By Rodney Haas 

605 Sports 

MITCHELL — The idea of Mitchell hosting this weekend’s Class AA state gymnastic meet would’ve seemed impossible 12 years ago.

Instead, the Kernels will find themselves competing before the home crowd at the Corn Palace while looking for back-to-back state titles and their sixth championship since 2010. 

It’s the culmination of a remarkable turnaround for a program that saw its future in jeopardy just days after the conclusion of the 2010 state meet, and had to endure years of constant fundraising just to keep it alive.   

“There were a lot of people requesting cheer and dance and gymnastics doesn’t really have a lot of kids,” Mitchell coach Audra Rew said of the decision to cut the program. “So because gymnastics had only 10 or 15 on the team and cheer and dance would have 60 kids between the two sports, (the Mitchell School Board) decided they were going to transfer our funds from gymnastics to cheer and dance.” 

Rew, who has been the gymnastics coach in Mitchell for over 15 years added the decision to cut the program, which won back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008 was not personal toward the sport, but came down to funding. 

"First, this is a time where we could bring in competitive cheer and dance for about the same amount of money we've been spending (on gymnastics)," Mitchell Superintendent Joe Graves told the Mitchell Republic in February 2010. "Second, our team is at a very transitional point. Although it's going to be very tough for those students, it would have been much tougher two years ago, so we found probably the best time we're going to make the change."

Mitchell’s Kyra Gropper competes on the uneven bars during the ESD conference gymnastics meet Feb. 5 at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.
:

According to media reports from Feb. 2010, the cost for the gymnastics season to the Mitchell School District in 2009-10 was just more than $25,000.

In the days that followed, Graves met with parents to discuss possible solutions to keep the program alive. In the end, Graves and the parents agreed to make significant budget cuts — trimming it from the $25,000 to $16,000 with the parents being responsible for coming up with half the cost or $8,000. 

“If we didn’t raise the money, we couldn’t have a team,” said Mitchell Booster Club Vice President Trish Bates, who’s daughter Bentley is a freshman on the team. “So there was a lot of pressure. We would do car washes and sell goodies. Whatever it may be, we did lots of it.” 

Mitchell’s Joslin Sommerville competes on the balancing beam during the ESD conference meet on Feb. 5 at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.
:

The arrangement between the district and the parents lasted until Mitchell added boys soccer. At the time, the district told the soccer team it had to fundraise $4,000 for the program and then told the gymnastics team its costs would be trimmed down to $4,000. 

“That’s when it tiered down to the point where we don’t have to pay anything,” Rew said. 

Meanwhile, while the parents were working behind the scenes to keep the program alive, the girls just kept performing and returned to the top of Class AA in 2014. It would be the first of three-in-a-row for the Kernels, with titles in ’14, ’15 and ’16 and adding another title in ’18 and last year.   

“The success and the quality of the program has never been an issue,” said Mitchell Activities Director Cory Aadland. “It just goes to show the amount of work that they put in. It’s a lot of hard work.” 

Rew credits the success of the program in the early days by having “great high schoolers” who would help coach the younger kids.  

“The younger kids would get excited seeing the big girls helping them,” she said. “You get numbers in the gym when they are little, then you're going to have a substantial pool to pull from for a good high school program.”

In addition to being the coach for the Kernels, Rew is also owner of MEGA Gymnastics in Mitchell. She said the key for a successful gymnastics program at a school is having a gym in the community where the younger kids can go. 

“There have been some schools that have been adding (gymnastics)," Rew said. “I feel that if you don’t have a program for the little kids anywhere close to you, it’s hard for those small towns to add a program. So if you don’t have a facility then the kids won’t have the passion for it.” 

Mitchell’s Bentley Bates competes on the uneven bars during the ESD conference gymnastics meet Feb. 5 at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.
:

At Rew’s gym, she currently has kids from across the Mitchell area including Parkston, White Lake, Kimball, Wagner, Platte, Woonsocket and Chamberlain. 

Currently in South Dakota, there’s 15 Class AA gymnastics programs and 14 Class A with none in Class B. 

“My numbers are better than they’ve been,” Rew said. “We don’t have schools dropping. I think the numbers at all the schools are either the same or bigger.”

Nevertheless, gymnastics is an expensive sport for a school to add. According to both Rew and Aadland, there will be close to $150,000 in equipment set up on the Corn Palace floor this weekend.  

“Part of the drive behind (cutting) gymnastics is it’s an expensive sport with the amount of equipment. That was the financial piece of it when compared to cheer and dance, and they have more roster numbers,” Aadland said. “That was the drive behind it. But you have to give credit to the parents at the time, they stepped up and they raised money and contributed money to the program for a number of years.

“The parents back then said, ‘We’re not going to let this happen and we’re going to do what we can.’ They worked out a solution with the school board at that time and worked to keep it alive and we are seeing the benefits of it now.”