The Parks Brothers 2023 Gymnastics Season

The story I’m about to tell you starts out almost exactly like every other parent’s who has a boy in gymnastics. Our story, however, takes an interesting turn…

10 years ago, we had a 5 year old boy who was always standing on his head, flipping across the furniture, climbing anything he could find and just generally bouncing of the walls with energy. Like any parent would, I started thinking of activities I could put him in that would help focus some of this energy. It was clear that Charlie’s upper body strength and core were exceptionally strong and I just so happened to have had a best guy friend in middle and high school who had been a gymnast so the thought crossed my mind that it might be a good fit for Charlie.

Well, Charlie took to gymnastics like a fish to water. He loved it, thrived in it and seemed made for it. He quickly made it onto a competitive team at 6 years old.

Flash forward to the winter of 2020. We had just moved gyms and Charlie was in his 7th year of competing. His little brother, Tucker, who was now 8, expressed interest in trying gymnastics again (he had done it briefly when he was 6 years old.) Tucker quickly moved from the rec program, to pre team and then onto the competitive team. His first year competing was amazing and he seemed to take to the sport just like his older brother, Charlie. Tucker’s team is now competing for their second year together and they remain undefeated. And individually Tucker has made incredible strides this season and has become a leader on his team.

Sometime in the last year and a half, Charlie and Tucker’s littlest brother, River, the sports junkie of the family, also expressed interest in the gymnastics. We let him try a rec class and he also quickly advanced to preteam and has started his first competitive season this year. Both River and his team are currently undefeated.

It seems that the Parks Brothers were built for gymnastics! Never did we expect to have 3 talented gymnasts under our roof but here we are. I will say, this journey has been priceless. The lessons learned, the friendships, and the memories made are all invaluable. I’m convinced that there is no sport that teaches greater self discipline, that hard work equals reward and that when you fall down it’s okay as long as you get back up and keep going.

We’ve been blessed with the most amazing coaches that pour into our sons all the time as well as with the best friends who are now family that love and support us and our kids.

Gymnastics is so much fun but it is also hard and takes great commitment and effort. It’s also expensive when you have 3 kids competing.

At this point we could really use some help so that Charlie, Tucker and River can finish out their season and make it to Regionals and hopefully Nationals for Charlie.

Your support means that they will be able to help their teams win at their upcoming State Meet (and maybe bring home some more individual trophies), and also that they can represent their gyms, coaches, teams and family as they compete at Regionals and Nationals.

I’m not sure how long this gymnastics journey with all 3 will be able to last but we are ALL greatly appreciative of your help in getting them through the rest of this season and possibly beyond.

Thank you for listening to our story and considering supporting Charlie, Tucker and River. I will continue to post updates on how they do at their remaining competitions so please stay tuned!