North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Seaman Steps Up Into Leadership Role
3/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Junior gymnast Taylor Seaman has always enjoyed working with younger kids. Growing up, she was generally the oldest gymnast at her club, the acting role model for younger members.
As a big sister, she did her part to take care of her younger brother, Carson.
And, as an elementary education major at NC State, she plans to spend a career teaching young children. In fact, she already spends one day a week at a Wake County elementary school as part of her student teaching duties.
So at the beginning of this season, when Wolfpack gymnastics coach Mark Stevenson asked her to take on more of a leadership role for the team, Seaman kind of knew how to handle fresh faces.
“I’ve always taken on the role of role model, because I was always the oldest, in my gym and in my family,” Seaman said. “That’s what I have always wanted to do.”
So it was natural for Stevenson to want Seaman to show more leadership qualities as the Wolfpack welcomed six freshmen onto its roster. He needed her to show them the ins and outs of competitive team gymnastics, which is quite different from the individual-based sport they grew up with at their local gyms.
It was a lesson that Seaman had to learn when she first arrived from Greensburg, Pa. Fortunately for her, the Wolfpack’s junior class had capable leaders like Leigha Hancock, Heather Zolton and Kelsey Lee to help make her transition to collegiate gymnastics smooth. She excelled, winning EAGL Rookie of the Week honors four times that first season.
She continued to perform well last year, earning first-team All-EAGL honors on the floor and bars and second team on the vault and all-around. But she never had to be a leader on the team until this season.
Heading into this weekend’s EAGL Championship hosted by NC State at Reynolds Coliseum, beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday Seaman has lived up to her own and Stevenson’s expectations.
In competition, it has been her best season to date, replacing well-accomplished Hancock as the Pack’s top gymnast. She has recorded the top scores of her career in the vault and floor and has scored at least 39.275 in the all-around in five meets. She’s also earned three EAGL Gymnast of the Week awards.
More importantly, she has helped guide one of the youngest Wolfpack teams in recent memory into a position to compete for another EAGL Championship. Three of the freshmen have started in every meet in 2009, including five-time EAGL Freshman of the Week winner Brooke Barr.
“Last year, Taylor didn’t have to be a leader, because there were still a lot of juniors and seniors on the team,” Stevenson said. “This year has been a learning process for her to step up and be a leader, the person who is not only the best gymnast on the team, but also the person who is at the gym every day for practice and guiding all the younger gymnasts at the meets.
“She has done an extremely good job of it.”
It’s been more challenging than Seaman expected, as she tries to work around her student-teaching responsibilities. She won’t do her final student teaching for another two years, after she has completed her eligibility as a student-athlete. But she still has to go to a local elementary school once a week for student teacher training, and that sometimes plays havoc with her practice schedule.
To bide her time, Seaman recently added a second major to her course-load, in sports management.
This weekend, however, Seaman is focused on helping the Wolfpack win its fourth EAGL title. It’s the third time since the conference began that the championship meet has been held in Raleigh.
“I am so excited for this meet,” Seaman said. “It’s an opportunity to be at home and compete against all of our rivals at the same meet. We’ve faced a two or three of them at different meets, but now we are all on the same playing field, and this is a good time for us.
“We had some falls earlier in the season, but now we are peaking at the right time.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
