Maria
“I’m the pushy one”; that’s how Maria explained the difference between her and her two sisters who also are Level 5 teammates at the Gymnastic Center of Hershey. “They sometimes kinda stand around and ask themselves - Can I do this? How do I do this? – Me, I just do it, no waiting, no debating, just boom! Get it done! I hate waiting around!
It only takes a few minutes conversation with this vibrant young lady to convince you that she exudes a very forceful presence for someone so young. And then in an instant, countering the serious vein of the conversation, she breaks into an impish grin and says proudly “sometimes my friends call me “UG” that stands for upside-down girl”. “I walk around so much on my hands instead of my feet that they gave me that nickname”.
“Science is my favorite subject; you get to experiment with things and see how they work and use my brain.”
Think Cheetah Girls, Kelly Clarkson, or Fall Out Boys are Maria’s favorites? Nah, she’s definitely Old School – try Jazz, Beatles, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Queen. She’s been taking piano for 4 years and says she loves to improvise, make things up, and create new sounds, tones.
Although Maria lives on a farm that has more animals (including goats, llamas and chickens) than some small zoos, she only calls 2 dogs her pets – Milo and Abby. Her family likes to be around animals and water so the farm has a stream running through it.
Maria’s dad has set a great example for the family, he took gymnastics in college and he now coaches Boys Recreational Classes part time here at GCH. Since he has had direct experience in gymnastics, it can either be a great help or Maria’s biggest fear. “He knows when we girls are slacking off and he lets us know about it”. Maria’s favorite event is bars and she scores well in it, but she’s really done well this year on the beam – she made a 9.3 at Penn. State and hasn’t scored less than 9.1 this year!
One of Maria’s favorite things to do is to get with her sister Julia and make Brownies. “I think that she and I make some fantastic brownies”. “The problem is hiding them from Dad so anyone else gets to try them, he is a chocolate-bloodhound/fiend that can find and scarf up a whole dozen brownies in a heartbeat”.
So our March Gymnast of the Month is a very unique young lady – a pushy, “UG”, brownie baking, piano player, who likes jazz and science. One thing about Maria her mother confirms is that she is NOT a procrastinator – she takes charge and gets things done. Everybody say hello to “UG”, and tell her you want to try one of her brownies ………(if her dad hasn’t gotten there first).