Snyder takes the lead

Conant senior Jon Snyder doesn't take gymnastics lightly.

Snyder, the Cougars top all-arounder, approaches gymnastics with an intensity that isn't easy to find at the high school level.

"Jon Snyder is a big competitor," said Conant coach Paul Kim. "He loves gymnastics. Gymnastics is his life at this point."

Once a meet begins, Snyder is all business. His focus and desire has made him the second-best all-around gymnast in the Mid Suburban League as he regularly tops 52 points.

With only six gymnasts on varsity, the Cougars depend heavily on Snyder in every meet.

"I think everyone looks up to me in one aspect or another," he said. "There's a lot of added pressure. I'm always expected to be one of the best on every event. My score counts on every event."

Not just a top point scorer, Snyder's teammates also look to him for inspiration.

"He's normally the one that gets us all together and ready and tells what we have to work on, how we're doing," said sophomore Anthony Crivolio.

High bar is one of Conant's weakest events and the event almost killed the Cougars at last weeks' MSL conference meet. Conant kicked off the meet with the high bar and its first three gymnasts all struggled. With the Cougars' confidence sagging, Snyder stepped up and delivered a career-best 9.45. His performance helped settle down Conant, which finished second that day.

"He's a team leader," Kim said. "He needs to have a good meet. If he has a good meet, we have a good meet. That puts a lot of pressure on him but he knows that he carries that weight."

Snyder, an admitted perfectionist, also uses a great deal of emotion while throwing his tricks. Sometimes, his emotions can get the best of him. After one poor routine, Snyder kicked a shoe halfway across an adjoining gym.

"He's very emotional and a great competitor," said Kim. "He gets frustrated at himself because he knows he can hit these sets and if he doesn't hit it, it kind of carries over. But he's pretty good at shaking it off."

Snyder's mood oftentimes gets transferred to his teammates.

"If he gets mad, we get a little mad too," Crivolio said. "And when he's in a good mood, then we're in a good mood too. Because if he's doing good and we're doing good, we're all happy."

With only one more guaranteed meet left on Conant's schedule, Kim said that the Cougars need everything Snyder can give them if they hope to advance past the Lake Park sectional.

"I'm hoping that this week in practice he'll encourage all the other guys," said Kim after the MSL meet. "He did really well and needs to bring the rest of his team with him."

Meadows begins turnaround: It's been over a decade since Rolling Meadows was a force in boys gymnastics, but that might soon be changing.

Coach Chris Cassidy has been working with the local park district to create a feeder program to help provide sustained success for the Mustangs.

"You have to have a feeder program," he said. "And/or if you have kids coming in as freshman who want to become good as a varsity team in three or four years, they have to become gymnasts and only gymnasts."

With a partnership recently put into place, Cassidy is hopeful that Rolling Meadows can get back to where it was in the late 1980's and early 1990's, when the Mustangs were annual state contenders.

Nearly 20 years later, Rolling Meadows has a young group of gymnasts who have a chance to make their mark.

The Mustangs' future hopes largely hinge on the development of freshman Marc Herff. As the first gymnast to come to Meadows with club experience in 30 years, Herff has been the team's top all-arounder from the start.

"He's definitely stepping it up and bringing up our game," said senior captain Riley Albers. "Because he's here, everybody else is getting better too. He helps raise the level of competition. He's definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with by the time he's a senior."

Along with the continued improvements of junior Mike Medsker and sophomore Bart Zawada, a Meadows' resurgence might not be too far off.