Saturday, January 1, 2011

Patrick McLaughlin vaulting back into competition

Patrick McLaughlin vaulting back into competition

Patrick McLaughlin vaulting back into competition

Posted: 01 Jan 2011 01:27 PM PST

An ankle injury sidelined Temple gymnast Patrick McLaughlin, but he's pushing himself to return to form.

Temple gymnast Patrick McLaughlin (Submitted)

York, PA - Injuries are a part of sports, especially one such as gymnastics.

Patrick McLaughlin has learned to live with the injuries, even the ankle injury that abruptly ended what appeared to be a big season with the Temple University men's team last year.

McLaughlin (Susquehannock) had been having a solid junior year and was the popular pick to capture the Atlantic-10 all-around title and compete in the NCAA tournament as well as the United States Championships.

Despite the setback, McLaughlin was philosophical about the injury.

"In all honesty, I had a weird peace with this injury," he said. "In terms of being truly devastated, I was not."

The 5-foot-7, 150-pound senior feels that his faith in God had a lot to do with his feelings.

"My faith has become much stronger in my years in college, and I trust God to open doors and take me where I can best fit into his plan," he said. "This difficult experience formed a strong foundation in those beliefs."

The injury was a lateral subtalar dislocation of his left ankle. It was operated on -- the latest of five operations on different parts of his body since he began in gymnastics.

"Gymnastics seems to be a sport that our bodies are not meant to do sometimes," McLaughlin said. "The aches and pains seem to be continuous at times, but it is worth it."

The injury was suffered February in a meet against Springfield in Philadelphia. A week earlier, he had been named USA Gymnastics NCAA Division and Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League Men's Gymnast of the Week after scored a season-best 87.0 to capture the all-around title against Illinois-Chicago. It was his second honor in the first four weeks of the season.

More than 70 members of McLaughlin's family were in the stands watching the Springfield meet, all wearing matching T-shirts that said "Patrick's Parliament."

After the injury, McLaughlin remembers a lot of things.

"I looked at my team and their faces in pain for me being in that state and the team's possible uncertain future," he said. "And, I saw my mom and dad in front of the crowd hating to see their son in pain. In fact, I saw it all - my club coach wanting to come out of the stands and pop the ankle back in himself, and I saw Fred (coach Fred Turoff) walking over saddened by my pain and struggle of what he knew I would have ahead of me."

Ahead for McLaughlin was the job of recovering from his injury and getting back on the mat.

"The injury has definitely slowed my return to my full all-around form," he said. "But I have faith that I can come close to getting back to full function. In my slow return, I have been able to focus on my weaknesses much more."

McLaughlin feels that the floor exercise and vault will be his biggest challenges.

"Dismounts right now are still tough for me," he said. "I think floor will be the biggest struggle for me, but I have faith that I will see the day I get to compete in floor again."

Turoff said McLaughlin's injury had a devastating effect on his team.

"Patrick was the best all-around gymnast we had, and I counted on him in every meet," the coach said. "His ankle injury is still hampering his return, but he's able to run and jump on more days than before. He hasn't yet tumbled or vaulted, but that's not far off. On the rest of the events, he is closing in on performance readiness."

But the coach is confident that McLaughlin will be able to help the team this season.

"Patrick has learned some new skills on each event, and his scores should go up this time around," Turoff said.

Off the mat, McLaughlin is also valuable to the Owls.

"He was voted co-captain for the second year in the row, which shows the team's respect for his leadership," Turoff said. "He's an upbeat guy and constantly pushes his teammates for improvement."

McLaughlin, whose mother got him involved in gymnastics at the age of 8, is looking forward to the start of the season, which begins Jan. 14-15 at the West Point Open.

"I have numerous goals this season, and most of them are team-oriented," he said. "I want us to do things we haven't been capable of doing before. I want us to work harder and push our threshold further. I want us to go to the NCAAs.

A personal goal is to compete in the all-around again.

"I have always defined myself as an all-arounder so it's going to be weird that it's not going to play out," McLaughlin said. "I have hopes of being able to do all-around again, but not right now. I'm so thankful that I still get to compete in the sport I love with the team I love.

"This season will be my last, so daily I try focusing on not leaving anything left undone. In the end when I reflect, I can be close to saying there was nothing I didn't leave on the table."

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