A dream 10 years in the making has come true for a Gordon Lee student.
Senior Erika Pearson, a member of the varsity cheerleading squad and one of the Chattanooga area's top gymnasts, recently committed to the University of Alabama.
"It's been pretty exciting," explained Pearson, who had also been recruited by SEC powers Auburn and LSU among others. "I've wanted to go to Alabama to do gymnastics for them since I was seven."
The Crimson Tide is one of the nation's top-ranked gymnastics programs, having finished ranked in the top 10 in the country each year for the past 25 years.
They have captured five SEC championships and 22 NCAA Regional championships. The program has finished in the top four in the nation 21 times and won national championships in 1988, 1991, 1996 and 2002.
This past season, two Alabama gymnasts won NCAA individual titles - freshman Morgan Dennis and junior Terin Humphrey, the 2004 U.S. Olympic silver medalist.
An Alabama gymnast has won at least one NCAA title every year since 2002 and the program's all-time total now stands at 21.
Individually, Alabama gymnasts have earned 218 All-American honors. Another 107 have been named Scholastic All-Americans and 162 more have been Academic All-SEC selections all in the past 30 years under the tutelage of coaches Sarah and David Patterson.
Pearson started taking gymnastics at age seven at the urging of her parents, who felt their daughter's cheerleading skills would benefit with gymnastics training.
Pearson flourished as a gymnast at Chattanooga's Tennessee Academy of Gymnastics and quickly made her way up the ranks, eventually landing a spot on TAG's competition team.
It was then that Pearson began to realize she might have a future in the sport.
"When I was in the advanced classes and (TAG) moved me up to the team, that's when I realized there might be something to this and I've just stuck with it," Pearson said.
But realizing her dream hasn't come without a high price. Gymnasts are some of the most frequently injured athletes in the world and Pearson is no exception.
Her list of injuries is enough to make Evel Knievel wince.
"I've had three surgeries - one on my elbow, one on my ankle and one on my shoulder back in May," she stated. "I've broken both ankles, fractured both ankles, cracked my kneecap and torn knee ligaments. But it comes with the sport. Everyone's going to get hurt playing sports. That's normal."
It's also normal for schools to back off recruiting efforts when dealing with injured athletes. More than 15 top college programs had been recruiting Pearson, but some eased up on their recruitment of her after her latest surgery.
Alabama was not one of them.
On Aug. 15 after a visit by David Patterson, the Gordon Lee senior committed to the Tide and claimed the last spot on the invitation-only roster for the 2008-09 season.
"He said 25 other girls were waiting to hear my decision," Pearson explained. "I committed right then and there."
Pearson took an unofficial visit to the campus last year, but will make her official visit in September, where she will get to meet the rest of squad, spend the night in the dorms and take in a Crimson Tide football game.
Pearson said she had to thank her parents, Tammy and David Pearson, her teammates and her coach, Larry Denham, for sticking with her and pushing her to get to the level where she is now.
She said she wants to be a sports psychologist and added that she can't wait for her first meet as an Alabama gymnast.
"It's going to be exciting," she said. "I'll have my own fan club there whether I compete or not. This is what I've always wanted."
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