Senior Coleman Tokar has been doing gymnastics since he was 18 months old. His uncle was in gymnastics when he was younger, which inspired Tokar’s parents to get him involved at a young age. Tokar is now competing all over the U.S.

Orono only has a girls gymnastics team. So Tokar does all of his competitions outside of school.

Tokar said, “Most people think I do the bar and beam, and think that it’s a lot like girls gymnastics. The only thing we do the same as girls gymnastics is the vault and floor, and I do six events, when girls only do four.”

According to Olympic Gymnastics, there is no limit on a score a gymnast may achieve, the top performances right now are in the 16s and 17s.

Since the rule has changed from a 10.0 being a perfect score; fans, gymnasts and coaches feel that the gymnasts have been more likely to get hurt while trying risky tricks to achieve higher scores.

According to senior Windom Shields, “Even if there was a way for Coleman to compete on the gymnastics team, it wouldn’t be as fun for him to compete against these high school students compared to the level he does now.”

Tokar spends 20 hours a week in North Shore Gymnastics practicing. His main competitions are from January to May in Texas and Illinois. He only has smaller competitions in Minnesota. Usually he attends eight to ten competitions a year.

Shields also stated, “Coleman is very dedicated and works hard every week.”

Next year Tokar is going to do division one gymnastics at University of Nebraska – Lincoln.

Senior Anna Novak is another amazing athlete at Orono High School that doesn’t do a sport through the school. She has been dancing since she was four years old. When she was eight she began dancing at Minnesota Dance Theater, a professional dance school, which helped her be able to become more serious about ballet.

When Novak went to the Starburst ballet when she was younger was when she realized she wanted to become more serious about dance. She didn’t really enjoy sports that much, so ballet was her way out.

According to Novak’s mom Sue Novak, “Anna never was interested in the sports all the other kids were playing. So we got her signed up for dance classes, and she continued to love it.”

One of Novak greatest accomplishments was when she got the opportunity the last two summers to attend a dance camp in New York for six weeks. Also the last few years she has preformed in the Nutcracker at the state theater.

Everyday she misses school so she can take classes at MDT during the day. She has to miss school, because those are the hours that her classes are at.

The Pioneer Press stated, “This ‘Nutcracker’ is what other ‘Nutcrackers’ aspire to be … Minnesota Dance Theatre founder Loyce Houlton created her own take on the tale back in the mid-’60s and it’s still the one by which the others are measured, the grand finale of holiday presentations and the year’s last major stop on the local dance calendar.”

Next year Novak is going to attend college, she is unsure of where yet. She hopes to be able to go on Broadway someday.

Jenna Golden is Advertising Editor for The Spartan Speaks.