Local gymnasts get free rides

Six athletes earn scholarships to Division I schools.Six athletes who train at SCATS Gymnastics in Huntington Beach recently signed full scholarships to NCAA Division I schools.

The athletes are Ashley Jenkins (UCLA), Nicole Day (UC Berkeley), Mandi Rodriguez (Oregon State), Amy Defilippo (Arkansas), Jason Chu (Penn State) and Jonathan Grey (U.S. Military Academy at West Point).

“We have had some great accomplishments at SCATS, putting five kids on the same Olympic Team in 1984 and producing 59 U.S. National Team members, for example, but never in our storied history have we had this much success in one year as far as securing scholarships,” said Don Peters, SCATS director and head coach.

“This is a testimony to the hard work of these kids and their coaches. Feng Yu, Tim Rogers and Erica Purtell did an outstanding job with the girls, and coaches Albert Achvian and Grigor Chalikyan have taken our boys’ team to the top in California.”

In other news from SCATS:

Shavahn Church, 16, was recently selected to the British World Championship team. She leaves Sunday with Peters and Yu for the 2005 World Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia.

Five-time U.S. All Around Champion, three-time Olympian and Olympic medalist Blaine Wilson has been added to SCATS coaching staff. Wilson, who recently retired from the U.S. team, is working with the level 7 to 10 girls and will assist coaches Achvian and Chalikyan with the SCATS upper-level boys team.