"Jett!" Cassandra Johnson screamed across the gym. She came running up to me with a smile from cheek to cheek. "Dad says you will make the Olympics next year, is that true?"
Cassandra was my club gymnastics coach's daughter. She was a pistol with more energy than I could ever handle.
"If I make the Olympics, are you going to watch me?"
"If you make the Olympics dude, I am all over it. Because you are hot!"
I blushed right away and asked, "Is that a compliment Cassandra?"
"You can take it for what ever you want, I am just stating a fact!"
"Cassandra! Leave our guest alone here," Randy Johnson, Cassandra's father, and my old coach replied.
She walked away shouting, "Hot! Hot! Hot!"
"She is getting big coach, how do you ever handle her?"
"We are going to have to lock her up when she gets older just to protect the world from her!"
We both laughed out loud.
Coach reached to give me a hug, "Great to see you again Jett!"
"You too coach!"
"Let's go into my office, and chat about nationals."
I followed coach towards his gym office. He was a tall African American man who never was a gymnast himself, but married one that was on an Olympic team. She opened a gym for girls after her Olympic birth. Randy decided to expand it, trying to get guys involved in the sport. I came in as an expert helper, and in no time he was getting kids to nationals. We had a tight bond, and he knew me much better than my college coach.
We entered the office, and he offered me a chair.
"Your college coach says we should just stick with the routines you did at NCAAs. How do you feel about that?"
"Well with no offense to Coach Barker, or to you, but I have a plan to change all those routines, and to get them ready in time for Nationals."
"I am glad you said that Jett! I saw your NCAA competition, and I will be the first to say, that was a bad meet for you. I don't want to be wasting my time cleaning up bad routines."
"So we are in agreement that we revamp?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"Let me map it out for you."
I showed coach a plan to increase my routines to the maximum score on three apparatus. We hashed out where to place tricks so I would have plenty of energy to compete them. We worked out routines that were safe yet held difficulty. By the time we were done we had a plan we felt could get me in the top three at Nationals.
"Jett, I don't know if it was last school year, or the trip you just took, but you seem to have so much more confidence in yourself now."
"Coach, I am going to place top three at Nationals, and I am going to win a World Championship on floor exercise!"
He gave me another hug goodbye, and said he would see me in the morning. As I walked out of the gym I wondered what he knew about the trip. Since I have returned from the island, I carried this sense that everyone just looked at me, and knew I was gay.
I landed in the foam pit with my arms stretched over my head with the perfect lean I wanted to somersault forwards. The pit gave me little spring, but I grabbed what I could take throwing my body into a front somersault. As I fumbled to get out of the softness of the pit I shouted out to my coach, "It's ready!"
Coach Johnson looked from across the gym. I was sure he had seen me do this tumbling pass a hundred times, and as he coached me through it he could only shake his head every time I completed it.
"What's ready?"
"Time to take this pass to the floor exercise Coach!"
"Jett, you are crazy! I am not even sure what you are trying to do here, but you will never have this ready for next week's Nationals!"
I ignored him as my mind was only focused on one thing, the elements I had to concentrate on to make this work on the floor exercise mat.
I lined myself up in my starting corner on the square apparatus, and did a fast run down the mat to get a feel for it under my legs. The spring floor below me felt good. It was always springier that the tumbling strip because it had less wear and tear.
"Wait Jett!" Coach Johnson shouted out to me.
I lifted my head, and watched as he ran towards me. His face held panic as if he feared for his own life.
"What exactly are you trying here Jett. I have been watching you do this incredible pass, and I am still not sure what you are trying to lay down on this floor here?"
"Well I am going to do the double back straight out of a round off, and when I go over on it, and punch my legs on the floor, it throws me right into a fast whip back to continue my speed for another trick. I mean no one has ever tried this stuff."
"There is probably a good reason. Where did you ever get this idea?"
"Watching a video of the World Tumbling Championships. They do this stuff three times in a run."
"Jett it has been years since you competed in tumbling, where did you find this video?"
"I just keep up on it. There is so much happening there that we can use here, and my college coach would never let me work it. This is going to wake up the gymnastics world!"
"Well your triple back at the end is short, you will never land it."
"That is where the punch front after the triple comes in. C'mon I am hitting it every time in the pit. I have to try it here! It is ready!"
Coach Johnson looked at me like I was a crazy person talking to voices in my head.
"I must be nuts to let you try this a week before Nationals, but let's go for it. Do you want me to spot anything?"
"Nope! I want you to stand far away and watch. Oh and don't forget to call 911 if I kill myself here."
Coach shook his head as he walked off the platform and stood by the vaulting area.
I placed myself in my corner again, and thought about the whole tumbling run again. I knew I only could use two running steps before I started the run. Everything had to be timed perfectly so I completed everything from corner to corner of the square floor. The tumbling run raced in my mind over and over, and I kept shouting in my head, "If anything is wrong, stop it right there."
My mind was set, my body felt good, and I took off into my two-step run. In no time I was completing my double back layout, looking at the floor, and making sure I rotated passed the somersault for a huge back lean. It was there, and I punched my legs catapulting speed I had never had tumbling before right into a whip back. "Do the back handspring fast and low," shot through my head. With all the speed I could muster I punched the floor reaching into a triple back. I watched the floor each time I rotated by, and the timing in my head told me I was going to go short on the triple. I saw the third somersault, through my arms in the air, and punched the floor flying into a front somersault in the other direction. Immediately my somersault was spinning to fast, so I kicked out stretching my body to slow it down. I saw my feet go past the floor knowing I was going to rotate to my stomach. In a quick save I turned my body, and landed flat on my back with a huge bang.
The jolt knocked me windless, and as I gasped for air to breath, Coach Johnson was on top of me screaming, "Are you all right Jett?"
I finally grabbed some air, and leaped off my back in celebration, "Yes! I did it!"
Coach Johnson shouted out, "Man did you ever!" He picked me up as if to display me around the gym to the other participants, and applause rang through the gym.
He let me down, and without hesitation I started ranting like a mad man. "The punch front has to much power off the triple. Maybe I should punch into a front one and three quarters. No, it doesn't work with my next skill. Front layout? No, that is too much a girl's trick. Punch barani? No, I can do a punch rudy! Coach I should punch a rudy at the end!"
"Jett! Settle down. The tumbling run is fantastic to say the least, but the reality is, you can never have it ready for Nationals."
"This pass ain't for Nationals coach. We are doing Nationals as planned. This pass is only for the event finals at World Championships, and no one can know about it until that night. It is all or nothing that night!"
"Coach Johnson put a big grin on his face, "I like your thinking here Jett. I really like your thinking here."
I felt higher than a kite, and finishing that combination of tricks was better than sex. Although my experience with sex was minimal, I knew nothing sexual could compare. I looked at the clock, which displayed 2:30 pm. I had a 4:00 train to catch into the city so my celebration had to be cut short.
"Coach, I have to run to catch a train soon. Can I talk with you in your office real fast?"
"Sure Jett. What's up?"
"It has to be in your office."
We walked into his office, and he took his usual chair behind his desk and I grabbed one, and sat on the other side. My heart raced worse now, than before I tried my feat out on the floor. I knew what I wanted to tell him, but I was so frightened to let it out. My mouth was frozen unable to move. My mind raced with thoughts about what his reactions would be.
"So?" Coach questioned.
"I'm gay."
Coach's face stood motionless like a mime imitating a statue. Then his mouth slowly dropped open.
My heart dropped into my stomach. His reaction wasn't the one I was hoping for, but I also wasn't planning on just blurting it out that way.
"I had to tell you, I couldn't just hide it anymore from you. I hope this doesn't change things?"
"No Jett. It, it's just a shock. I guess I never saw you that way. You seemed to have girlfriends all the time, and well, it is just a pretty big shock."
"Sorry to lay it on you that way. I have been just going nuts about this lately. I need to tell some people that I trust. I mean I am not ready to tell the world, but if I don't tell the people close to me I am going to bust open!"
"Well I am glad you confided in me. I promise to keep it our secret, although I was wondering if it was all right to talk to my wife about it. I don't like keeping secrets from Rhonda."
"Oh, um, yeah that is ok, but please don't let Cassandra know. I just don't think she would take it too well."
"I agree. Cassandra is too young to understand this anyway."
"Thanks coach, I better get going."
I slid out of my chair, and turned making a run to the door.
"Hey Jett!"
I turned back to see coach leaning back in his chair with his feet planted on top of the desk.
"Don't I get a hug before you leave?"
"Oh sure coach. I just thought..."
Before I could finish coach leaped out of his chair, and picked me up in a huge bear hug. Then he slowly let me down to the floor. That was the reaction I was praying I would get from him.
"You rest up this weekend so we can go pretty hard next week. Have a safe trip into the city boy!"
"Thanks coach, and I promise I will be all rested and ready!"