SPORTS

Lucky Break

Continued from preceding page

Jamie has set his sights on next year's junior nationals.

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(Jeremy's schedule is the
tightest — after he finishes
classes at 3:30, he goes to div-
ing practice, goes home for a
bite to eat and by 5:30 he and
Jamie are at the gym for
practice.)
"It's a lot of work," says
Jamie, "but you get used to it.
I sometimes do my homework
in the car. I don't really have
any problem getting my
schoolwork done. Sometimes,
it makes me get it done in
half the time. But we are
rushing. Sometimes I have to
eat dinner in the car on the
way to the gym.
"It's not really a pastime,
it's more like a full-time job,"
he acknowledged. But Jamie
still finds time to play basket-
ball with his friends, listen to
music on the radio, play
Nintendo, read "any kind of
book" and also type papers for
himself and his brother.
One day a week, though,
the family has dinner
together, either Wednesdays
or Thursdays at about 8 or
8:30 p.m., "or else we try to
squeeze it in on the
weekends," said the boys'
father.
The family car gets a work-
out too, adds Ron. What with
going to meets in Nebraska,
Iowa, Illinois, Ohio and Penn-
sylvania and running to and
from practices, "my car is one
year old and it's already got
32,000 miles on it. Does that
give you some idea of what's
involved?"
Jamie has been lifting
weights and doing exercises
to build his strength. He also
plans to learn new tricks this
summer. "They're hard tricks
that I know I can accomplish,
but I need more strength," he
said. His ultimate goal is to
reach the regionals and then

the junior nationals next
season.
But he also needs to work
on his flexibility, says Coach
Astrakhan. "He has to do a
lot of stretching. If you're not
a flexible guy, your score in
your routine will not be high.
Strength helps you do tricks,
but flexibility lets the judges
see your form."
Chances are good Jamie
will follow his coach's advice,
though Astrakhan notes that
wasn't always the case. Jamie
was a bit impetuous a year
and a half ago, when
Astrakhan came to Detroit
and Blake's as a newly arriv-
ed Soviet Jewish immigrant
who'd both competed in and
coached gymnastics in his
native Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg).
Jamie had a "O.K., I can do
everything" attitude back
then, said the coach. "He
didn't listen to what we were
telling him, but when he
tried to do more difficult
tricks, he saw he needed to
listen.
"He now tries to listen to
me. He understands that for
his own success, he must take
directions. We communicate
both ways. I tell him how to
do things, and he tells me if
he's got another way to do
them," says the coach.
It appears they've gained
respect for each other. Jamie
is a state champion and, on
the junior national level,
Coach Asktrakhan and
assistants Jeff Brown and
Keith Dunton have coached
Blake's to its best showing
ever: two boys took silver
medals as runners-up in the
high bar and vault in the
13-and-up category.
Jamie Hertza would like to
be there next year.

❑