By the end of middle school, Lake Central senior Maya Tobin had burned out on volleyball.
And when a new sport piqued her interest, Tobin didn’t have time to look around for a coach.
“My dad was a gymnast, so that interested me,” she said. “I just started going for it. I’d never done gymnastics before, so it took the whole summer before my freshman year to get my back handspring down.”
In the years since, Tobin has gone from teaching herself the sport to becoming one of Lake Central’s top all-around gymnasts.
But that development started in the summer of 2013, when Tobin spent months flipping around her front yard while trying to master that first skill.
“I face-planted a lot,” she said between laughs. “I picked the front yard so that if I got hurt, I’d have cars passing by that would see me. I thought I’d be able to do some more things after I got that down.”
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That winter, Tobin joined the team at Lake Central and astonished the coaches when she explained her prior gymnastics “training.”
“We were just amazed,” Indians coach Myra Lolkema said. “When she told us that, we knew we were going to have our hands full.”
The learning curve was steep for Tobin, who did not have the club background of most high school competitors. Early on, she simply mirrored the movements of her teammates.
“In my first practice I went for a round off, back handspring, back tuck, and I’d never done that before,” she said. “I started going for skills I saw other girls doing.”
That’s been the biggest asset during Tobin’s development: her persistent willingness to attempt new skills.
“Whenever we tell her to try something, she’ll do it,” Lolkema said. “That’s the way she’s always been. She’s become an fantastic all-around gymnast.”
Tobin displayed those skills Tuesday in her final regular-season dual meet, scoring 32.6 points to help Lake Central top Hobart 102.6-102.1.
But perhaps her biggest contribution at Lake Central has been as a beloved teammate. Both Tobin and Lolkema were wiping tears away when asked about this Saturday’s sectional meet, which could be Tobin’s last competition.
“She’s been such a fantastic leader the entire time,” Lolkema said of Tobin. “She’s one of those kids who makes you happy to be a coach.”
Trojans riding high into postseason: It had been 10 years since Chesterton won a Duneland Athletic Conference title, but that streak ended last Saturday as the Trojans scored 113.45 points to defeat Valparaiso (112.325).
As the top-ranked team in the state following an undefeated regular season, Chesterton could be ending plenty of postseason title droughts in the upcoming weeks. Chesterton has not won a sectional since 2003, a regional since 2007 and a state title since 2002.
Status quo at Michigan City: The most competitive race at Saturday’s Chesterton Sectional could be the battle for third place to earn the last regional team berth.
Crown Point, Merrillville and Portage are all in the mix, but Michigan City occupied that spot at last week’s DAC Meet. Wolves coach Kaitlyn Schwanke said her team followed the same game plan this week.
“They’ve definitely been more motivated since then,” Schwanke said. “But we haven’t changed much at all. We just copied and pasted what we did the week before conference.”
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.
TOP 3
With last week’s rankings in parentheses
1. Chesterton (1)
2. Valparaiso (2)
3. Michigan City (NR)
Gymnast of the Week: Sophomore Jordan Bush led Chesterton to the Duneland Athletic Conference Meet title by winning the all-around with a score of 38.15.