Iowa Gym-Nest family environment provides a second home for young gymnasts

CORALVILLE – In a city where wrestling and football sit atop the totem pole, Iowa Gym-Nest is out to prove that gymnastics is on the rise.

In June 2022, IGN was named Iowa's USA Gymnastics Development Program of the Year after a terrific season that saw several of its gymnasts reach the height of their sport.

"Last year, we had the most girls qualify to Nationals and Western Nationals,” said Jill Hanna, IGN's girl's team director. “That was a big moment for us and definitely something to remember. That made us feel like we were moving up in the gymnastics community..”

It was a culmination of all the hard work the company has put in, particularly since its current owner, Paige Roth, took over in 2012.

She's been a part of IGN since her days as a student at the University of Iowa and has helped foster a family atmosphere at the gym, both literally and figuratively.

Along with her son, her daughter Jayden Roth was a gymnast for IGN for much of her life before taking over as its Pre-Team and Marketing Director. A handful of the rest of the staff also grew up practicing and competing in the same gym.

"We are all just a big family and very close," Jayden Roth said. "Chelsey [Meyers], another member of our full-time staff did gymnastics here growing up. Two of our eight full-time staff did gymnastics here and then Jill [Hanna] has been here a long time and Sandie Ubben, our office manager has been here for over 20 years.”

Currently, IGN has three gymnasts who have an opportunity to continue the tradition of gymnasts turning into coaches.

One of those student coaches is 17-year-old Maci Rummelhart, who has been a part of IGN since she was 3 years old. She enjoys imparting her wisdom to the next generation of gymnasts and said that her best advice to kids is to remember to enjoy themselves.

“I want the girls to just have fun,” Rummelhart said. “Sometimes gymnastics is not the most fun sport and you have to remember why you started doing it.”

Fun is something that the gymnasts are finally beginning to have again after IGN, like many businesses around the world, was forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xcel team director Kassi Todryk said that she, and the other coaches, had to get creative as a way to try to regain some normalcy for the girls who looked at the gym as their second home.

"One of the big things that we did during COVID-19 was provide online instruction,” Todryk said. “I would use Facebook Live to hold workouts and have sessions on Zoom where we would have to do 10 handstands or 10 cartwheels. For my upper levels who could not do that stuff at home, we would still meet via Zoom and prepared more on the mental side. We would talk about goal setting and what we wanted our team environment and team culture to look like.”

The teams returned to competition in 2021, which was a bright spot for the gymnasts who missed competing, especially 11-year-old Logan Zirker.

As a member of the Xcel team, Zirker has already been able to compete in two meets this season, which gives her the chance to show what she can do.

"I really like doing all of the events, especially floor,” Zirker said. “That is probably my best event and I like that I get to keep trying new things.”

The Level 6-10 gymnasts will begin their season on January 12 when they travel to Des Moines for their first competition.

With another strong season like the team had last year, Jayden Roth said that this is the perfect opportunity for IGN to gain national attention and set up their gymnasts for prosperous futures.

“We would like to become a household name in gymnastics,” Jayden Roth said. “We want when people ask about the top programs in the country, people will say IGN. Back in 2008 and 2012, everyone knew Chow's [Gymnastics and Dance in West Des Moines] because they had a lot of Olympians. It would be nice to be recognized for all of our hard work. We are looking to get more of our girls into Division I colleges and have the girls we have coming up in the Elite program get to compete in national competitions. ”

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Iowa Gym-Nest is gaining national attention