Nathan Stokes knows his days as a high school gymnast are numbered.
His final competition in a sport he started four years ago as a means to get in shape for football and lacrosse happens Saturday when he competes at the high school provincial championships at Prince George secondary school gymnasium.
It's a rare and unprecedented opportunity for the 17-year-old senior Duchess Park Grade 12 student, knowing this is the first time Prince George has hosted the event. Coming off a fifth-place finish in the province last year, he's shooting for a medal in the Level 2 class.
This weekend, he's going into the provincial gymnastics meet as the north central zone champion. While he's representing Duchess Park, the zone team champions, once he starts performing on the rings, parallel bars (T-bar), high bar, vault, floor and pommel horse, he knows he's on his own in everything he does.
"It's cool, I like the idea it's all you, so you have the pressure on you if you want to do well and do good for your school," Stokes said. "I want to get to the podium, at least."
Two summers ago, Stokes won the provincial midget A2 lacrosse silver medal in a tournament also played on home soil and he tends to thrive when he's performing in front of friends and family in familiar surroundings.
"Some people are (nervous) about being at home and your own hometown coming to watch you but we did lacrosse provincials a couple years ago here and came in second place," he said. "I get to sleep in my bed, everything's the same, and if I forget something right before the competition I can get in my car and rip over and get it."
He says his best event is the T-bar but he especially loves contorting his body on the rings.
Stokes figures there will be about 25 other gymnast competing against him in the boys Level 2 event. He said the sport has grown in popularity in the region since gymnastics was one of the featured events in the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George.
Stokes helped the Duchess Park Condors football team win the P.G. Bowl last fall as receiver and linebacker and credits the strength and conditioning drills he learned in gymnastics for helping him find success in his chosen team sports.
"In football you definitely have to get muscular to have control over your body and all the different parts and gymnastics helps with that because you're lifting your whole body weight pretty much the whole time," said Stokes. "It helped me get a little shiftier as a receiver."
Forty-two Prince George students are entered in the girls competition, which starts today and Friday at 9 a.m. Stokes is one of only four boys from the city entered in the meet. That list includes Aiden Faucher of College Heights (Level 1), Colbey Simunac of Duchess Park (Level 3) and Lane Oak of Kelly Road (Level 4). All four are this year's zone champions. The boys competition begins Saturday at 8 a.m.
"This is my last competition and it's exciting," said Stokes, who will soon get back to swinging his stick in the Prince George Senior Lacrosse Association with the Northland Nissan Assault. "I've gone through the last high school football game so I have that experience of going through on the 'this is it, there's no more after this,' kind of thing. I'm sad gymnastics is ending but it was fun while it lasted and the nice part is we get to end it at home in front of my parents (Ron and Fil)."
