School and Gym Balance the Key to a Little Success

Spending weeks away from home and school mixed with the pressure of performing on the world stage is a daunting prospect for any athlete. For WAIS-AIS gymnast and Year 11 student Emily Little, the relationship between WAIS Athlete and Career Education services and Churchlands Senior High School has allowed her to balance gym and school and arrive home with a Commonwealth Games gold medal.

Little – who was competing in her first Commonwealth Games – came away with a gold medal from the teams competition and an individual all-around silver medal behind WAIS-AIS training partner Lauren Mitchell.

Following the Commonwealth Games Little travelled to Rotterdam, Netherlands to compete for Australia in the Gymnastics World Championships. Australia punched above their weight to finish sixth – in a performance that now ranks the Aussies amongst the world’s best.

But whilst the quietly spoken Emily Little has been competing around the world her study commitments have carefully been placed on hold, a fact that owes a lot to the diligent work of WAIS ACE coordinator Jenny Marsh and Churchlands Senior High School WAIS elite athlete coordinator Melanie Jasper.

Marsh and Jasper are assigned the task of planning work flow, re-arranging study schedules and making sure that athletes like Emily Little have the flexibility to excel both in school and competition.

This role – according to WAIS Head of Gymnastic Liz Chetkovich – forms a crucial part of the success achieved through the WAIS and Churchlands Senior High School partnership, that now stretches well over a decade.

“The link between Melanie and Jenny Marsh makes sure that the girls can get through their school combined with their training,” Chetkovich said. “Melanie smoothes it all over with the teachers and makes sure she’s (Emily) not under too much pressure at the wrong times, whilst Jen nurtures that relationship.”

“The school really supports elite development of its students even outside of the school, which is really quite remarkable,” Chetkovich said.

An example of that support occurred just this week, with Churchlands Senior High School arranging a welcome home assembly for Emily, which included video highlights of Little competing for Australia, backgrounded by generous applause from her colleagues.

No less remarkable were Little’s performances for Australia in itself. Chetkovich hailed Little’s consistency, likening her to the team’s heartbeat.

“She was like the team pace setter,” quipped Chetkovich. “She went up first on a lot of the apparatus, because she is really steady and generally unflappable.”

“From Commonwealth Games and Worlds she performed about 13 routines and made only one mistake, which for a first year senior is really quite special,” she said.

Chetkovich who was present at the Churchlands Senior High School function said the reaction from Little’s class mates were worth the effort.

“They were very enthusiastic in cheering her, when they watched the routine there were lots of gasps and oohs and aahs, it was really nice.”