Position Statement

The Advisory Committee is designed to promote gymnastics in Ohio High Schools as an interscholastic sport.  Through sports, we have the opportunity to teach many life lessons to our athletes. Commitment, teamwork, and sportsmanship are just a few of the concepts we can emphasize and model for the young people we influence. We welcome all athletes into interscholastic competition, but we also want to promote an atmosphere of fair play and a strong team aspect.  We believe that the athletes who make the commitment to their high school team should start and finish the season with their teams.  In some cases, coaches have allowed girls to compete only the last month of the season.  While we do have a rule in place that allows for this, the rule was designed for gymnasts whose high schools do not have teams.  This way, they are still able to gain competition experience, but they must cease club competition 6 weeks prior to the state meet.  Some coaches are using this rule to allow club gymnasts to join their team for the last month of the season and we want to emphasize that this is not the intention of the rule.  We hope that our coaches will take this opportunity to teach our young athletes about commitment, ethics, and fair play through sports.