When Broadneck High School gymnastics coach Danielle Mayne heard a rumor that the Anne Arundel County school system was discontinuing the sport, she initially laughed, figuring the talk would turn out to be false — as it always had.
The sport had often been beset by aging equipment, struggles to find coaches and waning interest from students. "Every year they said they were going to cancel us," Mayne said, "and then March rolls around, and like a phoenix we rise again and have another great season."
Apparently not this time.
School officials declared gymnastics discontinued in a news release last week that cited the same reasons that had jeopardized its future for years.
Anne Arundel had just five schools participate in gymnastics this spring — Annapolis, Arundel, Broadneck, Old Mill and Severna Park high schools. The school system requires at least half of county schools to field programs to sponsor a sport, and school officials say that five schools is one below the requirement.
County officials said about 90 gymnasts took part in competitions last year, down from about 125 four years ago. And they added that all five schools needed to replace equipment, much of which was purchased in the 1980s from a company that is no longer in business.
Greg LeGrand, Anne Arundel schools' coordinator of athletics, said a consultant to the school system estimated it would cost about $200,000 to replace the equipment, which must meet rigid safety standards.
Faced with the prospect of retooling its final fiscal year 2012 budget proposal this week amid reductions in county funding, the school system opted to discontinue the program.
Anne Arundel's canceling of gymnastics means that Montgomery County is the lone county in the state that offers the sport at the varsity level. Gabriele von Nordheim, athletics specialist for Montgomery County's public schools, said that because only eight schools participate, the sport has a shortened season.
"This has been something that has kind of been a long time coming. Quite honestly, gymnastics has been slowly declining," said LeGrand. "We're one of only two school systems that has any kind of gymnastics program. Everyone else has done away with it years ago."
LeGrand said his department brought the numbers on replacing the equipment to the school system's athletic legislation committee. "They said that we can go either [of] two ways: If we have the money to replace all that equipment, we should try to do it. If not, we should recommend to discontinue it."
LeGrand said that much of the equipment will be donated to two schools that teach gymnastic classes as part of their physical education curriculum — Arundel and South River high schools. Other gymnastics equipment, particularly floor mats, will be used in other sports.
The move comes after the county briefly discontinued gymnastics a couple of years ago after it struggled to find coaches to run programs.
"We just don't have any teachers in our school system that do gymnastics anymore," LeGrand said. "Quite frankly, most physical education teachers have such a limited background in gymnastics, and they don't want to coach it and they don't want to offer it inside their classes. There's no real grass-roots way to keep it going and keep the numbers up."
But those who have taken part in the sport say they are not giving up without a fight. Some, including Severna Park coach Umme Beasley, said they were not notified of the cancellation before the announcement was made to the public. They plan to voice their concerns at Wednesday's board of education meeting, hoping the board will consider reinstating the sport.
"It wasn't surprising to me because almost every single year it seems to be an issue," said Beasley, whose program also featured boys' gymnastics. "It's extremely disappointing; it's a sport that has a lot of interest, and there was never a problem with getting kids."
Severna Park gymnast Sarah Dyckman recently graduated and is upset at the thought of being a member of the school's last gymnastics team. Leading up to graduation, she heard rumors that the program would be in better shape next year.
"We've been told that we would get new equipment and new coaches next year," she said. "I was looking forward to coming back and visiting. It's hard to believe they're canceling it."
But Mayne said rumors that the program would drastically improve persisted as much as those about its demise. She said she's not surprised the latter came true.
"[School officials] had talked about consolidating us all, with the individual schools meeting at one central location. … That might have been a way to cut down on costs," Mayne said. "They talked about trying to figure out a way to pool our resources.
"They were trying as hard as they could to really make this work," said Mayne, whose parents helped launched the program in Anne Arundel schools. "It hurts. It's still kind of hitting me, almost like a death in your family. First you're in shock, you're in disbelief, and then it kind of hits you that it's gone."