RECREATION / STEVE HENSON : Regional Vaulting Competition Involves Horseplay

Ever thought of ways to make certain sports more challenging? Like hold a boxing match on a trampoline. Or a basketball game on ice.

Here’s another one. Horse around with gymnastics by turning a pommel horse into a living, breathing, snorting, neighing animal. A real horse.

Do the flips, spins, mounts and dismounts required in a typical gymnastics routine. Do them while the real horse is trotting in circles.

Wouldn’t that be a scream?

No need to merely imagine. The regional championships of the American Vaulting Assn. will be held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center Equidome in Burbank on Saturday.

There gymnastics will be performed on moving horses.

Really.

“It’s fascinating to watch as well as to perform,” said Ron Sill, whose two children belong to the Spirit Vaulting Club in Sylmar, one of several clubs that will enter vaulters in the regional. Other local clubs are based in Agoura Hills, Moorpark, Acton and Lake View Terrace.

Vaulters at the regional will range in age from 5 to 50, although most are teen-agers and young adults. The regional’s top finishers qualify for the national championships in Parker, Colo., in August. Favorites include Sara Szambelan, 14, and Crystal Pakizer, 13, of the Acton club and Caitlyn Sill, 12, of Spirit.

“Because the sport is small, all the vaulters support each other really well,” Ron Sill said. “They are all friends.”

Vaulting routines are set to music and judged on a point system. There are three levels of difficulty, based on how fast the horse is moving: canter, trot and walk.

In addition to individual competition, vaulters compete in pairs and in three-person teams.

“Sometimes three vaulters will be on the horse at once,” Sill said. “The teamwork and trust involved make it a blend of gymnastics and dance.”

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Days shy of completing his junior year at Buena High, John McKinney set the world of bodyboarding on its belly by winning the Bodyboarders International Assn. national finals in Huntington Beach.

The event was the first in which McKinney competed in the Elite Division, bodyboarding’s highest amateur level. The event also culminated the first season of BIA competition.

“John had just graduated to the Elite Division, so for him to win was a pretty big feat, actually,” said Pat Serrano, organizer of BIA and publisher of Bodyboarding International magazine.

With the nine-event BIA season completed, McKinney will join the organization’s all-star ambassador program and travel worldwide promoting the sport.

“John is the epitome of bodyboarding today,” Serrano said. “He’s articulate, a great rider and despite his youth he is looked up to by everyone. John has a brilliant future in this sport.”

McKinney’s summer won’t be endless, though. September will roll around as surely as a wave and he’ll be back at Buena High, concentrating on a blackboard instead of his bodyboard.

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Several coaches and athletes from the area will represent the United States in the Special Olympics World Games, July 1-9 at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

Coaches were selected through an application process with the primary qualification being ongoing dedication to working with mentally and physically handicapped athletes.

Jerry Vick of Palmdale and Pat Hendrickson of Thousand Oaks certainly qualify.

Vick, the World Games tennis coach, has coached for 35 years, including the past seven with the Special Olympics.

Hendrickson, the World Games bowling coach, has instructed handicapped athletes in numerous sports for many years. In addition to coaching bowling for 12 years, she coaches track and softball and administrates a baseball program for the disabled through the Conejo Valley Little League.

Hendrickson’s bowling league in Thousand Oaks has more than 100 members. None qualified for the World Games, although Amy Willocks, 26, of Antelope Valley made the 12-member team.

“We use ramps, balls with handles, any kind of adaptive equipment that provides an opportunity for a bowler to do well,” Hendrickson said, adding that top-handicapped bowlers roll 200-plus games.

Vick, who runs a tennis school in the Antelope Valley, said that coaching handicapped players has been exceptionally rewarding.

“I’ve developed more patience, that’s No. 1,” he said. “They need a lot of repetition so they can grasp ideas and remember what to do. Everything is honor and trust between me and the athlete.”

Other area coaches in the World Games include John Leal and Duncan Young of Ventura. Leal coaches powerlifting and Young coaches gymnastics.

Mike Bierman of Thousand Oaks is competing in volleyball and Peter Nichols of Ventura is competing as a powerlifter.

As a tuneup, all the coaches and athletes will be part of the state Special Olympics, June 23-26 at UCLA. Hendrickson, in fact, will coach track and field, bowling and softball.

“This is a busy time,” she said.

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Richard Pugh of North Hills won a gold medal in archery at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games last week in Atlanta. Pugh, 59, competed in the Masters Division, for athletes over 40.

John Schaefer, 67, of San Fernando won a silver medal in motorized wheelchair rally. He also competed in weightlifting and the shotput.