
Feature/General
UGA Gymnasts: All in the Family
By Megan Harrison
March/April 2006
Raising four children is a tough
challenge for any parent. But when all four are athletes - two
of them gymnasts - life becomes a little more hectic.
For the Kupets, life was rarely slow paced or simple with their
two boys and two girls involved in a wide variety of sports. Although
parents, Mark and Patti, started all of their children off in gymnastics,
eventually they would try many different sports.
"We started them all in gymnastics because it's a good sport for
anything," Patti commented. "Then they all learned how to swim,
but only Mark, my oldest son, took to that."
Over the years each child tried many different sports: Mark, 22,
ran track and eventually went to Penn State to pole vault; Ashley,
21, took baton lessons and participated in dance; Courtney, 18,
was a diver for a while, among other sports including dance as
well; Christopher, 16, the youngest, fell into basketball since
he would practice while his sisters were in gymnastics practice.
But pushing the kids to only be in one sport or to be the top athlete
in any of their sports was not something that the Kupets believed
in.
"They just wanted to make sure that we were happy," Courtney said.
"Sometimes you see parents that overdo it - they are more involved
than the kid is. So I think that they really understood that you
have to let the kid do it their way, reach as high as they want
to reach."
With all of their children so heavily involved in the sports world,
Patti and Mark quickly grasped valuable lessons about how to deal
with the intense world of competition. "I had to learn not to say
anything and not to give any advice," Patti said. Adding that if
she or her husband said too much the girls might get mad at them.
The family also learned the importance of listening to coaches
and trainers when it came to the safety of their kids. "Physical
therapy was hard because we had to do it ourselves up to three
times a week," Patti said.
Patti or Mark would have to take time off work to fit physical
therapy into the busy Kupets' schedule and, at first, it was not
something that was taken seriously. "Ashley got hurt again because
I had not taken her to physical therapy so I felt like it was my
fault," Patti said. After that incident, the Kupets realized how
important injury prevention was and made time for the kids to get
physical therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, massages, or
anything that would help to avoid injury.
Only when Ashley and Courtney decided to solely pursue gymnastics
did the true impact of an athletic lifestyle hit the family. At
one point, the Kupets lived an hour away from Hill's Gymnastics,
the gym where the girls trained in Maryland, and would drive there
every day just for practice. The cost of gym time was another family
burden, causing Patti to have to get a job teaching 2 year olds
at the gymnastics center just to cover the fees for her girls.
Only one consequence from the many sporting endeavors over the
years created an issue with the family.
"We never had a family vacation," Patti said. "The girls had gymnastics
meets in the summer, and by the time that was done football was
starting up. I am still waiting on a family vacation." However,
those issues are not something that the family regrets. "I am so
thankful that I had it. I enjoyed being around it," Patti said.
One thing that she wishes is that she had sought out the advice
of some parents who had been through the gymnastics world before
and knew what to do.
Megan Harrison is a sophomore at UGA majoring in Sports Studies
with a concentration in communication and minoring in English.
She works for university's student newspaper, The Red & Black,
as a sports writer covering gymnastics and swimming.
|