Gymless Gymnast
Firing of coach leaves GR Olympic hopeful Teft Without Training Home
By Gretchen Flemming
The Grand Rapids Press
Katie Teft will venture into the biggest competition of her young life as a gymnast without a gym.
The 14-year-old Olympic hopeful from Grand Rapids is bound for the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships this week with her coach, John Geddert, who recently resigned from Great Lakes Gymnastics Club in Lansing after he was told his contract would be terminated this summer.
Great Lakes majority owners Don and Paula Hartwick said Geddert, who was the gym's head coach and program director for 12 years, was asked to leave because of "differences in philosophy." "I don't want to get into this too much because...I don't want it to affect Katie's focus," Paula Hartwick said. "It's just a basic difference in philosophies. It didn't happen overnight. You just don't wake up one day and say you have differences."
Geddert said there's more to it than that. He claims that after building Great Lakes into the state's top gym and one recognized nationally, he is being pushed aside so the Hartwicks' daughter Kim Hartwick- Teft's choreography and part of Geddert's staff at Great Lakes- could take over. Another Hartwick daughter, Jill, recently has joined the staff in a business capacity as well.
"Kim was constantly undermining me," Geddert said. "The Hartwicks are painting a picture that we had a difference in philosophy, and I guess we did, as in running the program."
The controversy certainly couldn't come at a worse time for Teft, who needs to finish in the top 14 at the nationals to qualify for the Olympic Trials, which are June 27-30 in Boston. She finished ninth at the 1995 nationals.
"At first I was devastated," Teft said Monday, before she left today for Knoxville, Tenn. "I though, Oh my god, John got fired."
Geddert, who has coached Teft for six years, had the option to stay on at Great Lakes through Teft's Olympic run. The Hartwicks have developed a close relationship with Teft, to the point where Teft lived at their Lansing home this winter when she increased her training. Paula Hartwick admitted the timing of the situation wasn't good.
"We had suggested he wait until July, after the Olympic Trials," Hartwick said. "We wanted to give her as normal training as possible."
Geddert said he thought about staying awhile at Great Lakes, of which he is one-third owner, but decided he couldn't work under the conditions.
"I probably would have stayed, if it would have been kept under wraps," Geddert said. "But people knew. . . I didn't want to hear the whispers in the gym. I couldn't coach where I wasn't wanted."
Teft also said four of his staffers have left Great Lakes since his resignation.
Teft has been training for the past two weeks at Kentwood Gymnastics, thanks to the hospitality shown by Kentwood head coach John Figeroa. Geddert commutes from Lansing to train Teft in the morning, then he returns to Lansing to work at Spartan Gymnastics, where he's found a temporary home as an instructor.
Geddert plans to open his own gym, Twistars U.S.A., in Lansing in mid-August.
But adding to Teft's difficulties is the fact that she is unable to train at Spartan Gymnastics. Because the gym is run by Michigan State University, Teft would risk any college eligibility she might someday need due to an NCAA rule addressing recruiting improprieties that states high school-age gymnasts cannot train at a college-affiliated gym that is further than 50 miles from the athlete's home.
Teft, a Forest Hills Central freshman who has commuted to Great Lakes Gymnastics since age 5, lived 54 miles from Spartan Gymnastics.
So Teft, who as a competitor has a knack for remaining cool under pressure, now must handle some off-the-floor dificulties to achieve her ultimate goal of being one of the top seven at the Olympic Trials. They will make up the 1996 Atlanta team.
To her credit, Teft has remained focused on the task at hand. She's happy, at least, that for once she doesn't have to travel to Lansing to train.
"I have a lot of people here that support me," Teft said. "It helps to train here, I'm not as tired and I'm home."
Thanks Christine for typing this article!
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