Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Feb. 12, 2015
Remains dedicated
East senior supports teammates despite season-ending injury
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Tuesday night’s Senior Night for the West Bend East
gymnastics team was supposed to be a joyous moment.
It still was, but with a different approach.
Senior Paige Bintz has been sidelined all season with an
elbow injury and her chance of returning this season are slim.
She’s holding out hope, but her doctors aren’t as
optimistic.
“They said it’s a very hard injury to come back from,” Bintz
said.
About a week before the season started, Bintz fell off the
balance beam. She ruptured the ulnar collateral ligament, on the medial side of
the arm in her left elbow.
To repair the ligament, Bintz had two options: surgery or
rehab.
The surgery would have been Tommy John surgery, most often
associated with baseball pitchers. The injury typically sidelines a
professional athlete at least a year. It is named after the first baseball
player to undergo the surgery, major league pitcher Tommy John, whose 288
career victories ranks seventh all-time among left-handed pitchers.
She passed on the surgery, opting for physical therapy.
“It’s going to take a long time,” Bintz said.
Nonetheless, the injury news was devastating.
“I cried a bit,” Bintz said. “I felt down a bit.”
Bintz is the lone senior on the Suns’ roster and hoped for a
big season in her last go-round of high school gymnastics.
She also had high hopes for the team, with a lineup of depth
and talent good enough to challenge for the program’s first Wisconsin Little
Ten Conference championship since 2006.
The conference championship is still a possibility, but
things changed when Bintz injured her elbow.
“It’s one of the saddest things you have to witness as a
coach,” East coach Haley Ransom said. “Paige was such a performer. She did
dance and tumbling troupe for years and that really brings out the performer in
gymnastics. That’s why she’s so good on floor. And to not get to see her is so
sad.”
Bintz’s strongest events are floor exercise and balance
beam. With Bintz’s experience as a tumbler, the Suns took a hit on floor with
her out of the lineup.
“She set the stage,” Ransom said. “She showed them how to
perform, how to get through a floor routine.
“Not having her out there has definitely put a hole in our
team.”
When Bintz got the news her senior season was not going to
happen, instead she’d have to watch from the side, it was devastating.
She struggled to watch the first meet of the season — the
West Bend East Invitational. She also wondered how she’d make it through the
entire season.
That’s where her character took over.
“I knew I had to be here for my team,” Bintz said. “I love
this team; they’re like sisters to me. I couldn’t imagine not being here,
injury or not.” This season, Bintz has been the model of dedication for the
Suns.
“She is the biggest supporter for someone who’s had to sit
for her senior season and stand on the sidelines,” Ransom said. “The girls call
her the third coach.
“She’s here in practice every single day. She helps every
single girl in any way she can. She watches their floor routines; she works
with their showmanship, their jumps, with their tumbling, anything she can.”
As the season has progressed, it has gotten easier to be on
the side watching her team work toward a goal — a conference championship.
On Tuesday night against Hartford Union, a large poster with
pictures and her name scribbled onto it was on display. Plus, members of the
Suns’ gymnastics team wore T-shirts that read “We love our senior.”
“She always brings a positive attitude,” teammate Erica
Fahrenkrug said. “She’s always helpful at practice. She’s always been a part of
our team. There wasn’t anything different.”
Still, it was a bittersweet day.
“It’s always tough because I always wish I was out on the
floor or on the beam because those were my two favorite events,” Bintz said.
“But I really enjoy cheering on the girls. They are so sweet; they do such an
amazing job.
“Of course, I wish I was out there, but I’m having a blast
cheering them on.”
The Suns appear to be the top contender to challenge rival
West Bend West for the conference championship at the Feb. 20 WLT Championship
in Oconomowoc.
A trip to state is also an attainable goal.
“We have such a strong team,” Bintz said.
She added, while disliking the idea of sounding arrogant,
her experience could only boost the Suns’ chances at their goals.
“It does kind of hurt not being able to compete,” Bintz
said.
Her presence is plenty good enough. It brings a smile to
everyone’s face in the gym.
“We tell her how much we appreciate that she’s still there,”
Fahrenkrug said. “We still have a lot of fun. She always comes with a smile
every day.”
Ransom added, “It’s a testament to her character.”
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