Eagles still on the beam

When Lakeside’s gymnastics program joined the GSL in 1999, it was more than just a life preserver thrown to the league-less Nine Mile Falls team.

In the Eagles’ second and third years in the league, they won it.

Recent seasons haven’t seen Lakeside approach the domination of that two-year run, but the only non-GSL team competing in the GSL has done just that – compete.

“We always seem to hold our own,” Lakeside athletic director Tom Oliver said. “The size of the school doesn’t seem to matter too much.”

Which is an important fact considering the most recent numbers released by the WIAA.

Lakeside’s enrollment was 436. The other nine schools competing in GSL gymnastics average out to 1,359, more than three times the size.

In 1997, parents pushed to get the program started at Lakeside, but it took a couple of years for the GSL to agree to take on the Eagles as a league member.

That coincided with a good group of gymnasts that finished second in the State 3A/2A tournament in 2002, including two-time all-around state champion Katie Dinsmore, who is competing at Boise State University.

“It’s not so much that we had kids with really great gymnastics experience,” said then-coach Laurie Chadwick, now an assistant at Mead.

“It was a freshman group that had a base, they were athletes, they were dedicated and they worked hard. By the time they were seniors, they were like, ‘We own this, this is ours.’ “

Chadwick said the community involvement and support helped the flourishing program.

“Lakeside has a great support base,” she said. “Their athletics out there are supported all-around because it’s part of their culture. When you support like that, the kids rally around it, love it and have fun with it.”

Since then, Lakeside has remained around the middle of the league, and this year’s team has been no different.

Through five meets, the Eagles were sixth in the league in scoring and hoping to make a second team appearance in the 3A/2A tournament.

“The girls are improving on every apparatus quite readily,” Lakeside head coach Todd McLean said. “The scores have gone up in just about every competition we’ve been to.”

One thing McLean would like to see is more of a year-round commitment to the sport, but that’s not always an easy sell.

For instance, a junior gymnast this year, Lindsay Jelke, was the setter on Lakeside’s third-place volleyball team, and many of the gymnasts also play fall and spring sports.

“There are a few that do it year-round,” said McLean, who owns a gym in Airway Heights. “I’m hoping to get more of them interested in the idea. That will keep them more competitive.”

Even if they don’t get back to the competitive success they once had, Chadwick judged a recent Lakeside meet and came away impressed.

“It was really fun to watch,” she said. “They’re encouraging everybody and rooting. It doesn’t really matter what level they’re at, but the spirit’s still there and that can sustain a program also.”