SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) – For 30 years, Les Coin has been a steadfast leader in the South Dakota High School gymnastics community. Now he’s trying to process the abrupt end of gymnastics in Sioux Falls.
“It hurts,” Coin told KELOLAND News on Thursday. “I don’t even know if I’ve really engaged with it just because I’ve been trying to engage and not think about it. I couldn’t even say goodbye to my kids.”
On Monday, the Sioux Falls school board voted to tentatively adopt a budget for the 2023-2024 school year that cuts gymnastics entirely. The decision comes a month after both coaches and gymnasts were told there was a possibility of the sport being removed. Coin, head coach of the Lincoln and Washington High School teams, said that he and Kevin Knapp, head coach of the Roosevelt and Jefferson High School gymnastics teams, had heard nothing from the school board in the months leading up to the decision.
Les Coin and LHS gymnast Anna Leuning.
“We had requested meetings to find solutions… But there was never that discussion,” Coin said.
Before the start of the 2022-2023 season, Coin and Knapp were briefed on a potential partnership between the district and All American Gymnastics Academy to provide all four high schools with a place to practice. Coin said he was told that all equipment, some of which was paid for by donations from parents, would be given to the private gymnastics club and eventually an addition would be built to the space dedicated solely to high school gymnastics at the gym .
“We were told that we had to train in All American for a year, and we would train at 5:30 a.m. or 7 p.m., and we would do that for a year,” Coin explained.
This potential move cost Lincoln High School their assistant coach, who was no longer able to assist the team by the time, as well as several gymnasts who lacked transportation from Washington and Jefferson to the city’s far south.
South Dakota gymnast helps lead Oklahoma to back-to-back national titles
Eventually the solution was dropped after the coaches refused to sign the contracts without any guarantee as to what it would mean for their equipment and if or when this additional facility would be built. Between fall 2022 and spring 2023, Coin said he had no indication the sport was in danger of being shut down entirely.
“All of a sudden, a few weeks into a state tournament, Kevin and I were pulled into a meeting and told that the Budget Committee recommends cutting back on gymnastics,” Coin said.
“Your decision has already been made”
The Sioux Falls School Board and district spokesman cited declining enrollment numbers as one of the reasons for shutting down the sport. Coin said that in his 20 years as a coach in the Sioux Falls school district, the number of kids participating in the sport was never an issue.
“I don’t think it should be based on numbers because that’s not what this work is about,” Coin said. “You can have 150 kids on the sidelines of a football game, but how many kids are actually playing? Do you know how many kids play on my team? 100% Not many sports can claim that.”
SFSD looks at more than just participating in the gymnastics program
The district told KELOLAND News in March that the declining number of girls in the sport was being compared to new sports being offered, in which there was greater interest.
“Softball has shown strong participation rates. Due to the increased attendance of over 60 students this year, the board will be considering approving a girls’ wrestling coach,” said multimedia specialist Tory Stolen.
Coin pushed back on the number of participants and also cited the structure of the gymnastics. At each event, Coin explained that only five girls compete in addition to one all-around gymnast. This means that in smaller teams, everyone gets a chance to take part in every competition.
“I only had seven kids on my team in Rapid City and we were state champions,” Coin said.
Lincoln High School gymnastics team.
In addition to participation, the district and school board cited the cost of the program as a need to cut back on the sport.
“The annual cost of gymnastics is approximately $95,000, with an estimate of an additional $260,000 to $300,000 in new equipment needed in the near term, and more over the next few years as it becomes available in every high school.” ‘ Stolen told KELOLAND News in March.
But Coin said some of the equipment at Lincoln was paid for by the gymnasts’ parents.
“When I started, it was foam block floors when I moved here to Sioux Falls. Then we say, ‘No, no, no, we need a spring floor.’ And the parents were like, ‘How much?'” Coin said.
Coin said that during his time with Lincoln, the parents paid for two safes and the payment and two floors built. He added that if properly cared for, equipment can last for years before needing to be replaced.
So what is the district funding going to the sport for?
“It has to be used mostly for coaching and travel and things like that because there’s really no equipment (cost),” Coin said.
Coaches, gymnasts fight to save high school gymnastics in Sioux Falls
During discussions of the new budget, some parents and coaches suggested raising the money needed to sustain gymnastics in the district. School Board Vice President Carly Reiter said, “…we need to be able to deliver a program at a level that is fully funded and doesn’t rely on parents, students or private donors to keep it going.”
Some sports, like powerlifting, are primarily funded by fundraisers from athletes and parents. Reiter told KELOLAND News Thursday that gymnastics can’t do the same because it’s a sport sanctioned by the South Dakota High School Activities Association, unlike powerlifting, which is a club sport.
“All sports/activities require some level of fundraising, while club sports often have a play/participation fee that helps cover the cost of that activity,” Reiter wrote via email.
For the past month, Coin, along with current and former gymnasts and coaches from across South Dakota, have attended school board meetings to persuade the board to save their sport. Coin said he felt the board was “moving its goal further” as backers offered solutions for participation and funding.
“You get the sense that they’ve already made up their minds and that this was just a process that carried through to the budget hearing,” Coin said.
What’s Next for Gymnastics in South Dakota?
With the slashing of gymnastics at Sioux Falls schools just months after Rapid City suspended their gymnastics program, other high schools in the state are automatically losing four more competitors. For O’Gorman High School, they lose their main source of local competition.
“You (O’Gorman) must find new encounters. You have to find new triangles, new duels. There is no more Lolly Forseth Invitational,” Coin said.
The Lolly Forseth Invitational, named for South Dakota Hall of Famer Lolly Forseth, was an annual citywide competition between all Sioux Falls schools.
Now that the state’s largest county is shutting down the sport, Coin worries about the impact the decision will have on smaller schools in the years to come.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if three years from now we’re sitting here and going, ‘Oh, they just shut down the sport in the state,'” Coin said. “Because if Sioux Falls can’t make it work, if Rapid City can’t make it work, how do you expect places like Chamberlain, Britton-Hecla, you know those little towns, to make it work?”
Coin is also concerned about what will happen to current gymnasts, especially in middle school, who were looking forward to enjoying the sport in an affordable way.
“I’m not saying gymnastics is a top sport or golf isn’t a sport, but they’re both very expensive,” Coin said. “There comes a time for families when they have to make a decision: Am I going to spend $400 or $500 a month on gymnastics if my child can go to high school for free?”
Several middle school gymnasts that KELOLAND News spoke to hope to enroll in the high school program in the fall to relieve their families of the financial burden that club gymnastics can place on some. Coin hopes Sioux Falls gymnasts will be able to find other high school activities to participate in after their main sport is discontinued.
When asked if he thinks gymnastics could be revived in the district years later, Coin was hesitant.
“Not from what the school board said. It’s pretty much — I mean, it’s pretty much a done deal,” Coin said. “Every school has a gymnastics room, which is taken over by all kinds of sports [or] Activities that they put in there… We would have no home to return to.”
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