Kate Rudolph, a junior gymnast at Franklin High School, was recently named a Hockomock League All-Star for a second consecutive year. This season, Kate earned top scores of 9.1 on bars, 9.4 on vault, 9.4 on floor, and 9.6 on beam, giving her a high All-Around score of 37.2. One could say she is a huge asset to the high school’s gymnastics team, helping them achieve a 9-0 winning record this year.

Kate began participating in gymnastics when she was just 18 months old after her older sister’s gym opened a Mommy & Me class.  Once she started, she reflects, “I never went back [to my life before gymnastics].”

The high school post-season was canceled this year due to COVID-19; however, Kate didn’t let that get her down. “This was definitely the best season we have ever had. We were Hock champs for the first time since our team started five years ago,” she states. This is an incredibly rewarding achievement. With the likelihood of Kate becoming a captain next year, it is more than plausible that the team will have an even better season in 2022. 

Although gymnastics is typically thought of as an individual sport, Kate has other thoughts: “High school gymnastics is the complete opposite. Though you are competing alone, in high school gymnastics the only score that matters is the team score in the end.” This is a wonderful ideology to live by, and more importantly, to act by. Kate also adds, “I enjoy being on the team because I grew up in an individualized environment, and the team has taught me all about working together.” It is so amazing that she has found a family in the activity that she loves the most. 

In other news, Kate’s favorite subject is English and she is also involved in Student Government, Peer Leaders, and Unified Music at school. In the future, her goal is to do gymnastics in college and major in English.

If you’d like to see more student spotlights, make sure to check out Aislinn Lavery’s interview with Ndoumbe Ndoye.