Seniors anchor Shadle squad
Shadle Park gymnastics coach Stoyan Katzarski has pretty much done it all in the sport – he was a member of the Bulgarian national team for six years, he coached club gymnastics with Spokane Elite for several more and for the past five has been head coach at Shadle Park High School.
So he speaks with some authority when he talks about how much he enjoys the interscholastic version when compared with club gymnastics.
“High school gymnastics is more relaxed,” he said recently. “The girls enjoy it more because there’s not so much pressure. They still challenge themselves and learn the skills, but they have fun and they feel good about themselves.”
The Highlanders have put together a pretty good run during Katzarski’s tenure at Shadle, winning their first-ever Greater Spokane League championship last season after a regional title two years ago. In addition to their GSL title, they finished second in the regional meet and fifth at state last season.
This year, Katzarski has a core of five seniors among 18 gymnasts. That’s the most seniors he’s ever had on a team, and he’s enjoying the benefits – including maturity and leadership – that they bring to the gym.
His seniors include Amanda Spargo, Celest Hill, Alis Tortorelli, Sara Shelton and Meghan Johnson. All but Spargo, who took last year off while competing in club, were members of Shadle’s championship squad a year ago.
Johnson has the most experience and should be Shadle’s most consistent scorer, but there are no stars in Katzarski’s team-first philosophy.
“I want our girls to have lots of fun,” he said. “It’s about competing, but there are many more things to learn: how to practice hard to learn the skills, how to manage your time and how to behave as a member of a team. It means a lot to me to keep the girls in the sport and feeling good about themselves.”
He points out that it’s tough to predict how any team will do – “if the girls compete during the season and then don’t work at it during the off season, it’s just like starting all over the next season” – and nagging injuries are always a part of the sport.
But, overall, he feels good about his sport, his team and his approach. He’s looking forward to another successful season.
“I think we’ll do pretty well,” he said. “It’s early, and everybody’s working hard, but I was pretty happy with our first meet. There are things to work on, cleaning up our routines and building our endurance, but we should be competitive.”
Katzarski, who came to the United States 13 years ago from Bulgaria, is an elementary ESL (English as a Second Language) program at Balboa, Linwood and Arlington Elementary Schools.