KID COURAGE: Getting back to the bars

Gymnast rebounds from injury and sticks with her sport

Kelsey Fenner tumbles lightly over the square blue floor at Brown's Gymnastics. She dances, moves and turns like a little girl with the power of an athlete.

The black brace on the 10-year-old's right knee reminds coaches, fellow gymnasts and bystanders that even athletes come in small packages. Kelsey's brace has a story all its own.

At age 9, Kelsey was one apparatus away from winning her division, level 7, at the Lady Luck Invitational in January 2003. As she went for a drink of water, she tripped a few steps from the fountain. She took her drink, walked away and her knee gave out beneath her.

Kelsey still had to complete her vault exercise. In a fashion similar to Kerri Strug in the 1996 Summer Olympics, she gritted her teeth, plunged down the runway, flipped over the vault and landed herself a gold medal.

That was the last bit of gymnastics Kelsey would do for the next nine months. The then-fourth-grader at Calvary Chapel Christian School went from gymnastics dynamo to wheelchair bound. Her knee had slipped out of place and back in again, but doctors couldn't pinpoint why Kelsey couldn't walk.

In September, Kelsey returned to the gym to see her friends and take her team photo. While Kelsey was refreshing some skills on the uneven parallel bars, new head coach Jesse Vigil shouted for her to straighten her right leg. He didn't know who she was or what she had been through.

"She was in pretty bad shape. Her leg was almost nonfunctional. She was so weak," Vigil said. "I felt that, no matter what, I could improve what she had."

Vigil and Kelsey bonded. They worked together to build muscle where the little girl had none. Through pain and hard work, Kelsey was back in the game. Her first competition back from injury was in January. She placed fifth.

"I didn't think I would place," Kelsey said. "A lot of people didn't think I could do the meet, but I did."

On March 12-14, Kelsey competed in the USA Gymnastics Nevada State competition and was the highest scorer in three age groups. She tumbled away with her division's state championship.

"She saw some results early on. Her leg started to stabilize. Step by step. Just being careful," said Vigil, a gymnastics coach for 30 years. "There's some talent involved here. She kind of has the whole package. The knee was kind of a bummer."

"A lot of kids give up, go to dance. A lot of parents won't support coaches through pain, because there is pain," said Dayna Isaacs, owner of Brown's Gymnastics, 4544 W. Russell Road. "There are girls who can grit it out, and there are others who can't come back. But Kelsey's the comeback kid."

Coming back to the gym was a goal for Kelsey. She keeps a list of goals hung on the wall in her bedroom. Whenever she completes one, she moves on to the next.

"Doing nothing wasn't very fun," Kelsey said. "(Therapy) was kind of hard, but it worked. It was fun working with (Vigil). He's cool."

While she was out of the gym, Kelsey tried cheerleading but quickly realized it wasn't the same. The now fifth-grader started tumbling not too long after she started to walk.

"I've done gymnastics since I was a baby. And I really love it," Kelsey said. "It was hard, but I got through it. I think it makes me realize that I can do stuff."

In gymnastics, like in the rest of athletics, there is some risk of injury involved. Before children start the sport, Isaacs makes sure parents know the risks. Isaacs and her coaches work to keep their athletes as safe as possible. An athletic trainer helps ensure the teams' health, Isaacs said.

And there is no sneaking around when there's an injury.

"I can tell if these kids have a headache. I'm with these kids 25 hours a week. I can tell more about some of these kids than their parents," Isaacs said. "We coach through very safe progressions. But there are accidents."

Betty Diskin, 16, is a good example of what can happen. In the last two years, she broke her ankle, dislocated her shoulder and tore a ligament in her knee. The surgery to repair her knee was in January.

"There's always a question (of coming back). After my knee, there was that doubt," said Betty, a Centennial Hills-area resident. "The first week I was crying in the gym. The hardest thing is sitting there watching your teammates work out. Doing that after three times was really frustrating."

A recent competition was the first for Betty in two years. When her name was announced, the crowd cheered. She earned an all-around fourth-place finish for her division, level 9.

"It felt so good," Betty said.

Betty is a junior studying sports medicine in Rancho High School's Medical and Allied Health magnet program. She wants to be a physical therapist one day, and gymnastics is her avenue for a scholarship. Remembering her goal kept her going when she was injured.

"I'm going to college for gymnastics no matter what," she said. "Doing this after 11 years, I'm not going to give up. Nothing is going to stop me."

College scholarships for gymnasts was Isaacs' goal when Brown's Gymnastics opened six years ago, even though students would have to attend out of state. Nevada has no collegiate gymnastics program.

This year, the students she started training six years ago are old enough to reap the rewards of her research. Athletes must attain A's and B's on their report cards to stay with the gym. If they slip, there are tutors available, Isaacs said.

"To make an Olympic team would be gravy," Isaacs said.

Kelsey wants to go beyond college. Her top goal -- probably hanging on her wall in her Summerlin-area home -- is to achieve elite status, the level of Olympians.

But it won't be easy.

"No matter what, I think it's fun," Kelsey said. "Even if I have a hard time."


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