Edwards signs with Missouri State

When one door closes another one opens.

Addison Edwards was on the path to becoming a college gymnast before a serious back injury put her on the shelf for a year. She returned to gymnastics just before her senior year but knew jumping straight into the highest level of competition wasn’t possible.

As the end of her senior year at Mount Airy approached, Edwards’ post-graduate plans were up in the air until that unexpected door finally opened — one that allowed her to embark on a brand new journey.

Edwards recently signed her NCAA National Letter of Intent to join the Acrobatics & Tumbling team at Missouri State University; her signing day was held less than a month after her initial contact with Missouri State’s coach.

“I don’t think I’ve fully comprehended that I’m actually going to Missouri yet, but I’m excited and I feel like it’s worth it,” Edwards said. “I’ll be 12 hours away from my family, which is kind of scary, but I feel like college should be a new experience. I’m going to be able to grow as a person and be on a completely new team with a new coach.

“I’m very, very grateful for this opportunity. It came out of nowhere and was something I never expected.”

Edwards admitted that she wasn’t very familiar with acrobatics & tumbling as a collegiate sport when she was first contacted by Missouri State. While acrobatics & tumbling has a lot in common with competition gymnastics, they are each independent sports.

According to NCATA.org, which is the official site of the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association: “Acrobatics & Tumbling is the evolution of different disciplines of gymnastics, which includes the athletic aspects of competitive cheerleading. The format was created at the collegiate level in 2009 to address the interests and abilities of young women competing in this skill set. Individuals and small groups execute acrobatic lifts, tosses and tumbling.”

Because most high schools don’t offer acrobatics & tumbling, the NCATA said those competing at the college level often come from a variety of gymnastics and cheerleading disciplines. Some of the college competitors also have backgrounds in diving, track & field, weightlifting and dance.

Acrobatics & tumbling meets are often contested between two or three teams and are made up of six events: Compulsory, Acro, Pyramid, Toss, Tumbling and Team Event. Unlike gymnastics, competitors wear numbered jerseys, shorts and tennis shoes.

It was Edwards’ extensive gymnastics background that made her a prime target for Missouri State’s inaugural acrobatics & tumbling team. She took up gymnastics at 6 years old and trained at Hart Gymnastics Academy, where she eventually worked her way up to being a level 9 gymnast. Edwards was on track to become a level 10 gymnast before cracking a bone in her lower back ahead of her junior year.

Edwards had an x-ray after hurting her back tumbling. She said her x-rays didn’t show the break, so she continued to see a chiropractor hoping it would be an easy fix. She later consulted a sports medicine doctor in Winston-Salem, and it was there that an MRI revealed the crack.

“I couldn’t do anything for six months,” Edwards said. “I couldn’t squat. I couldn’t run. I could only literally walk and sit down and lay down. I couldn’t sit in the car at all after I did it. So, it was just really inconvenient.”

Edwards said she was once told she’d never be able to do gymnastics again. She tried to return to the sport her junior year, but the pain kept her sidelined until summer.

“My original goal was to do college gymnastics, but you have to be in level 10 to do that,” she said. “The way I came back into it, I was like, ‘I’m already behind now. I’m just going to go in and see what skills I get, see what level I end up at and just have fun.’”

Edwards competed in the Xcel program instead of resuming Level 9 competition. She said the requirements for Xcel were different and offered a wider variety of options.

“If I couldn’t do a skill because it’s hurt my back, I could just do a different one,” Edwards said.

Even with the injury, Edwards ascended to the program’s highest level: sapphire.

As the spring semester progressed, Edwards had a decision to make about her future and only believed there were two options: attend college and leave gymnastics behind altogether, or continue competing in hopes of reaching level 10 so she could compete at the college level.

Then came option No. 3.

Edwards said she woke up one day and had a text from Kimberlee Adkins, who was tasked with coaching Missouri State’s first-ever Acrobatics & Tumbling team. The coach asked Edwards to fill out a form, then immediately asked if she was free for a phone call. Edwards was confused because she never had any contact with Missouri State, but the coach said Edwards was recommended to her by other schools.

“I had no idea what I wanted to do, and then this came out of nowhere,” Edwards said. “I wasn’t even looking when this all fell into place. I thought, ‘this has to be a sign.’”

Edwards closed her signing by expressing gratitude to those who helped her reach this point.

“I want to thank my mom and my dad because they supported me my whole life and were at every single gymnastics meet,” Edwards said. “My gymnastics coach, Beth Boyd, and her husband, Colt. They’ve been there the whole time too.

“I want to say thank you to my brothers, my grandma, my friends and just everybody that was here. Everybody always supports me. They want me to go to Missouri, and they just want me to do what’s best for me in the end. That’s something I’ll always be thankful for; they always push me to be my best self.”