By Jaeda Goode
For the sixth time in its 50-year history, the Gym-Masters hosted Acrofest at Southern Adventist University. From Nov. 13 to 16, Gymnasts from 32 Adventist universities and academies occupied Iles PE Center, as well as Collegedale Academy’s highand elementary schools, to train during clinical sessions. The event concluded with a special performance on Saturday night.
Schools traveled from as far away as Texas, Nebraska and even Canada and Puerto Rico to train alongside their peers in the three-day event.
This year, the theme focused on the “The Glory of One,” with a featured banner showing hands pointing upward to a larger hand, with all pointing to the cross.
Craig Johnson, the head coach of Southern’s Gym-Masters, explained that the different hands on the banner represent all the participating schools and the larger hand symbolizes Adventist gymnastics as a whole, which points to the cross of Jesus.
On Thursday and Friday, hired professionals at 10 different stations each taught a specific clinical skill, such as tossing or handstands. Athletes from all schools were mixed and separated into groups, training for one hour at each station before rotating between the different skills offered.
Elizabeth Rosette, a junior animal science major at Andrews University and a member of the university’s Gymnics, said in an interview with the Accent that her love of gymnastics was sparked by her dad, who was on a collegiate gymnastics team for 18 years, coaching and performing. She attended Southern during her freshman year and shared how important Acrofest is to her as a gymnast.
“Coming to Acrofest brings the creativity and the life back,” Rosette said. “It reminds you why you do the sport that you do and why you love it so much.”
On Saturday, 31 schools performed their routines for a packed crowd, showcasing the tricks and skills they had prepared for the occasion. To begin the event, all of the teams introduced themselves to the audience by running around the performance stage, holding signs that displayed their schools’ names.
The first team to perform was Washington Adventist University’s (WAU) Acro-Airs, which showcased skills such as butterflies and tumbling. Teraka Salvador, assistant coach of Acro-Airs, praised her team for their performance and the dedication required to craft a high-caliber routine.
“We had a little hiccup in the beginning, but we overcame it; and honestly, tonight just proves that no matter what happens, especially if you have God at the forefront, it’s going to work out,” Salvador said.
Following the opening act, the other 30 teams wowed the crowd with their performances before Southern’s Gym-Masters closed the show.
Naomi Franco, a senior gymnast attending Antillean Adventist University in Puerto Rico, spoke about her full-circle moment of being able to participate in the event after watching her first Acrofest in the crowd at Southern six years ago. At that time, she had no gymnastics experience, but witnessing the talent displayed by the gymnasts inspired her to pursue training.
“Now, I’m standing here at my very last Acrofest, right where I started, and I am literally doing every single one of those things that I thought I would never be able to do,” Franco said. “It’s literally insane.”
Lucas Hallam, a senior at Highland Academy in Portland, Tennessee, said being at Acrofest was encouraging for him and made him feel connected to Christ.
“It feels amazing because I can look, and I can watch and see what I can learn, but it also inspires me to seek God more because of the miracles He works with all the stuff that goes on,” Hallam said.
Sam Schmidt, a Gym-Masters team captain, said his favorite part of Acrofest was how spiritual he felt during the final performance of the show. He also described some tense moments when the team members couldn’t hear their music, due to the intensity and volume in the gym during their performance.
“I feel like God really pulled through, because even though we were losing counts, it was actually one of the most in-sync performances we’ve done,” Schmidt said.
As the schools left on Sunday, Johnson said he hoped the teams would feel inspired to push to the next level of their craft because of the high standard set at Acrofest.
