LAKEPORT >> Setting the bar high is what they do.
The five members of the Skycatch Gymnastics boys competitive team are one of Lake County’s most decorated squads, regardless of sport, and they have the medals from area, regional and state competitions to prove it.
Talk about your decorated athletes. Catch Berton-Devore, 14, of Lakeport and Tanner Broyles, 13, of Kelseyville are both Level 6 gymnasts who will soon make the jump to Level 9 on a scale of 1-10, Level 10 being collegiate grade. Both are accomplished gymnasts with the hardware (medals and awards) to prove it.
Trey Broyles, 10, of Kelseyville and Alex Fordham, 10, of Kelseyville are Level 5 gymnasts while Phillip Sparkes, 10, of Lakeport is at Level 4.
All five members of the team are required to work out a minimum of six hours a week, a time commitment that only increases as the gymnast works his way up the level ladder. They are all excellent students as well, some attending local schools and others home-schooled.
The guiding force behind Skycatch’s boys competitive team is 45-year-old veteran coach Roger Devore, who has more than 30 years experience in the sport, including 18 years with Skycatch.
Devore is looking for well-rounded individuals who are motivated to achieve academically as well as in the many events that make up the sport — floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar. He’s a stickler for safety above all else in a sport that has a reputation for breaking athletes down both physically as well as mentally.
Devore related a story about a club in San Jose that opened a season with 63 boys and finished with only 11, many of those leaving because of injury, burnout or a combination of the two.
“I’ve never had a broken student,” said Devore, who said safety of his athletes comes before anything else and is never relegated to secondary status. “We are the most dangerous sport on earth that has the best safety program.”
Added Devore, “If you’re breaking them they’re not getting built and that’s what we do at Skycatch … build gymnasts.”
Skycatch’s gymnasts, regardless of age or competitive level, support and encourage each other to succeed. While they all want to do well in their individual events, it’s pretty clear that the team comes first, second and last at Skycatch.
“We want to create a village,” Devore said. “We are a family.”
Gymnasts start young and Story Berton-Devore, 3, is already pretty good at doing forward rolls on the Skycatch mats.
Trey started at age 3 and Tanner at age 5.
While boys gymnastics doesn’t enjoy nearly the popularity or participation numbers as girls gymnastics, there are opportunities to advance to collegiate competition and Skycatch’s coach will help place his athletes when they’re ready to make the jump. He has enough connections within the framework of the sport to make that happen, too.
Skycatch’s athletes compete in area, regional and state meets – basically they’ll go wherever the competition dictates – and that includes some high-profile events, including the Stanford Open (held Jan. 21 in Palo Alto) and at U.C. Berkeley (held on March 4-5).
Trey, Tanner and Catch brought home multiple medals from those events, including firsts in the pommel horse and vault for Catch.
Skycatch athletes also attend camps just like athletes in any other sport, one of the biggest and most prestigious being the Stanford Gymnastics Camp in Palo Alto.
During the NorCal Level 6-10 State Championships held just last weekend in Oroville, Catch won the all-around state championship while combining with teammate Tanner to secure four first-place medals overall. At another competition early in the month at Emeryville, Alex placed second in the pommel horse and fifth in all-around scoring while Trey was third in the floor exercise.
Gymnasts move up a level only when their coach is convinced they are ready to do so and that means a ton of hard work and sweat.
It also takes a dedicated coach.
“You can’t be a hypocrite in this sport,” Devore said. “If you’re asking athletes to do something you can’t do or have never done, they’ll see right through you.”
And Devore is a hands-on coach who leads by example while guiding his athletes through all of their workouts.
“He works hard all the time,” Tanner said as teammate Catch nodded his head in the affirmative.
Skycatch offers gymnastics training to boys and girls of all ages. Call 490-6053 for more information.
