Posted: Tuesday, December 7, 2010 9:15 am | Updated: 11:34 am, Tue Dec 7, 2010.
By COREY ROEPKEN
Grant Perdue never had been in a bigger spot.
There he was – the last competitor on the floor exercise at the 2007 Junior Olympics. The kid before him had scored a 9.825 to take the lead. If Perdue wanted to be a Level 9 national champion he had to be flawless.
That spot is like standing in the batter’s box in the bottom of the ninth and having to hit a home run for your team to win. It’s like shooting a game-deciding free throw with no time on the clock but having to swish it for it to count.
The old Grant Perdue would have been out of his mind. The new Grant Perdue was captivated by the moment.
“There was just something about that meet,” Perdue said. “I had this strange confidence that I never had before.”
Perdue performed his routine, coach Kevin Mazeika said, virtually perfectly and scored a 9.9 to become national champion for the first time.
“From that point we realized this kid was really special,” said Mazeika, Perdue’s coach at Houston Gymnastics Academy and USA Gymnastics’ national team coordinator. “He had all the tools to do this sport at the highest level. He has taken off from there.”
Taken off is the best general description for what the Elkins High School senior has done, but there are plenty of specifics to go with it. Most notably, he has signed a National Letter of Intent with the University of Nebraska men’s gymnastics team...READ MORE