Montclair Girls Gymnastics Team Jumps Into Action

Soley Thorsteinsdottir, a graduating senior at Montclair High School, said she and other students were stunned when someone pointed out an easy-to-miss article in the newspaper two months ago that their Girls Gymnastics Team would be the only school team cut due to state budget issues.

Indeed, news that the team's funding would be lost leaked out before a formal announcement was made.

"That's how we learned this," she said. "By reading it in the paper.

"We couldn't believe it because we're the most dedicated team around," she added.

But the team of 17 girls–who practice for three hours a day during the fall–has rallied the community, saying they are determined to go on despite a loss of all the team's funding—$15,000.

Gov. Christopher J. Christie said he's aiming to close a budget deficit that he estimates to be about $11 billion.

The Board of Education had asked John Porcelli, MHS' assistant principal in charge of athletics and activities, to slice $100,000 from next year's athletics budget.

As a result, four assistant coaches and an equipment manager were removed and various expenditures were trimmed. Porcelli looked at all sports programs, deciding that girls gymnastics and coed golf were the least popular. Gymnastics was ultimately cut because the high school has more girls' teams than boys' teams.

Across the country, the biggest fall in revenue on record–mostly the result of widespread unemployment caused by the recession–has maligned one state budget after another.

Springing into action, the MHS gymnastics team organized a pancake breakfast and raffle as well as a giant yard sale in mid-June in order to help defray lost funding.

"We need to keep the team going because otherwise we wouldn't have a way to learn," said Shannon Toomey, 17. "You'd have to pay to go to a private gym to do gymnastics.

"We are really motivated to keep this team going and we're sure we'll raise the money," she said.

Head coach Jamie Graham, who's also an elementary school teacher in Nutley, said that as soon as the community found out that the Mounties would lose funding it leapt to the rescue.

"The principal basically said 'you aren't going anywhere' and just has been very supportive," she said.

Graham said her team plans to begin practice in the MHS gym in mid-August to prepare for their next season–just like always.

"This team is a very young but growing team," she said. "It's an open team and there are no tryouts."

Other fundraising efforts will include a cartwheel-a-thon that will have people pledging a certain amount per cartwheel performed in a five-minute period.

Thorsteinsdottir said she's headed to the University of Iowa in the fall but is so dedicated to the gymnastics team that she plans to help with fundraising efforts over the summer.

"Every coach talks about their team having chemistry but we really are like a big family," she said.

"I woke up at 7 a.m. to help with this [pancake] breakfast," she said. "That's how much I want the team to continue."