Courtesy photo Andrew Neatrour is a seventh grader at Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School.

For the past five years, Andrew Neatrour has been participating in trampoline and tumbling training at the Center Elite Gymnastics facility in State College.

During that time period, Neatrour’s coach, Liz Aceto, said that his progress in the sport has been eye-opening.

Neatrour, 12, who will be a seventh-grade student at the Hollidaysburg Area Junior High School this fall, recently became a national champion in the Level 9 ages 13-14 male trampoline competition during the National USA Gymnastics Championships that were held in Des Moines, Iowa June 21-26.

Neatrour also placed third in the same division in the double mini-trampoline competition, and seventh nationally in the Level 8 males 13-14 division in the tumbling competition.

“I have worked with Andrew since 2017,” said Aceto, who trains both male and female gymnasts ranging in age from 7 to 18 at the facility. “ He’s an exceptionally talented athlete, but even the athletes who are very talented have to want it in order to succeed, and Andrew wants it.

“He’s always working hard,” Aceto added. “ He’s very driven.”

When Neatrour began training at Center Elite Gymnastics, he was at the beginner’s level, or Level 1, in all three events. After the national meet, he now has achieved Level 10 status in both the trampoline and double mini-trampoline competitions, and Level 9 in the tumbling competition.

The next step up from Level 10 in the competitions is Elite status, at which gymnasts can qualify for either the World Games or Olympic Games.

“I’m really proud of how far that Andrew has come in the last five years,” Aceto said.

Because he will be 13 in October, Neatrour was enrolled in the ages 13-14 division for his competitions this year even though he is younger.

“It is important to point out that at the national tournament, he was a 12-year-old competing and succeeding against 13 and 14-year-olds,” Aceto said. “ He was definitely the youngest in his competitions.”

Neatrour was excited and surprised about how well he did at the national event after earning his berth there by winning championships in all three of his events at the Pennsylvania state tournament that was held at Lancaster County’s Spooky Nook Sports Complex in Manheim this past April.

“I was really excited, I didn’t expect to do as well as I did,” Neatrour said of his success at the national event. “ I just tried to stay focused, and I told myself that I could do it.”

Neatrour — who qualified for the national tournament in all three of his events in the age 11-12 division in 2021, but could not compete because of a broken foot — trains at State College four times a week all year around. His father, Duke, and his mother, Julie, provide the transportation and emotional support that help him to participate in the sport that he loves.

“He’s dedicated, he spends 12 hours a week practicing in State College,” Duke Neatrour — a former professional baseball player with the Independent formerAltoona Rail Kings franchise in the mid-1990s — said of his son. “ He puts a lot of time and effort into it, and he definitely loves it.

“It’s definitely a lot of time commitment on his part and on the part of my wife and me,” Duke Neatrour, who is a teacher at the Altoona Area Junior High School, said of their son’s dedication to gymnastics.

Time will tell what the future holds in gymnastics for Andrew Neatrour, but the present looks very good.

“I’m really thankful for my coaches, and I am grateful for this opportunity that I got to have,” Andrew said.

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