I’m happy to report that a total of nine AVA/USEF youth members applied for the United States Equestrian Federation’s Youth Sportsman’s Award this year. Three young men and six young women went through a lengthy application process, including writing two essays, and every single one of them impressed the heck out of our AVA YSA judging team…and me!
Camille Birch, 15, of Warm Beach Vaulters in Washington, cross-trains in aerial silk and gymnastics, as well as vaulting. She reports that vaulting on a composite team that included athletes from Washington State, New Mexico, Colorado and British Columbia was a growing experience for her. “Although most of us barely knew each other when we first met, over the course of Nationals we grew together and left the competition feeling like we’d know one another for years!” Her hope is that vaulting will become a well-known equestrian sport in the United States, just as popular as horseback riding.
Nicholas Cox, 15, of Diamond Bar Country Vaulters, enjoys working as an interpreter with the deaf as part of his high school American Sign Language (ASL) Club, and says that one of his career goals is to eventually start his own vaulting club and still compete while lungeing and coaching. Nicholas wants to make sure he creates specific practice space for just the male vaulters (“so they can try out new moves and not worry about impressing the females at practice…”). Most importantly, he notes, “a guys-only practice would encourage the guys to be guys and bring all their energy to practice.”
Joey Gadd, 16, a gold level and A Team vaulter with the Mt. Eden Vaulting Club in California, has been an equestrian since age six. A 4-H member, he has competed in horsemanship, showmanship, English, Western and Gymkhana, as well as in high school rodeo and vaulting. Very interested in government, he has visited his representatives in Washington D.C. and has spoken before his County Board of Supervisors.
Sixteen-year-old Warm Beach Vaulter Julia Overton, a junior who is ranked first in her high school class, enjoys all aspects of horses, including both team and individual vaulting, and Western riding, as well as vaulting demonstrations. She says that “team vaulting has taught me how to work with other people and create something beautiful. It has shown me how to appreciate the differences between people and how to be able to work through those differences.”
Alex Schaubhut, 15, a Lone Star Vaulter from Buda, Texas, described her time on the AVA Friendship Team at WEG and at Young Riders recently. She said it was there that she learned the true meaning of the sport – including how to grow her sport, and about the essence of friendship and team work – from mentors Priscilla Faulkner and Jan Weber. A sophomore in high school, Alex hopes to be either a livestock vet or an equine therapist after she graduates from college.
Leoni Schmidt, a high school senior, is a horse person for life (“I was at the stable before I could even walk!”) and counts her mom Karin, as her role model. A 4-H member who does Western, hunt seat, saddle seat, jumping, reining, dressage and barrel racing in addition to vaulting, Leoni says that horses have taught her “countless things—like respect, integrity, confidence and teamwork.”
Sarah Whillock, a high school junior who just turned 17, spends most of her time taking college classes at the University of Minnesota, but still finds time for the high school varsity gymnastics team, track, soccer, choir and the First Lego League, an academic competition that focuses on teaching kids about math and engineering. Her career goal is to get a master’s degree/PhD and research gene therapies or other ways of curing or preventing diseases.
Geoffrey Woolson, a high school sophomore and a silver level vaulter at the Los Angeles Equestrian Vaulting Club, started horseback riding this year in addition to vaulting, and as a result has experienced a new level of bonding and appreciation for his horse and his teammates since he started going on trail rides with them. He is vectoring toward a career in Equine Management, is also hoping one day to travel the world teaching vaulting.
In the end, the AVA committee chose 15-year-old Emily Hogye (of the Brookside Vaulting Club in California) as the organization’s candidate for the USEF Youth Sportsman’s Award. “I am an avid equestrian,” she says in her application. “I am a vaulter, a Pony Clubber, a riding instructor, a vaulting coach, and undoubtedly a horse lover.” A gold level individual vaulter and F.A.C.E. vaulter who has won both a team bronze medal at the Vaulting World Championships in 2008 and a team gold medal at the World Equestrian Games in 2010, Emily especially loves organizing and running home “shows” for her vaulting club to help members with their horsemanship, riding and vaulting skills.
In her “spare time” she is also a straight A student, an avid gardener, sews, recently took up “felting” and volunteers coaching both vaulting and as a cowgirl for the Kennedy Meadows Pack Station, working with 160 horses and mules there. In 2010, Emily began a petition to put equestrian vaulting back into the Olympics and has over 4,000 signatures. “Through my extracurricular activities, community and world-wide involvement as a student and an equestrian, I hope to achieve my goal and get vaulting into the Olympic Games!” she says.
As the AVA’s winner for this award, Emily will receive a $500 educational award from the USEF, and a trip to the USEF convention this January, expenses paid, where she will meet the other USEF affiliates’ winners.
SEE? I knew that these young vaulters were gonna impress the heck out of you too! Congratulations to Emily Hogye, our AVA representative for the USEF Youth Sportsman’s Award, and to all nine of our inspirational candidates. I have always suspected that a disproportionate number of our equestrian vaulting youth were extraordinary and remarkable human beings, and this winning bunch confirms that thought!
Yours for the Cause,
Sheri Benjamin
AVA Volunteer President
sbenjamin@americanvaulting.org/408.872.1562