CAMAS — Hannah Marquis was 5 years old when she first started gymnastics. She has fond memories of her coach, Carol Willson, back in those early days.
“I remember being able to trust her easily,” said Marquis, now a freshman gymnast for Camas High School. “It’s definitely a big part of the sport. They’re the ones who keep you safe. It’s just really big to be able to trust your coach.”
Today, Marquis and her teammates have a coach they can still trust.
Willson has taken over the Camas program this season, coaching many of the girls she taught when they were newcomers to the sport.
“I was on the edge of doing gymnastics or not,” freshman Emily Karkanen said. “When she said she was going to be the coach, I was in for sure. She is one of the best coaches ever and a great person.”
Junior Hope Richter had taken three years off of gymnastics, to let her body recover from the demands of the sport. She had heard Willson was returning, and that many of her former teammates from club gymnastics were going to compete for the high school program.
“It couldn’t have been a more perfect situation. For me, personally, it was just the right time,” Richter said. “Carol was my coach when I first started out. She was just an amazing person. When I heard she was going to be the coach, it was icing on the cake.”
Willson had been a coach and a judge in the sport for years, and she was considering retirement. That is, until the Camas job opened.
“Truthfully, my heart was with these girls,” Willson said. “I couldn’t pass it up.”
In all, there are nine athletes on the Camas team this season who were coached by Willson between the ages of 5 and 8. Freshmen Riley Truitt, Lexi Sabatini, Ashley Carter, Makenna Neely, and Karina Thiemann, as well as Marquis, Karkanen, Richter, and sophomore Caleigh Lofstead.
“They feel like your own,” Willson said.
Lofstead is the only one who was on the Camas team last season. She qualified for state as an individual. The goal this year is for the Papermakers to make it to state as a team. That is a difficult goal to achieve, though. Only four Class 4A teams make it to the Tacoma Dome’s Exhibition Hall for the state meet.
“It just looks like it would be so much fun. It would be a great experience,” Lofstead said. “It would be so much better to have everyone there.”
With such an infusion of young talent, the Papermakers have started the season with impressive wins. Camas even topped Class 3A powerhouse Columbia River last month.
“It would just be so exciting to make it as a team,” Willson said. “Mostly for them. They are, in every sense of the word, a team. They are all so close in ability. There is not one superstar.”
Whether they make it to state as a team or not, they are enjoying this season as a team — again.
“It’s been a lot of fun, getting back with everybody,” Sabatini said. “It’s been kind of crazy, trying to get all our skills back. It’s been fun with everyone. It’s like old times again.”
Richter, the oldest of the ones who were coached by Willson back in the day, is sometimes referred to as the team’s mother. That’s OK by her.
“The girls are like family to me,” Richter said. “Every moment is filled with laughter and smiles. Even when it’s tough, we pull through together.”
That unity was born years ago, with Willson teaching young girls how to deal with a challenging sport.
“She was definitely my favorite coach,” Truitt said. “She made me feel real comfortable in the gym.”
Carter called Willson “comforting and reassuring.”
Neely said her confidence has grown under Willson’s coaching.
“She always told me I could do it,” she said. “I always put myself down, but she was always positive and always believed in me.”
Willson made such a positive impact on so many gymnasts when they were younger that they wanted to experience it again.
The Camas Papermakers have brought the team back together.
