We Are The Champions

Hampshire Gymnastics scored 1st place team award yesterday. 

My diminutive daughter Jada scored a pair of 9.47s, taking two first places and two second places, to help Hampshire Gymnastics win first place team yesterday at the Thompsons Holiday Invitational Gymnastics meet held at Holyoke Community College.

 Jada scored first place on the balance beam with a 9.47

Hampshire Gymnastics was one of my inspirations/role models when I first opened the Karate Health Fitness Center way back in 1982.

Founders Anne and Norm Vexler were very successful athletes at UMass around the same I attended and after graduation they remained in Amherst making a successful business doing what they love.

They say if you find (or make) a job doing what you love then you never work a day in your life.

Having run an athletic business for 28 years I know all too well that's a bit of an optimistic exaggeration.

But at the end of even the most trying day all it takes is a child's beaming smile after they get something right to remind you of the boundless rewards of running your own business.

Although you can still see Norm and Anne at the Club, it has been handed down to a pair of most capable hands -- their champion daughter, Talya.

Looks better viewed at YouTube site

Note the response of Jada's two coaches, Talya and Miss Betsy, near end of routine