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Goal driven: Darbi Simcox’s journey helped shape her into a top gymnast

From a young age Darbi Simcox was flipping beams and bars. Between her dedicating her fourth Christmas to gymnastics to becoming a regional qualifier and level 10 gymnast, Simcox had quite the talent.

The Mill Hall native's drive to become a top gymnast in the area hasn't been an easy feat. Simcox battled through challenges that would've shaken an average gymnast up, but it helped her build the foundation of her gymnastics skills from the ground up.

Simcox found an interest in gymnastics growing up and just like any other kid at that age, took a chance on the sport by taking classes. As a couple of years came and went, Simcox noticed she was good at the sport. By the age of eight, Simcox gravitated to gymnastics and found herself attending Dyamats Gymnastics Center in Muncy regularly.

Seeing the success of fellow gymnasts in Muncy made competing in gymnastics a no-brainer. But it wasn't that easy. Simcox also had an attachment to the game of soccer when she wasn't competing in gymnastics.

So when her gymnastics coach gave her the option of soccer or gymnastics, she knew she had to be all in for one. "The older girls at the gym inspired me to be better. Any time I saw them at the gym I was in awe of what they did," Simcox said.

"There wasn't a moment of hesitation," Darbi's mother, Nikki, mentioned. "Her coach told her gymnastics or soccer at nine years old, and she committed to gymnastics."

The type of commitment the soon-to-be gymnastics star was making is something an average 9-year-old can struggle with. But Simcox saw what gymnastics could do for her and she locked in. The focus level ramped up and she reaped many benefits. In her first year, she qualified to compete at the national level, as a seventh grader, and rose to a level nine gymnast.

With Simcox and her family making the 45-minute commute to Muncy and the national-qualifying gymnast practicing for four hours already, her single-sport commitment already began paying dividends.

BOUNCING BACK

In Simcox's freshman season competing at the high school level, she suffered a broken foot. Although the injury sidelined her for three months, Simcox wouldn't let that define her career or who she wanted to become. Darbi was, again, faced with another tough scenario in her young career but she did what most young freshmen would fail to do: toughen up mentally.

Simcox followed up her nagging injury with more success. Darbi reached the regional qualifier and was invited to compete on Pennsylvania's Premier team. The Premier team, made up of a team who competes against the top seven gymnasts in other states, prepared her for more of what was to come.

Just when Simcox seemed to be making a huge leap following her injury, she impressed even more. The following season, just when the gymnast had continued hitting her stride, she touched a new level of impressive. Simcox reached a level 10 status as a gymnast during her sophomore season.

As a junior, Simcox continued to impress. At the Pennsylvania State Championships on March 23, the level 10 gymnast scored a 9.4 in vault, 9.125 in uneven bars, 8.55 in beam and 9.55 in floor. The 36.625 all-around score gave her a seventh-place finish, including three medals and a berth to the Region 7 Championships in April.

Not only was Simcox making big strides in a short amount of time as a 15-year-old, but she was proving to her coaches that she was ready to take an even bigger leap. Her proven abilities in that one-year span showed that her hard work and everything she learned in practice panned out almost to perfection.

TAKING A DIFFERENT APPROACH

The early years of Simcox's gymnastics career took her on a journey. But with her talent and skill level, there was more left in the tank. During her sophomore year, while enrolled in online school through Keystone's school district, Simcox's coaches wanted to elevate her to an even higher level than where she was competing.

Simcox's coaches, Robert Tagge, Melissa Gyurina and Todd Brannon, all agreed they wanted to increase the duration of Darbi's practice time from four hours to five. With the level 10 gymnast already practicing in the evenings, coming from Mill Hall each day, Simcox and her family knew this would be too late.

After much thought and consideration, Darbi and her family came to an agreement that she would make the transition from attending school in the Keystone District to attending Commonwealth Christian Academy (CCA) in Muncy.

While Darbi had already been doing school online in the Keystone Central School District, Simcox's transition opened up an entirely different can of worms for her and her family. Darbi's mother, Nikki Simcox, teaches at CCA and had been while Darbi competed and took online classes with Keystone's school district.

"There's a lot of benefits to attending school in person," Nikki Simcox said. "She's given up school dances because she's had school competitions the next day. We just support whatever she decides to do. There's so many sacrifices so seeing her hard work payoff is hard to put into words."

The online class structure and not getting the traditional high school experience wasn't something that took Simcox a while adjusting to. She was used to that. Instead, the academic workload of two college-level courses and increased practice time caused the need for a period of adjustment.

"I definitely struggled for the first month or two but then I got used to it," Simcox mentioned. "When I moved to CCA it wasn't that hard of a transition from Keystone online, but it was hard not seeing any teachers in-person. You have to motivate yourself to do the work and getting motivation was important."

Mustering up that type of motivation while performing at a five-hour practice rate for gymnastics was a new challenge that Simcox had to face. But the long nights and early mornings helped shape her into who she is now.

"Once I started online and I went into the gym it made it easier to get around and easier to be coached. Going from four to five hour practices took adjusting but it helped improve my mental state and confidence knowing that I'm getting enough practices in," Simcox added.

Simcox embraced the challenge academically by maintaining honor roll status. Athletically, she embraced the challenge by becoming the first level 10 gymnast in Dyamats history in over 20 years. While there are three current level 10 gymnasts, Simcox is the lone for all-around.

Simcox credits her coaches, coach Tagge, Gyurina and Brannon for the time and dedication that they have sown into her. But much of Simcox's success has come from her mentality and how she approaches each practice and competition.

Simcox has the goal of competing at the collegiate level, but she understands the everyday work that must be put in to get to that level. As she continues to improve each day, her dream of competing collegiately may stand right in front of her.

"Absolutely," Simcox said when asked if hopes of playing in college drives her. "Every day I try to focus on at least one small thing. For me focusing on one small thing per day helps me improve at least one percent every day. Collegiate gymnastics is about form; you have to make them look good and perform them perfectly."

For now, the goal of being in the right state of mind to compete, competing at a high level and getting better each practice are the goals she has. On April 13-16 Simcox will be competing at the Regional 7 Championships following her impressive scores at the state championships one week ago.

Simcox makes it clear: she knows the stakes at hand, but she sets goals, attempts to achieve them and wants to enjoy the moment before it's gone.

"I don't want to set any expectations, I want to set goals," Simcox said. "I would love to make it onto the national team but I want to have fun when I'm competing. If I'm in the right mental zone, I know I'll be fine."