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By: staff - Updated: 1 week ago

MENDOTA – Trey Lee has had many interests and has been involved in as much as a schedule for a kid and a teenager allow.

The soon-to-be freshman at Mendota High School, who has home-schooled since third grade, races dirt bikes, plays other sports, is an alto and tenor saxophone player, has been introduced to 4-H and numerous other activities.

But none of them have stuck like the sport he began at 5 years old – gymnastics.

“It gave me something to do other than video games. I like doing it. It’s a lot of fun. I like gymnastics better than the other sports,” said Lee, who started gymnastics in Rochelle, went to lessons in La Salle and Peru, and has been improving his skills at Gymnastics Divine in Dixon for the last three years. “My double back (back tuck with a second rotation) is something I can actually do with ease, but I’ve had a back injury. I would like to do a rudi, a 1 ½ twist in a straight position. There is a full twist that’s a full turn straight in the air while doing a flip.”

Lee had his routines and moves mapped out close to perfection at the United States Trampoline & Tumbling Association’s (USTA) National Championships on June 13-18 at Lakeland, Fla.

The Mendota native performed on June 13-14 in three events – floor (finished fourth), double mini (second) and brought home a national championship in trampoline.

“Most of the athletes that were at Nationals, I’ve seen before. There were a couple I haven’t competed against,” Lee said. “It sucked tumbling with my back being injured, but it was there, and I did my best. I did two warm-up passes, still competed, and earned fourth place out of six on floor. It’s fun to compete at a competition like Nationals and say I’m a national champion.

“My coaches are great. Stephen Donnell from Illinois Valley Tumbling and Trampoline (IVTT) was with me at Nationals. He used to go to Gymnastics Divine when he was younger. He helped me a lot on the trampoline.”

Lee’s coaches at Gymnastics Divine are mother and son duo of Deb and Nick DeLancey as well as Deb’s husband Ted and Nick’s wife Cassandra.

The family team of gymnastic coaches have helped mold Lee into a national championship, but they couldn’t make Nationals because of family engagements.

Since Lee couldn’t compete without a coach, Donnell began working with the athlete and made the trip to Lakeland.

“I’ve known Trey for a couple of years, and I’ve seen him really grow and develop. I’m really impressed with how far he’s come in such a short time,” said Donnell, who is IVTT’s competition coach and the branch manager at the Mendota YMCA. “He has really grown as an athlete and he really loves the sport. He’s always wanting to push further and further.

“The last couple of weeks leading to Nationals, getting to train with him, we had to make a few changes on his passes. He was dealing with a back injury. He handled it very well, was incredibly coachable, and came away a national champion.”

Donnell really helped Lee in trampoline event because Lee’s normal gym doesn’t have a competition trampoline and the skill is one of Donnell’s specialties.

With the use of the Illinois Valley YMCA’s equipment and Donnell’s coaching, Lee was able to turn his trampoline skills into national championship form.

“At Illinois Valley Tumbling and Trampoline we do have a competition trampoline, and it’s been a strong program for us,” Donnell said. “There are some requirements at every level and some of the skills he had to fulfill those requirements weren’t working out very well. It wasn’t very smooth.

“We changed some things around and changed skills on him at the last second. He handled it really well. It’s always fun when you get an athlete as talented and eager as Trey. It’s kind of easy to say, ‘Let’s do this,’ ‘Let’s try that,’ ‘Have you ever thought of this.’ They say, ‘OK, let’s do it’ and that’s exactly what happened with Trey the two weeks before Nationals.”

Lee isn’t new to big competitions.

At the 2021 Junior Olympics, the flexible teen was the double mini champion, finished second in single mini and floor, and was fifth in trampoline. He was also awarded a second-place medal for the intermediate tumbling team award.

At the 2021 USTA Nationals in Rochester, Minn., Lee was second in double mini and third in floor.

Throughout the entire journey from 5 years old to a national champion, mother Julie Lee and the rest of the family have been rooting in Trey’s corner.

“When he started in the very beginning, his coach at the time told me that Trey was very flexible, and gymnastics may be something you want to keep him involved with,” Julie Lee said. “He never lost the interest, while his two older brothers – Noah (19) and Landon (16) – decided dirt bike racing was more interesting.

“We had the conversation when his sister (Brooke, 21) went to Iowa State University. He got to go along and be a part of their juniors (a camp for younger kids while college kids and parents tour the campus) and spent the day in their activities. They kept him busy and he got to see their gym.

“He was like, ‘I could come here and do gymnastics.’ I told him, ‘You can go anywhere as long as the school has gymnastics.’ When he said that at 8, that was pretty exciting. It was an eye opener, enlightening, for him to know that gymnastics is not just at the places around us that he’s taken to on a weekly basis. Now, he trains two days a week to improve.”

Since the memorable ISU moment, Julie has seen her youngest child blossom in gymnastics.

Although he is still involved in other sports, hobbies, and interests, Julie knows Trey’s flexibility, athleticism, understanding of his body, and his passion for the sport pushes gymnastics past the rest.

“He enjoys racing motorcycles, but I think gymnastics is more his niche. He still enjoys riding with his family, but gymnastics is his niche where he excels,” Julie said. “As long as he doesn’t go into auto pilot and focuses on the floor, I think he could do anything.

“I’ve been asked by friends and family if he will take it to another level. We were told by Nick DeLancey that he has the potential to be an elite athlete and right now is the time for him to make that focus and make that choice.”

“Landon has been very supportive when need be. He does take Trey to the gym when I can’t due to work. He does an amazing job there. Brooke has been supportive, and Noah has been to a couple of meets. He thinks it’s cool and can’t believe what Trey can do.

“I send Noah videos and he says, ‘That’s not my brother.’ Nope, he just has a costume on. I think they’re all pretty impressed.”

The boy’s father, Kevin Lee, is also involved and supports their activities including Trey’s gymnastic adventures.

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