Arlotta doing it all for Panthers gymnastics team

Some of you may have read ‘Dre’s Diary’ on the Pittsburgh Panthers Web site, seen her compete… Some of you may have read ‘Dre’s Diary’ on the Pittsburgh Panthers Web site, seen her compete at Fitzgerald Field House or watched the feature about her on FSN Tuesday evening.

But who really is this girl making such a stir in the collegiate gymnastics scene?

Andrea Arlotta is one of the top all-around gymnasts in the Eastern Atlantic Gymnastics League. She is currently ranked among the top three competitors in the conference on the vault and the uneven bars. She was named EAGL Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 14. Arlotta has outstanding career highs on every event, including scores of 9.875 on vault, 9.850 on bars, 9.875 on beam and 9.9 on floor, not to mention her impressive mark of 39.250 in the all-around competition.

Along with tons of dedication and a few major sacrifices, the Pitt junior still has her mother, who introduced her to the sport at age 7, to thank for her success.

“My mom is a gymnastics coach and since I was so crazy when I was a little kid, running around with tons of energy, she put me in a class,” Arlotta said.

Actually, she hated gymnastics at first and switched to ballet. But since the ballet classes were held at the same place as the gymnastics class, she could not resist her sport for very long.

As Arlotta grew, so did her love for gymnastics. At age 17, she bravely traded in everything she knew, including her family, friends, home and that beautiful Florida weather, to move, by herself, to Cincinnati to train at an Olympic training center.

“It was definitely a weird age to move away, but I was focused on one thing,” she said.

Moving was not the only hardship she dealt with to become the incredible gymnast she is today. She faced a severe knee injury right around the time she was being recruited by colleges.

“Coming back from my knee injury and getting my head back in was my biggest accomplishment. I tore everything in my knee from my ACL to my MCL,” she said. “The doctors weren’t really sure if I was going to make it back or ever be as good if I did.”

Ironically, her injury is what brought her to Pitt. She chose Pitt because after she got hurt, a lot of the schools that were recruiting her wanted to wait and see how she was going to recover. Pitt, she said, never showed any doubt in her recovery and future as a strong gymnast.

“I realized it was important to have coaches, like Debbie [Yohman], that would be there and believed in me,” she said.

Yohman, Pitt’s head coach, knew that Andrea was the right gymnast to fill their opening that recruiting season.

“She is a very determined and focused young lady as well as a very good gymnast,” Yohman said. “The combination of those things bode well for her recovery.”

Today, Arlotta is a renowned gymnast who leaves a strong impression wherever she goes. This may be why she was elected to the position of co-captain by her fellow teammates.

“I try to build individual relationships with my teammates,” she said. “I might not be the most vocal person on the team, so I try to lead by example.”

And what an example she has been setting.

“She hasn’t missed a meet or an all-around no matter if she was having a good week or a bad week, the flu or if her knee was hurting,” Yohman said. “She has not let a single person down during a single time this year. I don’t think that you can ask for a better role model.”

Alix Croop, a freshman on the team who also had knee surgery before coming to Pitt, would agree with her coach.

“I definitely look up to her and think she is a great role model, especially since we went through the same situation with our knee injuries,” Croop said. “You can always count on her to hit her routine.”

Arlotta also shares her passion for the sport with others through her online journal, which gives fans a behind-the-scenes look at Pitt gymnastics.

“It was Debbie’s idea, something that recruits and fans can look up so people know we are here and can become more in tune with what we are doing,” she said.

With all the time she puts into gymnastics, it may be hard to believe that she has time for much else. But Arlotta does have a life outside the gym.

“I love water sports, like water skiing, and I live for the beach in the summer. I like music. I’m normal, I guess,” she said.

And she deals with problems that any normal student would face. Although she is currently a Communication and Studio Arts major, she still is unsure about what she wants to do with her life.

“I am thinking about advertising,” she said. “I am actually pretty stressed out about that right now.”

For now, though, she only has to concentrate on the next meet, something that she is able to do week in and week out for Yohman and her Panthers.

“She just gets better and better every week,” Yohman said of Arlotta.