Gymnastics is one of those incredibly interesting sports. It has a small but dedicated following in South Georgia, and despite its relative obscurity, it just might be the most difficult sport to master. Considered a minor sport by many, there’s nothing minor about it.
Just ask Khloe Parker, a Level 10 gymnast who is about to begin her second year with the Blue Devils’ gymnastics program. Khloe enrolled in Tift County High School in 2014 – her freshman year – and made an immediate impact on the Tift County High program. Already an elite-level gymnast when she joined the team, she instantly became one of the Blue Devils’ leaders.
Khloe started gymnastics when she was six years old. She followed in the footsteps of her mother and her older sisters. Khloe, however, has gone much farther in the sport than her mother or siblings ever dreamed. “I’m the only one who stuck with it,” says Khloe. Her mother, Sara Padgett, readily admits that Khloe has done much more with the sport than anyone else in the family. “Yeah, she’s a lot better than the rest of us. She excelled really fast and moved up the ranks. She’s won a lot state and national titles during her career – more than I can count,” says Sara.
Khloe was homeschooled until the ninth grade. That’s when she decided to enroll at Tift County High. When she did, the Tift gymnastics sponsors knew exactly what they were getting. Khloe, whose career with USA Gymnastics has taken her to the Eastern Nationals in 2013 and 2014, knew many of the girls who competed for Tift County High. They trained at the same gym and were very familiar with each other.
Though Khloe was already an accomplished gymnast, competing for a high school team was something very new to her. In USA Gymnastics, everything is individual. You’re out there by yourself competing for yourself. With a high school team, there is much more going on. You’re part of a team and you want your teammates to do well. If they do well, everyone succeeds. It’s a different dynamic and it involves a different approach to the sport.
Last year, Khloe steamrolled her way through the regular season. She was the only Blue Devil to qualify for the state meet, which took place at Westminster on April 24. “The school was great. They sent the entire team to cheer for Khloe,” says Sara. At state, Khloe did what she had been doing all year. She was in first place until the last event – the beam. The only way she could lose was if she fell. The unthinkable happened – she suffered an injury on the beam and tumbled to the mat. The mishap cost her a state championship. “Khloe got second in the state,” says Sara. “She missed a state title buy just a couple of tenths of a point. She posted some of the highest scores at the competition. A 10 is perfect; she has lots of scores in the 9.8 range.”
This year, Khloe would like to build on the foundation she set last year and win Tift County High a state championship. When asked about her goals, Khloe doesn’t hesitate. “It would be to get first at state. I want to redeem myself. I need to do the same thing I did last year but I need to be more consistent. I need to hit everything perfectly and cleanly,” she says.
Sidebar #1:
So what does it take to be a good gymnast? More than anything else, it takes time. For Khloe Parker and other elite-level gymnasts, gymnastics isn’t a sport as much as it is a part-time job. You might could even argue it’s a full-time job. “It’s very demanding. It takes lots of hours, sacrifice, and dedication. You can’t do anything else except train,” says Sara. She estimates that since Khloe was six years old, she’s logged more than 10,000 hours in the gym. Khloe spends 20 to 30 hours per week in a sport that’s very demanding physically. “It’s really tough on their bodies. Very few advance past college,” states Sara.
Sidebar #2:
Speaking of college, Khloe isn’t particularly interested in competing in gymnastics beyond high school. “Now I’m more focused on academics and trying to get an academic scholarship,” says Khloe. Her mother agrees: “Academics will pay off more in the future than gymnastics will.”
Special Feature/South Georgia/January 2016
Khloe Parker
Tift County High School
Tifton, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Tift County gymnast makes an immediate impact for the Blue Devils
