One student really sets the bar high when it comes to gymnastics.

Junior Jacob Kurian is the only gymnast on the school team. He has been doing gymnastics competitively for  eight years and has had a passion for gymnastics ever since he was little. His sister inspired him to get into gymnastics.

“My sister was in one of those little classes where they just have fun,” Kurian said. “She would come home and tell me what she did, so I tried it and I actually could do it so my parents thought that they should sign me up.”

According to Kurian, gymnastics requires a lot of dedication. He trains year-round with a volunteer coach at a club training facility. This allows him to be able to train out of school and still compete in school competitions. Being the only gymnast also gives him a lot of flexibility with scheduling training.

“I have to train year-round, which is also a benefit of being the only one on the team because you can decide how long and how dedicated you want to be,” Kurian said. “In non-competition season I’ll usually go in like three to four days a week. When competition starts I’ll practice four to five days a week for two hours.”

Being the only team member does not bother Kurian too much, but he encourages others to join him.

“I would love to have a team, that would be cool. The problem is that it is hard to set up a gymnastics team because of the interest levels,” Kurian said.

Overall, he has had an interesting experience being the only gymnast for the school.

“It is kind of nice to have the opportunity to train at a club gymnastics place because a lot of high school facilities are not as good as club facilities. So it’s nice to train there, go to a high school gymnastics meet and see kids that go to high school and they’re working out at their high school. You see each other repeatedly and get to know each other,”Kurian said.

Kurian made it to state preliminaries last year and competes from February to May. He hopes to make it to state this year.