Dior Williams '24 Recruiting Profile

Gymnastics is a sport that has been around for thousands of years. Over the years it has become a more challenging and popular sport. From a young child, I used to watch Gabby Douglas on television with excitement. Gabby Douglas is an African American gymnast who won a gold medal in London. I knew from a young age that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel the world and win medals just like her. I thought I wanted to be a gymnast from all of the things she was doing so I decided to start flipping for the Jesse White Summer Camp in 2014. The Jesse White Tumblers were founded in 1959 to provide a positive alternative outlook for Chicago kids. Team members must stay away from gangs, drugs, alcohol, stay in school and maintain a minimum “C” average to participate. Flipping is an enjoyable sport for me to make many friends, and meet respectable coaches. 

I joined many gymnastics centers but I realized I was only passionate about tumbling. I didn't know I could just flip until my coach told me. I wasn’t the best at the time but Coach Netta saw I was passionate about tumbling and wanted me on her team. I joined the Jesse White Tumbling team in 2019 and was on level 4. I was only doing two back handsprings at the time and I had to work my way up to get to a higher level. During Covid-19, I got recruited to another team called Precision. The gym was bigger than I was used to and felt a little overwhelming at the time but I was ready to tackle new challenges. I still got to flip with Coach Netta and my new coach. Coach Chris was sweet and respectful with all of the students he was coaching. It was Coach Chris's first-time having a team of his own. The team worked hard as individuals and as a team. I was on level 4 for a while then I moved up to level 5. 

Level 5 was more difficult so I had to practice even more and put my all into practice. Over the years I won many competitions. My team started traveling all around to go to many different places to compete. During practice, I had to wake up early and practice for 4 hours with one break. When I went to competitions it was never diverse; it was predominantly white whenever I competed. After so many competitions gone by championship was the competition I took seriously because that determined if I would get to go to nationals. Around the championship, I worked hard the whole month up until that day. It was a sad and happy day for most people because if you placed you could go to nationals, and if you didn’t that was it until the next year. I placed 3rd place in the competition and I knew I was going to nationals. My whole team made it to nationals. That whole month my coaches only wanted us to focus on nationals. Nationals week came and my family had to fly to Utah for the weekend. Coach Chris was very proud because I made it to nationals for the first time on his team. Being on his team taught me to be humble because I know where I came from and because I know what I can do to be better. Doing power tumbling also taught me to be proud of what I accomplished regardless of the results. I also remind myself all the time I have always had to work hard to get what I want.