Newsday's LI Gymnast of the Year: Jessica Panza
Newsday came out with its bi-annual All-Long Island teams last week, celebrating the best of the best. Check out the story on Gymnast of the Year Jessica Panza below. Click here to read all about the wrestler of the year, Stephen Bonanno and here for the girls indoor runner, Charlene Lipsey. I'll be updating this space as I hear about more Athlete of the Year stories. Cheers!
BY LAURA ALBANESE
While other toddlers were still mastering the basics of walking, it was clear, even early on, that Jessica Panza was just a little bit more advanced.
She was 3 years old then, and, inspired by high wire flips and stunts that she had seen on Power Rangers, decided that she wanted nothing to do with dance class, her father said. Instead, she had decided, she would be a gymnast.
And, while the coming years likely saw other kids trade in one activity for another – dance class and karate for soccer practice and band – Panza stayed on. By the age of six, she was winning almost all her club meets, her father, Drew Panza said.
“She just seemed to be better at gymnastics” than those around her, he said. “It just seemed like it was more natural, more exceptional.”
This was perhaps none clearer when Panza decided to embark on her high school career. She won the New York club regionals at the ages of 15 and 16 and, at 16, advanced to the nationals. There, competing against some of the strongest non-professional competition in the nation, she claimed sixth.
But Panza, 18, and now a senior at Island Trees, had no other outlet. The school had no gymnastics team and, by sophomore year, her involvement in the sport had lagged. She left her club, Phoenix Gymnastics, and focused on academics instead.
And though it looked as if Panza had left gymnastics behind, it soon became abundantly clear that it hadn’t left her. Panza had made a mark and Long Island’s coaches, including championship coaches Kim Rhatigan-Drexler, of Bethpage/Plainview and Robin Thomas, of Kings Park , weren’t ready to give up on a rare talent.
“The first time I saw her, she was a very young gymnast that had a grace and power that overpowered everybody else,” Thomas said. “She’s one of the most talented kids I’ve ever seen.”
Soon, Drexler and her assistant coach, Debbie Rut, were encouraging Panza to join their team as an independent. When Panza came over, Thomas was also supportive, helping her get over the mental and physical hurdles of a year off. Panza joined Thomas’ club, New Image gymnastics – which is littered with some of the Island ’s best talents.
“She had taken that year off, so she needed to get back her confidence,” Thomas said. “She needed someone to push her to have that belief in herself.”
The tag-team strategy worked – Panza competed and excelled, even beyond her own expectations. In her first year, the junior qualified for the all-state team and later took second in the state all-around with a 37.125, second only to Section I's Kylie Shields.
In her second and final year, she blew that away. She squeaked in first with a 38.1 – again at her shoulders was Shields, only 25-hundreths of a point away.
It was a competition that could have easily gone another way, Panza said. Her vault score was originally lower, but Drexler had gone to the judging table and pled Panza’s case. It earned her only half of a tenth, but it was enough for the victory.
“We never thought it would be that big,” Panza said of the change. “I knew going in [to the competition] that it was going to be close, and that it was going to be either me or her. I was kind of leaning towards her.”
The state title, she said, was simply “awesome.”
It was also a fitting way to cap a year of victories. Panza spent the season dominating in Nassau , though her scores don’t count for Bethpage . And, in the state qualifiers, she swept every event on her way to a 38.275. Her skill has led to a gymnastics scholarship with North Carolina State , which she will be attending come fall.
Panza is excited and naturally nervous. The girl who almost decided to call it quits will be competing twice a week in one of the top programs in the nation.
“It really feels like my job,” she said. “I love it.”
The NCAA school is ranked 15th in the country for gymnastics. She will, Thomas said, be competing with and against the best of the best. Panza’s game, she added, will no doubt elevate.
“I don’t really think we’ve see the best of Jessica yet,” she said