Hersey junior Sabrina Nemcek recalls she was a little kid when she first watched gymnastics on TV.
Her first role model was Gabby Douglas.
“I saw her on the Olympic trials, and I was like, ‘OK, I want to do gymnastics. That looks like so much fun,’” Nemcek said. “And then throughout the years, I saw Simone Biles and McKayla Maroney and a lot of other girls do it, and I wanted to keep going, and I want to be like one of them.”
Nemcek’s mother enrolled her in recreation classes at a local gym, and Nemcek is still tumbling and flipping — and doing it better than most girls her age.
Nemcek had her teammates and coaches flipping out at the state meet in Palatine over the weekend, when she won the all-around championship and two individual event titles.
In a two-day display of amazing gymnastics, Nemcek won four individual medals while leading Hersey to its second team state championship and first since 1983-84.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “I worked all my gymnastics life, like 13 years, to get to where I am today, and it feels like all of our work is paying off.
“I just went out there, had fun both days, and having fun is a really good key to winning at sports.”
Nemcek’s performance helped the Huskies, who went undefeated this season, unlock their best selves.
“We haven’t had a best meet yet,” Hersey coach Shannon Barrett said. “So the hashtag on the back of our sweatshirts said, ‘The best is yet to come,’ and it sure came.”
The Huskies had only two falls during the meet and scored 146.25 points. Defending state champion Downers Grove Co-op was second with 145.4, and Wheaton Warrenville South was third with 144.875.
“It’s amazing,” Hersey senior Grace Johnson said. “I can’t even remember the last time (Hersey) won, it was so long ago. We’ve had a really hard season, so to win is amazing. We were all having fun and all so happy. It’s the best way to end senior year.”
Nemcek ended her sophomore year by winning the state title on the uneven bars in 2023. That was just a taste of things to come.
On Friday, Nemcek scored 37.8 points to win the all-around title by 0.05 over Vernon Hills senior Annika Chudy and Palatine sophomore Jolee Waddington. Nemcek is the third all-around state champion in Hersey history, joining Wendy Specht (1981-82) and Kathy Kautz (1991-92).
“I’ve been coaching her since freshman year,” Barrett said. “She has amazing drive and dedication to the sport. She works extremely hard. I’m just keeping her in the game and keeping her loose and in control. That’s all I really needed.
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“If she made a mistake, I needed her to just brush it off and go to the next event. She fell on beam yesterday, but that didn’t stop her.”
As it turned out, the all-around title was just the beginning. Nemcek qualified for the 10-person event finals in three of the four events and surpassed her score in all three on Saturday, when she successfully defended her uneven bars title with a 9.675 and took the vault title with a 9.75. Nemcek capped the meet with a second-place 9.55 score on floor exercise.
“It feels amazing to know that I’m one of the great ones who have won the all-around,” Nemcek said. “And I’m only a junior, so I have a year left in gymnastics.”
So, too, do junior teammates Evelyn Gradek, who was sixth on bars, and Gianna Mazzola. But Johnson, who was ninth on bars, Jenna Lazzara, Jane Forsberg and Jessica Getz, all of whom Nemcek credited with helping fuel her enthusiasm, will graduate this year.
“All of the teammates that I’ve had throughout the years really support of me and they’re really fun to be around and to hang out with, and I have a good connection with a lot of my coaches,” Nemcek said.
Johnson sent the praise right back at Nemcek.
“She’s just been our biggest supporter all year,” Johnson said. “She’s been supporting us as a motivational speaker. Before everything we do, she says, ‘Have fun,’ and it makes the team so much more confident. She brings up the hype.”
Nemcek might not reach the heights of Olympic champions like Douglas, Biles and Maroney, but she said she hopes to continue her career in college as long as her body holds up. Next year she will attempt to become just the sixth gymnast in the 48-year history of the state meet to win back-to-back all-around titles.
“I really love the sport,” Nemcek said. “I just want to keep going for a couple more years.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.