Nancy Smith marks 50 years as instructor at the YMCA
Some of Nancy Smith’s best memories were made in the gymnastics room of the YMCA.
Nancy Smith of Dover recently marked 50 years with the gymnastics program at the Tuscarawas County YMCA as an instructor. She has been involved as a child since the 1960s when the YMCA offered a class that was a combination of dance, gymnastics and fitness.
“I just liked it, and then it turned into a gymnastics team,” Smith said.
The team then went to a competition in Canton.
“That was it. The bug got me, and I loved it,” Smith said.
She said she remembers doing acrobatics when she was little and enjoyed watching the sport on the Olympics.
“I was infatuated with it,” Smith said. Her parents would always let her know when gymnastics were on television.
Early on the Y program just had a handful of girls and coaches.
“Back then it was each one teach one. If you learned something, you taught it to somebody else,” Smith said. “We started getting more and more kids, and then we started having gymnastics classes. And still it was, even though I was in middle school or high school, if you learned something, you taught somebody else. We just all worked together.”
The teachers and helpers were all volunteers, and parents helped too. The sport eventually grew to include other competitions including regionals and districts. Smith also was a member of the Y-ettes, a group of young women who became leaders at the Y.
“We had meetings, and they taught us how to teach,” Smith said. “I actually started out in the eighth grade, so that would be 1968.”
As an adult Smith began working as an instructor in gymnastics at the YMCA in 1975 while she was still attending college at Kent State University in Kent.
“I would be coming home on weekends or certain holidays, and I would run clinics and help with classes,” Smith said. “The classes were pretty well-developed by then.”
Smith became a gymnastics judge through the college gymnastics program.
“They encouraged us to also go out and help with different programs around Kent,” Smith said. “Every Friday night, Kent State had a program where all the gymnastics team taught classes for the community, and then they encouraged us to help judge.”
Smith obtained her judging certificate.
“On weekends we would go load up a bunch of girls, and we all go to a meet and judge the meet,” Smith said.
Smith said in 1975 the Y had very little equipment, a couple of beams and no floor mat. At the time the gymnastics room had yet to be built. It was completed in the 1980s.
“We had to move mats around to tumble. We didn’t have a big floor mat like the one we have now,” Smith said.
Every night the gymnasts had to put up all the equipment because the room was used for other classes.
Smith teaches students age 2-18. She said she enjoys it when former students return to volunteer.
Every year the Y team has girls who qualify to compete at the national competition.
Smith encourages children to try gymnastics.
“Sign up for a session and see if you like it. We also have open gyms on Friday nights,” Smith said.
At the open gym, there is no class, but teachers and spotters are present to allow those interested to see what the room and sport is about.
Teaching gymnastics makes Smith happy.
“I love working with the kids. And I can say when I come in, if I’m in a bad mood, by the time I leave, I’m good,” Smith said.
The YMCA wasn’t all that kept Smith busy. She is a former math teacher with Dover City Schools and raised four children. She also met her husband at the YMCA and taught her grandchildren how to do gymnastics at “Grandma’s Gym.”
Smith can still do a split and a cartwheel, thanks to her 50 years at the YMCA.
“I’m very grateful for the Y. It’s the people and the Y values that are really important,” Smith said. “It is most rewarding when former students come back, and they have good memories. A lot of the kids have come back and made comments. It’s really heartwarming and makes it all worth it.”