Coach’s Note

From Mr. Steve…

The gymnastics program here at ACPR has been ongoing since 1978. For a long time, until 1992, we were located in local schools and basements of churches and trained our dedicated young athletes to the best of our ability with what we had as far as equipment, facility, and time allotted us by the schools. In 1992, we moved the majority of our training into the Churchville Recreation Building located in the Churchville Recreation Complex. Parents of ACPR children from the early 1980’s had put forth great effort to find us a permanent home and fundraised over $150,000 to that end. The money was donated to the county and the Churchville Recreation building (to a large degree) was constructed as a result of these efforts. (My thanks go out to the many past ACPR supporters who made the Churchville facility possible, even if their own children never had the opportunity to train in the building). Our gymnasts finally had a great facility to train in and a place to call home. I was privileged to have been able to design a state-of-the-art training space for our teams, with deep foam and resi-pits, top of the line equipment, and the space we needed to train our growing teams, and to teach our numerous recreational gymnastics classes.

Because of our history, I have always purchased top of the line gymnastics training equipment (AAI) and will continue to do so. I set up the training time to be appropriate for our teams to be successful in the incredibly competitive sport of gymnastics. As head coach, I am constantly working to help provide our gymnasts what they need to be successful. For instance, if more training time is needed in the future to train our teams, I will see that it is provided. All our competitive teams compete in the JO (Junior Olympic) USA Gymnastics program, which is the premier program in the USA and the organization that fields the US Olympic teams.

Our staff at ACPR is our greatest asset . They are all dedicated to help our aspiring athletes attain their highest and greatest dreams. Many of the coaching staff have been coaching for over 20 years and some approaching 30 years . As head coach, I will continue to search for the best staff and coaches available so our athletes can have the greatest chance for success. It is presently in the “works” to increase our training space in the building, and when this occurs (hopefully within the next two years) ACPR will have equipment, staff, and money available for the expansion.

It is the long term goal of the ACPR team program to provide our athletes with the training, motivation and skills to be competitive in USAG competitions throughout the state and region (and nation as necessary). Our optional team routinely travels out of state in order to experience great competitions. It is also our goal to train our athletes to the levels necessary to continue their sport in college, if they desire. Many of our “graduates” have already done so and some with college athletic scholarships. Presently, Emily Heller is on the University of Maryland Gymnastics team.

. We, at ACPR are like a large family, and the health and well-being of our athletes comes first and foremost. It’s not just a saying at ACPR, it is truly the way it is. That is why we have a low instance of injuries and a high instance of children remaining in the sport they love for many years. If a child has the desire, and potential, she will be given what she needs to help her to her goals. Our TOP’s program allows us to train talented young children towards the USA Gymnastics Elite program should they desire.

In summary, ACPR is dedicated to the serve the community with the best gymnastics training available. The prices are incredibly low for team gymnastics, because we want this wonderful sport to be affordable to as many as possible. Since we are a non-profit organization, we can offer high level training, top quality equipment, and great staff to our athletes for a relatively low cost. ACPR is always “child first” gymnast second. From our many years of training athletes, we know the value in that statement. It is the success of our athletes, in their sport and in their lives, that is important to us. It will continue to be that way in the future.

Thank-You for reading this,

Dr. Steve Cornelison, Head Coach, ACPR Gymnastics