Eastlake, OH- Eastlake Gymnastics, a staple of the community which has been helping girls and young women achieve their goals in gymnastics for nearly 50 years, held it’s first competition in over six years on Sunday and the first under owner Heather Trem, who purchased the legacy business in August of 2020. The gym offers a wide variety of classes. Starting with classes aimed for preschoolers and moving up all the way to classes for young women up to 14 years of age and competing in AAU competitions.
Owner Heather Trem always dreamed of owning her own gym. Heather, herself attended Eastlake Gymnastics from the time she was seven, and has had huge footprint in Lake County and Northeast Ohio. Heather not only owns the gym, but is a graduate of Eastlake North High School. She also is the gymnastics coach at both Eastlake North and Willoughby South High Schools. She is a Kent State University graduate who started the Gymnastics Club at KSU nearly thirty years ago and that club is still active to this day.
Coach Trem also employs a myriad of assistant coaches most of whom are alumni of Eastlake Gymnastics. Lorelei Paden, Britney Smith, Kayla Crow, Taryn Trem, Nicole Weber, Jenna Blackburn, Alexa Stockman, Anna Kim, and Ella Zappola round out her coaching staff.
The competition on Sunday was against the Massillon YMCA Gymnastics team. Eastlake had over 70 girls competing across four divisions. The divisions were broken down into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, and again further by age range within each division.
Eastlake’s roster was impressive and consisted of the following competitors for each division.
Bronze- Layla Abdelghany, Juliet Babyak, Brooklyn Boehmer, A’ryah Clemmons, Kileane Dancy- Toma, Autumn Fuller, Danielle Gaddis, Callie Graham, Ava Hess, Aylah Hopes, Maddie Hull, Aila Knight, Lily LaGanke, Elliana Miklus, Kylie Phillips-Haas, Lexi Reighard, Myla Reighard, Izzy Richards, Kaiden Sanders, Aubrey Shorts, Alexa Sykes, and Bella Thomas.
Silver- Marilyn Asbury, Ava Bernini, Nora Brazalovics, Lilly Chongris, Kayla Colecchia, Vivian Colecchia, Rayna Corral, Kennedi Daniels, Julia Gash, Reese Gerard, Riley Gunsalus, Maggie Grant, Kai Hanley, Riane Loparo, Sofia Mahraz, Emily McBride, Amelia McCarthy, Ellen McMahon, Stella Niemann, Analynn Paden, Lauren Panzarella, Avery Porcello, Elyana Salinas, Ashlynn Silva-Modic, Zayda Rouff- Semper, Delayna Sotock, Madelyn Sterk, Valerie Thomas, Kaitlyn Trowbridge, Ellie Veres, Kylie White, Kira Woodring, Brynnley Yurko and Emma Zalewski
Gold- Ariana Albanese, Bella Angelo, Autumn Bair, Sophia Eastman, Kielyn Epps, Maria Francetic, Lilian Grunda, Olivia Hobson, Aubrey LoConti, Kayla Moyle, Isabelle Podojil, Aubrieona Stapleton, Nevaeh Torain, Nicole Weber, and Lily Workman.
Platinum- Danielle Gallagher, Izzy Kim, Skyla Melton, Aniyah Torain, Lyla Trem, and Ashley Weber.
The competition, which started at 8:30 a.m. and went on all day and had an electric atmosphere. The girls were ready to compete, and show all of their hard work and sacrifice for the sport had paid off. Not every competitor was able to reach the podium, but their determination was on full display all day, as every single girl put forth their best effort to not only do their best, but also show off Eastlake Gymnastics as a premier destination for competition, learning, and fun.
The results were fantastic for Eastlake as they took a clean sweep in nine out of the twelve All Around podium’s, as well as having a competitor on the podium in every single event of the day.
Owner/Coach Heather Trem had dreamed of this day. Holding a competition in her own gym. Her determination made that a reality, and her roster of fierce and determined girls competed and won in Eastlake.
I was able to talk to Heather before the competition.
“My goal is for the girls to love gymnastics and use what they learn in life, just not the gym, and to have fun. We do many activities to have fun like the Willowick parade, summer pool party, performances for the Cleveland Cavaliers, at Lake County Captain's games, and a Christmas Show. We have been doing the show since 2001.”
On the topic of competitions Trem had this to say.
“I strictly stay within the AAU, not UASG, because it is friendlier for the girls and cheaper for the parents. It works well with our program, as we do not strive to get college scholarships but still compete. We used to never venture out of our comfort zone, and only did 4 meets a year within our league, the NEOGL (North East Ohio Gymnastics League). Now we go to many Invitational meets and compete against teams who are not in our league, and we even have been going to AAU Nationals for the past 3 years. At first, we didn't know how our team would do seeing as how our league has a maximum amount of hours we are allowed to train per week and no one else does. I didn't want them to be frustrated or scared off at the bigger competitions because of that, but the girls do just as well, if not better than the teams we have been meeting. We are proud of them.”
It’s safe to say that Heather Trem and her coaches are instilling all the right intangibles in their students. Learning, listening, competing, and most importantly, having fun. These are the morels that are being instilled in every child and young adult that walk through the doors of Eastlake Gymnastics. With any hope, Eastlake won’t have to wait six more years for another competition and with Heather Trem’s leadership it would be hard to imagine it will.
