Emma Cooper’s senior gymnastics season did not start out the way she wanted.
When practice began in November, Cooper began experiencing pain in her shins. She was diagnosed with a stress reaction in both tibias and was out for eight weeks.
Since returning last month, Cooper has been one of the top vaulters for a seventh-ranked Columbus North team that has hopes of a top-three finish in Saturday’s state finals.
“It was hurting a lot, so I went to the doctor shortly after the season started, and that’s when I realized I needed to sit out to let my body heal,” Cooper said. “It was a little harder than I thought it would be to watch my teammates compete and do what I wished what I was doing. It was definitely a challenge. Eight weeks is a long time in gymnastics. But it was definitely worth it. It was good to get back.”
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Cooper’s first meet back was the Conference Indiana meet. She finished fourth on the vault with an 8.675.
Two weeks ago, Cooper scored a career-best 9.25 to place third on the vault in the Columbus East Sectional.
“That was pretty awesome,” Cooper said. “It was just a really good meet.”
Last week, Cooper tied for ninth on the vault with an 8.8 in the East Regional.
“Emma is having a roller-coaster right now with ups and downs because she hasn’t had enough reps,” North co-coach Sandy Freshour said. “So as she gets reps in — and the difficulty is that we’re at the end of the season now — that’s been the biggest battle, being able to work through the mistakes and put in enough time to be consistent.”
Cooper has done all four events in previous seasons, but made the postseason lineup only on the vault last season. With her being away from practice for so long this season, she has focused exclusively on the vault this season.
It has helped that the vault is Cooper’s best and favorite event.
“It makes the most of my natural strengths, like being powerful and running hard for things,” Cooper said. “Running as hard as I can at a stationary object kind of takes a little bit of guts, and I have that. I like it a lot.”
That mentality makes Cooper an ideal leadoff gymnast on the vault for the Bull Dogs. She was their leadoff throughout last year’s postseason and has been since she returned this year.
“We’re kind of counting on that,” North co-coach Bob Arthur said. “Ideally, she can get a good start score for us, maybe bust us into the 9s, and then we can build on that.”
Cooper is a little different than most of North’s gymnasts in that she did not do club gymnastics before high school. She started gymnastics as a freshman, then picked up track and field as a sophomore, doing the pole vault and hurdles. She just did the pole vault last track season, clearing 7 feet, 6 inches.
“(Gymnastics) was a lot harder on bars than any other event because a lot of the girls have just been doing it for ages, and I had never done anything before,” Cooper said. “So I had a lot more work to kind of catch up and be able to even just do a basic routine to even be able to compete. But I worked through it, and now I’m here.”
Her gymnastics career about to come to an end, Cooper plans to go to college to pursue a career in computer science. Last year, she won the Indiana Affiliate National Center for Women & Information Technology Award for Aspirations in Computing, which recognizes high school women for their computing-related achievements and interests as part of an effort to encourage more young women to choose careers in technology.
This week in practice, Cooper has been working on progressing her vault from a tuck layout to a pike tsuk. She hopes she can throw the new skill at the state meet.
“I want to do the best vault I can do,” Cooper said. “I can’t control how other people do, but I can control how I do, and I just want to know that I did the best I can do.”
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Gymnastics State Finals
When: 1 p.m. Saturday (opening ceremonies at 12:30 p.m.)
Where: Noblesville High School, 18111 Cumberland Rd., Noblesville
Admission: $10 (free for preschoolers)
Teams: Columbus East, Columbus North, Angola, Chesterton, Fort Wayne Carroll, Homestead, Lake Central, Portage, Richmond
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