Point
Although it was Madison Kurtz and Mackenzie Barcelli’s bars routines that locked down the state championship, the turning point in the meet may have taken place much earlier on. Senior Lyndsey Cunningham hit her vault and earned a career high score of 9.0.
“That really pumped them up and started momentum for the rest of the meet,” Karen Barcelli said.
Cunningham flourished in the final meet of her high school career.
“Everyone keeps saying it was my vault because it was the first time I landed it all year and it was awesome,” she said when asked about the turning point of the meet. “I finally scored above a nine and that’s never happened this whole season or any of my other high school seasons and it just got everyone really pumped up.”
Linkage
To read the full story on the gymnastics state championship, click here.
Mackenzie Barcelli was featured as last week’s Portage Life in the Spotlight .
Ideas in Motion Media coverage team member Jill Baker provided full photo coverage of gymnastics all season long. Here are links to PortageLife galleries from the Chesterton Sectional , Valparaiso Regional and State Meet at Ball State University.