MDP: Discussing the Path to D1 Inspired by Olivia Karas

I’ve always enjoyed learning.?

If you’re connected with me on LinkedIn or know me personally, I’m typically going on about learning X, Y, and Z to the point where it probably seems embellished. But to be quite honest, I get a lot of enjoyment from seeing what else there is to learn, if and how well I can learn it, and applying it. This reality has led me here, sharing these educational topics with those around me while titling this series ‘My Diverse Perspective’ or MDP for short.?

I came up with MDP because I wanted to make it clear that what I write about is simply my interpretation of what I've learned and I’m no huge expert on what I am writing about. Instead, I rather had an interest in a topic and dove deeper into it after being inspired by something, whether that be a book, documentary, lesson in class, or conversation. The word diverse is also intentional because there's a wide range of topics these blogs will eventually hit. To give you an idea, this one is about gymnastics and life, while my next blog might be more about psychology or the future of marketing, as those are two topics of other books I’ve recently finished.?

But without further adieu, this first blog is about gymnastics and everything it impacts. But more specifically, the catalyst behind this blog started with a book called Confessions of a D-1 Athlete, written by a former Michigan gymnastics alum, Olivia Karas, and her dad, Jim Karas. My mom ordered this book and when I came to visit, I finished it in just over 24 hours. To say the least, a lot resonated with me and I was eager to share my thoughts.

I knew who Olivia Karas was before she went to Michigan and there are a few reasons why.??

Olivia is someone I'd looked up to for years, as she was not only from Illinois like me, but she was also committed to Michigan. Coincidentally, I figured out who Liv was right around the time I started to title Michigan as my 'dream school'. I'd say going to Michigan worked out for us both as Olivia ended up being a four-time All-American at Michigan graduating in 2019, while I get to currently compete for Michigan. Liv is one of the loudest alums at our meets and if she isn’t in the stands, she’s commentating for the BTN and does it effortlessly. Her contributions to the gymnastics community didn't stop once she retired from the sport, they simply continued. But going back to our similarities, there’s a few more that I may or may not have known about until I read her book:

1. We both had one coach that we adored and followed throughout our careers. You’ll learn Liv’s was Olga, and mine was Nick. When Nick left the first gym I competitively trained at to start a new one, I found myself right back with him a few months later after some trial and error at other gyms. There are some coaches gymnasts just click with and that’s something that I’m forever grateful for.
2. We both love gymnastics and both compete(d) at the University of Michigan. Fun fact - The first time I remember putting Liv's face with her name was when we were both at the same Illinois State Banquet in 2014. All Illinois state champions were invited to the banquet, along with Level 10 National qualifiers. Olivia had won JO (Junior Olympic) Nationals that year and I had sat back and watched my JR A age group win their session of the meet at the age of twelve after being a second alternate. I remember it being so cool to be near Liv at that time.
3. We both have one other sibling, a younger brother. Evan, Liv's younger brother, and Brandon, my younger brother, are considered some of our best friends and had to endure years' worth of gymnastics meets from very young ages.
4. This one is kind of a stretch, but Lexi Funk is one of Liv’s best friends. Lexi and I actually went to the same high school but missed each other by one year. When she graduated high school to come to Michigan, I was on my way in that following year. We did end up being on the same team during the 2020 season, as I graduated early.

That’s cool, but let’s discuss the book now.?

I’m writing this for those of you who have read this book, or haven’t. Either way, I’m not here to spoil anything, but rather add on discussion points from some of the topics that were mentioned throughout the book. For starters, I loved this book and thought it was super interesting to read. The interjections from Liv and Jim that are spread out in the book were so refreshing, making their stories more relatable and easily flowing.

Confessions of a D-1 Athlete talks about it all. Gymnastics, family relationships, social life, parent-coach drama, adolescence, you-name-it. I simply won't be able to hit on it all. Instead, I’m here commenting on the areas that stood out to me, as Sierra Brooks, a current D-1 gymnast. Let's dive into it.

Liv’s Point: High school most likely isn’t going to be like it is in the movies.?

Sierra’s Thoughts: I 100% agree, I was happy ecstatic to be able to graduate early.

High school. If you’re someone who doesn’t get the amazing opportunity to compete for your high school participating in cheer, football, baseball, or whichever sports they do have, it feels like you get the short end of the stick. And if you're a gymnast, that's typically you. Liv makes this point early on in her book and I couldn't agree more. Even if your high school did have a gymnastics team, it's unlikely you'll join it. College coaches rarely recruit from high schools, they prefer to strategically recruit from club gyms around the country that have competitive gymnasts that they can easily find stats on using mymeetscores.com, or now more commonly meetscoresonline.com.

This is reality and that's fine. I never had any desire to do gymnastics for my high school, but it was frustrating to not be able to represent my school in any way. When you aren’t competing for your school because you’re doing a sport externally, a disconnect is created and then when you miss almost every social event your school has every year, that gap grows increasingly bigger. As that gap grew, I couldn't wait to get to UM and compete for the university and my team.

As someone who happily decided to graduate high school a year early, you could say I didn’t love high school. Don't get me wrong, I loved my teachers and my friends that I had known since kindergarten or stuck with since middle school, but I always felt impatient to get to Michigan. Looking back now, I think this impatience was so dominant because I barely experienced high school without knowing where I was going to college. I committed to Michigan in October of my freshman year, meaning there was a total of only one month where I wasn't committed. In my mind, there was no need for me to go to my high school’s football game on a Friday night after experiencing a game day at the Big House with over 110,000 fans. Plus I already was best friends with the UM recruits. These realities shaped my mentality through most of high school, so if there wasn't a huge reason for me to go to some event, I wasn't going to go. There was practice the next morning.

On this same topic, Liv talks about how other students in her high school didn't know how good of a gymnast she actually was. Yes, she was going to Michigan, but they just didn’t understand. For me, it was different because of my early commitment and that was quickly how people learned who I was. They didn’t know anything about me, besides the fact that after school I’d be on my way to Michigan.?

But I remember after posting how I committed to Michigan on Instagram, a kid who was two lockers away from me called me “D1” from that day on. At the same time, I had other friends who simply didn’t understand that I had to still keep my grades up, because “I was already in”. No, I wasn’t already ‘in’ Michigan, I was 15 and hadn’t even finished one year of high school yet. These comments led to many explanations, where I stressed that I have to keep up my end of the 'deal' for the next four years for everything to go as planned. Being committed was awesome, but it didn’t mean the work was done.

"You're [insert your name], 'The Gymnast'!"

Being labeled “The Gymnast,” is something Liv talks about in her book as something very hard to get away from. This label is something I’m proud of for sure, but there’s more to all of us and unless you get to know us well, the gymnast is all you’re going to get and see, as we left class early, didn’t make games or dances, and weren’t at most parties. I mean, I didn’t even walk across the stage for graduation because I was competing at my last JO nationals in 2019.

I think the moral of the story here is, high school is something everyone goes through, but our experiences as gymnasts aren’t going to allow you to have the ‘typical’ high school experience and that’s okay. If you stay focused and truly love your sport, I promise college will be worth it.?

Sidenote - I had no intentions of graduating early. Scott called me like a week after the Nastia Cup in 2019, telling me a scholarship from the 2019 class had opened up and if I had enough high school credits to graduate as they thought, I could come early if I wanted to. I immediately walked into my dad's office, just pitching the idea, and was hit with an immediate, "no". Obviously, he caved because after two more days, the decision was made and I was going to be off to Michigan in 5 months. Switching from 17 months to 5 months was scary, to say the least. Now it's almost 2022 and I couldn't be happier with going when I did.

Liv’s Point: Recruiting can be intimidating and it’s hard to know if you’re making the right decision. Initiate conversations with former/current gymnasts and parents, asking the right questions to get a better understanding of school atmospheres. Also, stay on top of school and pay attention to what you want, not what others want for you.

Sierra’s Thoughts: I committed in October of my freshman year, so I was freshly 15. I never looked back after committing to Michigan because it was genuinely the right fit for me, but that isn’t the case for everyone. Everything Liv talks about is true and if I didn’t experience it, I saw it.?

My commitment story. I was at Region 5's High Tech Camp that was hosted in UM's gym when I was offered a full-ride in the team locker room by Bev Plocki, immediately saying yes. If you know me, I am an indecisive person. I’d rather say I just really think through my decisions in every way possible before deciding, but once I make up my mind it’s settled. I don’t go back and forth, I stick with what decision I made and deal with whatever consequences or rewards come from it. When it came to picking a college, I decided pretty early on in the recruiting process that I wanted to go to Michigan, as long as they were mutually interested in me. Academics was always my priority, with gymnastics one step behind. I had told Bev I wanted to come to Michigan before, so when I was offered I was elated and didn’t question one thing.?

Fast forward a bit and now there’s a picture I have in my Snapchat memories from around 2016 of the supposed class of 2024 of Michigan’s Women’s Gymnastics program. Let’s just say, the picture is comical because things didn’t end up how we thought they would. I ended up in the class of 2023 and the class of 2024 is just entirely different. And there’s no one to blame for that. Recruiting was simply getting insanely early when I was going through the process and gymnasts were expected to decide where they wanted to go to college before they even got their permit. That was the status quo, so everyone did it.

For me, this ended up working out great. I wanted to go to Michigan, they had an interest in me, and I committed there, without visiting any other campuses. But there are plenty of past stories and still, some happening now, of gymnasts who are changing their commitments as life unfolds. Gymnasts get injured, they don’t test as well or test better than what they thought they would, they don’t want to be as far from home anymore, etc., the list goes on. Meanwhile, coaches that recruited gymnasts end up retiring or even switching programs before those gymnasts even get there. From both the school's side and the gymnasts' side, things can and will change.

Committing isn't happening in middle school anymore, yay!

I’m happy to hear that the NCAA rules have been altered and recruiting is now going back to a more ‘normal’ timeline. Gymnasts get to enjoy high school before making their college decision and have a better chance of matching what their college coaches’ perception of their gymnastics is when they get there. What I mean by that is when you recruit a gymnast at the age of 14, the gymnastics they have when they get to your school just won’t be the same. It’s extremely unlikely. So when you push recruiting later, there’s less risk for both parties involved. I wrote a paper my freshman year about early recruiting, and it was interesting to see how it even got to being as early as it was.?

Going back to Liv’s point on recruiting, everything she explains is true. It’s hard, it isn’t easy. I lucked out because the school I wanted to go to also wanted me, which is not always the case. It also worked out academically and logistically, as my 31 on the ACT that I took early on in my junior year was a saving grace when I had only 3 days to fill out my Common Application months before I was to be a college freshman. If I hadn’t taken that when I did, it just wouldn’t have worked out.

Another thing with recruiting is that it is hard to gauge the true atmosphere of different programs. When you’re a recruit, you know to some extent people are putting on a show when you visit, call, or interact with staff. They show what makes their school, program, coaches, and athletes the best. Anyone would, we don’t blame them. Just like Liv talks about, as recruits it's vital to find people to talk to from those programs because they have experienced what you might experience down the road. Also, I promise you we all want you to find a school that is your best fit more than we want you to come to our school.

Everyone is different and that's okay. I remember when I was younger talking to gymnasts on the team was really informational to hear about the 'day in the life' type situations, but how well our personalities meshed wasn’t as essential because I wasn’t going to be on a team with any of them due to the large age gap. Instead, I got close with all the commits, who are now my current teammates, and it’s made our team dynamic so much stronger. With recruiting pushed back, gymnasts are actually able to converse with girls they could be competing with within a couple of years.

If there was any overall advice I would give in regards to recruiting, this is it.

1. Truly find the place where you feel at home. If you love the school, things will fall into place. If you’re iffy or something just doesn’t feel right, your gut feeling is typically right.?
2. Take other peoples' opinions on where you go out of your decision. It’s much easier said than done, but it will help. Wrap your head around what you want to get out of your collegiate career and focus on that. If it’s a bigger focus on education than gymnastics, that’s okay. If it’s flipped, no big deal at all, just know what you want. It can be distracting today with social media and everything you hear about this school and that program, but make your own assessment of programs and then be proud of your decision once it's made.
3. Pay attention to a school’s resources in and outside of the gym and the support staff. The resources we have at Michigan are phenomenal and I didn’t realize how helpful they would be until I was here. Same with the support staff. I’m talking about your strength coach, trainers, and anyone else in the athletic department who has a job to help you as a student-athlete. Liv talks about this too, and I definitely can’t stress this enough.?

Liv’s Point: If you have another sibling, pay attention to them and make sure they are okay when they’re put in the middle of gymnastics.?

Sierra’s Thoughts: You’re completely right.

In Liv’s book, she talks about her brother and eventually we get to hear from him too. His chapter was hard to read, but something I’m incredibly grateful to have come across. As an older sibling with a younger brother, I couldn’t help but think about my own brother, Brandon. We’re almost 7 years apart, which is kind of nice because we both could do our own thing without being too compared to one another. If I was doing well at gymnastics in middle school, my brother was still only 5 or 6. He was content doing taekwondo, football, and baseball at different times over the year. He didn’t have to decide what sport he really wanted to do just yet.??

Now, my brother is almost 14 and is suddenly a teenager that I struggle to recognize. That’s an exaggeration, as I obviously know my brother incredibly well and consider him one of my best friends. What I mean here is that when I came to college as a freshman he was 11 and around 4’10 and now he’s almost 5’7 and has a voice deeper than my dad’s. It’s crazy. But when I got to Evan’s chapter, I started to reflect on conversations I’ve had with my parents and how my mom always talks about how Brandon has been going to gymnastics meets since he was born.?

And, she’s completely right. I started level 4 at the age of 7, so he was maybe 6 months old when I started officially competing. I remember when my dad would bring a football to meets so he could play catch with my brother behind the bleachers. Anything to keep a young kid busy during a 4-hour long meet. After competing in NCAA meets the past two years, I can’t imagine going to a meet on a Saturday night at 6 PM that goes until or past 10 PM. Gotta love the efficiency of collegiate meets. But as a whole, I’d rather let people read this chapter for themselves and just think of ways to make sure that your sibling(s) know how important they are to you, which should be more important than your successes or a sport. When you’re so busy spending time training for your sport, it can be hard for them to see that.?

Thank you, Liv for bringing Evan’s perspective in, and thank you Evan for telling your story.?

Liv’s Point: The gymnastics community is huge and you will make lifelong friends from being a part of it. There are so many other gymnasts we cross paths with and end up running back into in the future.?

Sierra’s Thoughts: I’m not done with gymnastics yet, but thus far in my career I can already agree. I’ve made some of my best friends in the sport, with a huge thanks to Region 5 (shoutout to the best region ever).?

Every year I looked forward to JO Nationals. After going once, I realized how fun it was to be around other gymnasts from other clubs for an extended weekend. I remember in 2015, I roomed with Sonte Turnage, Alyssa Alashari, and Andrea Li. You might recognize some of those names. One night curfew was at 10 PM and we were still up. Around 10:15 PM, we heard a knock on the door, and thinking it was a Region 5 coach coming to lecture us for still being awake, we all dropped to the floor acting like we were asleep.

After about 5 plus minutes of someone still knocking, I bravely opened the door to find my dad… whom I had texted asking to bring me something to his room but had forgotten. Hey, when you’re the youngest gymnasts out of the entire country competing that weekend, everything is intimidating. That was still one of the funniest stories I have and as I got older, seeing JR As (the youngest age group) at nationals every year made me smile.?

The moral of the story here is that Liv is right, you meet some amazing people because of this sport and I’m forever grateful for it. Andrea Li, a current gymnast at Cal, and Jerquavia Henderson from Iowa are some of my best friends who I wouldn’t have met if it weren’t for this sport. Now at Michigan, I would be a hot mess if it weren’t for my current teammates. We’ve spent this entire summer together and experienced things that no one else will get. They have your back for everything, whether that be to come to kill a fly after day 1 of nationals that somehow got into your room on the 10th floor (shoutout Lauren Farley Ibsen) or to blast music and dance with you in your room before every competition with hair up, leos and tattoos on (shoutout Gabby Wilson). These girls truly become your best friends and I’m excited to see who else I meet down the line.?

Liv’s Point: Transitioning into ‘regular’ life after being a gymnast for your entire life isn't easy, and neither is the job hunt. It’s hard to feel prepared and even though you were balancing being a busy student-athlete before, there is still a lot of adjusting left.

Sierra’s Thoughts: I don’t know what my transition will look like after college, but this was good to hear because it was extremely honest.?

At UM, we have the MACC, which is the Michigan Athletics Career Center and this section of the book immediately made me think of them. Without the MACC, I’m not sure how prepared I’d feel to leave Michigan in a few years, but because of them, I’ve got a resume of internships and experience I’m happy to talk about. In the book, Liv talks a lot about the huge job hunt. After years of structured practices and schedules that didn’t allow really any time for anything else, we finish the sport and are expected to just move on. You’re expected to get a job, maybe move cities, and find out what makes you tick again that isn’t competing on a 4-inch beam for 4 months straight. And it isn’t easy, something Liv stressed. But as someone who hasn’t gone through this transition yet and isn’t actively rushing my college career, this was a good reminder to be proactive even while still in school.

Our athletic department has a major focus on being prepared for life after college and the MACC is getting stronger every year. So even looking at the time between when Liv was here to now, they've increased our access to opportunities through unique networking, workshops, and micro-internships (think of an internship that is about a month-long in duration).

They’ve helped me build my resume and confidence when it comes to conquering life after sports. But it’s still hard being a student-athlete. There are jobs or internships that I find that sound so cool, but they’re in another state or are offered only during the school year. A part-time internship with even 10-15 hours a week is a “hard no” for both preseason and season. When you’re balancing a full college course load and practicing around 20 hours a week in your sport, the last thing you have time for is another job, project, or person to report to. Even when it comes to the summer where you have more flexibility, some opportunities will be away from your college campus or home gym. This is fine, but then you’re left with the next task of figuring out where you’re going to train when you’re there.?

These are simple realities we all face and we can do our best to be prepared for life after college, but you have to be proactive. Realize how many people are out there to help you and really lean on them.?

Liv’s Point: When you graduate from college, you’re done with the sport. There’s nowhere to go after this, unlike most other sports. The main reason being is that our bodies are too broken down.?

Sierra’s Thoughts: Out of curiosity, what about those whose bodies can last a bit longer??

Gymnastics has nowhere you can go after college. You’re done unless you want to go elite. For those of us who have never gone elite, that’s intimidating, to say the least. It definitely can be done, but it’s hard diving into new territory after finishing up a college career where you started to know what to expect every single year. I do believe you could compete for USAG again as a level 10, but after competing at a level slightly more competitive than that, it might not be as rewarding... especially when competing with gymnasts in high school as a college graduate.

My question here is, why is there nowhere attractive for gymnasts to go after college? The demand might be low, which might be the answer point-blank. Gymnasts’ bodies hurt and tend to be broken down after college gymnastics, so expecting them to go on and do more isn’t their top priority. I know gymnasts who couldn’t wait to be done because everything hurt so badly. But there are some out there who could do a few more years without question or are still posting videos of them training, just not competing. Shouldn’t there be a way for them to continue doing gymnastics, but not at the level that young, 18-year-old Olympians are at? Just a thought. This might not be feasible at all, but who knows. I’m thinking the Gymternet (what we call big gymnastics fans) probably knows more than me in this capacity.

Liv’s Point: Everything gets thrown at you in college and you learn tons because of it. About yourself, about others, about the world.?

Sierra’s Thoughts: I’ve been in college for two years and all I can say to that is, absolutely. Even outside of COVID, there’s a lot, and the self-growth you have because of it all is tremendous.?

Within the book's last few pages, Liv lists the good, bad, and ugly from each year of her college career. This hit home because I think anyone, no matter if you’re a student-athlete or not, has the good, bad, and ugly within every year of college. Liv stresses that it isn’t always going to be easy and there will always be something to learn. She talks about the way her relationship with her body and her coaches developed over time, not to mention her strength.?

I’m just over halfway through college at this point. Three quarters have been during a pandemic, but that’s beside the point. I knew I would learn a lot in college, everyone always tells you that. You’re living independently, there’s no one there to do things for you and you have to rise to that level of responsibility and self-accountability. But even though I was told these things, I never imagined how much growth I would have as a person after each year.

I think back to August of 2019 when I had four years of unknowns ahead of me to now, and I’m impressed. Impressed with what I have seen, learned, witnessed, and experienced in such a short amount of time. It makes me excited because who knows what’s next. I didn’t think in March of 2020 our team was going to be the next National Championship team, but a lot changed from March 2020 to April 2021. Hell, a lot changed from March to July of 2020. We were allowed to come back to campus and were ready for gymnastics like never before. The sport had been stolen from us once, and we were ready to work hard every single day. All you had were your coaches and teammates, like never before.?

Sierra’s Final Thought (just me this time): It’s great hearing from alumni.

That was one of my biggest takeaways from this book. I was never on a team with Liv, but I can relate to a lot of the stories and personal experiences she shared. She talks about coming to college and having to interact with your coaches for the first time, which is a learning experience in itself. As time goes on and the years pass, you start to fully understand every one of your coaches and the same goes for them. They understand you - the way you train, how you function outside of the gym, what makes you tick, and what can get in the way of your success.?

Liv’s stories resonated me with throughout the entire book, but it felt even more personal when I heard stories about Bev, Scott, or Maile because I am coached by them almost every single day. I talk to them more than my parents and have so many stories with each of them. Hearing a book written by someone who has been in my exact shoes before was so motivating. I loved seeing what changed from when the book was published, too, after just one competition season. We went on to win NCAAs this past season and I was happy that we could do that for all of the alumni before us.?

So, thank you Liv and Jim for writing this book. If you have any interest in gymnastics, collegiate athletics, sports, or Michigan, I’d read this book. Even if you have an athlete in a different sport who might go the collegiate track could benefit from Liv and Jim's knowledge. There’s something for everyone to learn or be aware of moving forward. Go Blue! - Just had to do it:)