Every all-arounder gymnast has an event he’d rather skip.
For Lyons junior Dave Steuart, it’s floor exercise.
“Floor is my kryptonite,” Steuart said. “My freshman year I only did four events and last year I did everything but floor. This year I’m working to get that floor spot so I can get all-around, but it’s hard because I haven’t done it in the last few years.”
Steuart’s other problem is that Lyons, which took third at state last year and had the second highest floor score there, is loaded with talented tumblers.
“It’s crazy the depth we have,” Steuart said. “We have five guys that are fantastic. They have really good scores and are clean. I’m working on getting up to them.”
His biggest obstacle to higher scores is positioning of his feet. At times, he struggles to keep his legs together and as a result, judges deduct points.
More Top Picks Best Bean Bag Chairs For Sensory Needs
While he’s working to improve his floor routine, his value to the team still is significant. He sat out Friday night’s Anthony J. Canino Invite hosted by Hinsdale Central while recovering from small tears in his biceps earlier in the week.
Lyons scored 131.56 and settled for fourth place in the 10-team meet, while Glenbard West took first at 143.35. The Lions scored a season-high 140.90 March 17 at York.
“It definitely hurts a lot,” Lions’ teammate Alex Janicki said. “He’s on all the events, except for floor and he’s a lot of help on all the events. We could have brought our team score up by a lot of points with him.”
The good news is that Steuart’s injury isn’t severe and he expects to be competing this week. He said he knows how to prevent the injury from reoccurring.
“Usually you use five or six muscles to hold your cross (on rings) and I was just using my pure biceps and that’s what did it,” Steuart said. “I know what I did wrong and I’m working on it to fix that problem. Ask anyone in this gym and they’ll tell you it’s a very difficult sport on your body. You have to take care of your body, especially in this sport, because you’ll break down otherwise.”
Still a junior, Steuart was voted a team captain. Last year he competed at state on horizontal bar and the team is depending on his experience and leadership abilities.
“Dave is an aggressive athlete and his work ethic is an example to the others,” Lyons coach Sam Zeman said. “It’s so valuable to us because he keeps the team going.”
“He’s a good team leader and I’d like him to keep that up,” Janicki said. “He just has to keep pushing the team.”
Steuart wants to make state in all-around, but his main focus is on getting the team back to the state meet and contend for another trophy.
It’s going to be difficult after the Lions were ravaged by graduation, but Steuart likes what he sees from this squad.
“We’re doing pretty well, actually,” he said. “To be totally honest, I thought we were going to be a little bit lower than we are, but we’re sitting at (11th) in state (according to State Gymnastics Stats). That’s pretty good because we lost a lot of good guys last year.”