June Athlete of the Month: Dorothy Kay Boehmer
Hi everyone, Coach Katie here with our June Athlete of the Month spotlight. We are now on month ten of our twelve-month celebration recognizing incredible athletes as we build toward our 20th anniversary in August. This month, we’re proud to highlight an athlete who somehow manages to do everything, and do all of it well. Our June Athlete of the Month is Dorothy Kay Boehmer.
Meet Dorothy
Dorothy has been coming to Gem City for over a decade, and in that time she has gone from recreational classes to competing on three teams simultaneously. That’s not a typo. Dorothy is currently on the tumbling team, the gymnastics team, and the senior all-star cheer squad, all at once. She’ll be a senior at Pittsfield High School next year and turns seventeen next month.
Dorothy was nominated by her tumbling coach, Zeke Cernea. Zeke said: “Dorothy is a great athlete and a hard worker. What makes her stand out the most is her leadership skills and her ability to set an example for her teammates. At every practice and competition, she goes about her business in a positive, respectful, and professional way which serves as a solid example for younger and less experienced athletes to emulate. I am proud to have her on my team and look forward to watching her succeed on the floor and in life.”
All In, All the Time
Dorothy has been a competitive tumbler and gymnast for six years and an all-star cheerleader for three. When I asked her to reflect on her time on team, she had a hard time separating one memory from another because so much of it blends together. That’s what years of full commitment looks like.
She doesn’t just compete. Dorothy also coaches and works birthday parties on weekends. And she makes the commute from Pittsfield to Quincy for practices, which for most of the past year she’s been doing on her own since getting her license. Before that, she usually carpooled with a few others. Either way, the drive gets made.
More Than Just the Gym
If you thought the gym schedule alone was enough to fill a week, Dorothy’s school life would surprise you. She is a member of show choir, chorus, and band, where she plays the trumpet. She’s also a football cheerleader at Pittsfield High. Earlier this year, she was inducted into the National Honor Society. Her favorite subject is science, which makes sense since she wants to become a dental hygienist one day.
When I asked how she manages all of it, she just laughed. That laugh said everything. Dorothy approaches her life with a kind of lightness that makes it easy to forget how much she’s actually carrying.
The Fun Stuff
Dorothy’s sense of humor came through clearly in our conversation. She sometimes laughs out loud before she even finishes answering a question, which tells you a lot about how she sees her own life.
Some of her favorite memories include a tumbling meet in Florida a few years back, a Disney World trip with her school band, and a moment during outside conditioning with the tumbling team when a sudden downpour sent everyone running inside completely soaked. She said everyone was laughing so hard they had to take time to dry off before practice could even resume. That one stuck with her.
On the food front, Dorothy frequents Culver’s regularly, which makes sense given how many trips she makes to Quincy each week. She is firm about one thing: no cheese on her burgers. She also discovered that ordering a kids’ meal gets you a free ice cream, so she does exactly that. Her preferred move is dipping the fried cheese curds into the custard. Hard to argue with that.
She loves music and listens to all kinds on her drives. One favorite is Toto, which genuinely surprised me. She can also whistle full songs, which is its own kind of skill.
A Gem City Story
Dorothy has three younger brothers and a schedule that would exhaust most adults. But when she talks about the gym, there’s no complaint in it. She said the gym is her life, and she didn’t say it with resignation. She said it with a smile.
That’s the kind of athlete Dorothy is. She shows up, she leads, she coaches, she works the parties, she makes the drive, and she does all of it with a good attitude. You can find her before practice in the back office laughing with friends, playing with the coaches’ kids, or helping out at the front desk. We love having her around.
It’s athletes like Dorothy that remind us why we do this. Recreational athletes grow into team athletes, team athletes become coaches, and somewhere along the way they become part of the fabric of this place. We are so proud of Dorothy and can’t wait to watch her take on her senior year.
Congratulations to our Athlete of the Month, Dorothy Kay Boehmer.
Click to read an extended version
June has arrived and we have one of our last few athletes to introduce you to as we near our 20th anniversary month in August! Coach Katie would like you all to meet Dorothy Kay Boehmer, our June Athlete of the Month!
Dorothy has been coming to Gem City for over a decade. In that time, she’s grown from taking recreational classes to being on the maximum number of teams possible at one time! Dorothy is on three competitive teams from our gym alone: tumbling team, gymnastics team, and senior all-star cheer squad. Dorothy was nominated this month by her tumbling coach, Zeke Cernea. Zeke says, “Dorothy is a great athlete and a hard worker. What makes her stand out the most is her leadership skills and her ability to set an example for her teammates. At every practice and competition, she goes about her business in a positive, respectful, and professional way which serves as a solid example for younger and less experienced athletes to emulate. I am proud to have her on my team and look forward to watching her succeed on the floor and in life.”
Dorothy will be a senior at Pittsfield High School next year, and looking back on her career at GCGT she almost has a hard time differentiating between all the different meets, practices, and memories because they all blend together! We were able to figure out that she’s been a competitive tumbler and gymnast for six years and an all-star cheerleader for three years. What an accomplishment for a 16-year-old! Granted, she’ll be 17 next month! Living in Pittsfield does make it quite the commute when coming to so many team practices at the gym. Along with practices, Dorothy also coaches and works birthday parties on the weekends too! Dorothy says she really doesn’t have many hobbies because the gym is her life and she doesn’t have much free time during the school year! She did say this with a huge smile on her face.
As if she didn’t have enough to do, Dorothy is also extremely involved at school. She is a member of show choir, chorus, band (she plays the trumpet), and is a football cheerleader. We honestly don’t know how she manages so much with such grace! She was also inducted into the National Honor Society earlier this year! At school Dorothy likes science but isn’t the biggest fan of her math class at present. She does want to one day be a dental hygienist, so she does know the science will come in handy!
When talking with Dorothy, it’s clear how much she appreciates the things she is able to do. She is very thoughtful of her answers when I ask her questions, and she laughs out loud sometimes before she even answers, which shows how lighthearted and fun she views her life at times. Some of the more fun memories she has are going to a tumbling meet in Florida a few years ago, getting to go to Disney on a band trip for school, and recently she was outside the gym conditioning with the tumbling team and it started raining – like a downpour – and they all had to run inside; however, the downpour happened so quickly that they all came inside soaking wet and then had to take time to dry off before they could even resume practice inside! She said this is one of her favorite memories to date on team because it was so unexpected and everyone was laughing so hard!
Dorothy has three younger brothers. Her favorite fast food, which she frequents quite often due to her traveling to Quincy five days a week for practice, is Culver’s. She made it very clear that she does not like cheese on her burgers! She also wanted to share a tidbit about Culver’s. If you get a kid’s meal, you get a free ice cream; therefore, she makes sure to do this in order to get a sweet treat to go with her meal. She said she hates when nuts and caramel are on her ice cream. Her favorite way to eat Culver’s ice cream, which is custard, is to dip the fried cheese curds into the ice cream!
Another fun fact I learned about Dorothy is that she loves music and to whistle! She can whistle full songs! She says she listens to all kinds of music on her drives to Quincy. A favorite is Toto! This blew me away! Dorothy usually isn’t alone on her drives. She tends to carpool with a few others on her trips to gym, so she usually has company. For the past year though she has been coming to gym on her own since she got her license. Dorothy is one that you can find hanging around the gym or in the back office before practice either laughing with friends, playing with coach’s kids, or even helping out in the front office! We love having Dorothy around.
It’s because of athletes like Dorothy that we love coming to the gym each day. Our recreational athletes turn into team athletes that sometimes turn into employees and then become your friend over time. We’re proud to know Dorothy and so proud to be part of her journey as she starts up her senior year!
