Gymnastics: Highland Park’s Lev plays fun name game to deal with pain

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Highland Park's Emma Lev performs on floor during Saturday's CSL North Meet. | Joel Lerner~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: March 3, 2012 8:12AM

In between routines at Saturday’s CSL North girls gymnastics meet at Deerfield, Highland Park senior captain Emma Lev, sitting and smiling in the bleachers, looked down at one of her slightly mummified hands.

A thick, white strip of tape was wrapped around most of the hand, covering and protecting a ripped callus.

If it’s January in a gymnast’s world, it’s also a time to deal with pain.

But Lev, along with the rest of her Giants teammates, knows exactly how to handle discomfort.

With humor.

“We name our injuries,” Lev said.

“This is Bob,” she added, nodding toward the rip. “Meet Bob; he’s bleeding a little now. I’m not sure why I named it Bob. Maybe because Bob reminds me of a tomato, and a tomato is red …

“Other injuries on our team,” she added, “have been named Jerry, Andrew, Steve, Billy Bob.”

Laura Koehler is a human’s name. She serves as HP’s head coach, and she had to be proud after her club scored a season-high, and fifth-place, 112.95 points on Saturday.

Sophomore Emily Ablin, a first-year prep gymnast, paced HP at the six-team meet, taking seventh in the all-around (8.1 average). She also took fifth on floor (8.55), sixth on beam (8.75) and eighth on vault (8.625).

Lev, meanwhile, spun and danced and tumbled her way to a career-high 7.55 on floor.

“It felt good,” said Lev. “Four years … I’ve been waiting four years to get a score like that on floor. I kept smiling; I couldn’t stop smiling afterward.”

She smiled some more, as she discussed her role as a Giants captain.

“As I leader, I had to step out of my comfort zone to help my teammates feel comfortable,” Lev said. “But I love being a captain, absolutely, and this has been my favorite gymnastics season, by far. The girls on the team — we get along, all of us, so well.”

Lev, during and/or after her college days, wants to be a member of entirely different kind of team: a cast member on a movie set.

She’s thinking of studying acting in California, at either USC or UCLA.

“Watching movies is my passion,” she said, adding Leo DiCaprio, Gerard Butler and the “Saturday Night Live” cast are her favorite performers. “The big thing will be to get an agent, while I’m in college.”

‘Major’ loss: HP competed Saturday without injured junior Kim Major, an all-arounder.

But her presence was felt.

By Lev, for one.

“She wrote a motivational message for me on a card and gave it to me before the meet,” said Lev.

“Even though she’s been hurt, she continues to work out with us, work on her conditioning, attend our meets. She’s a great teammate, and I’m sure she’ll be an important part of next year’s team.”

On the schedule: HP returns to Deerfield Feb. 2 to vie for sectional berths at a regional. Other schools in the field, including the host: two-time reigning state champion Carmel Catholic, Maine West and Vernon Hills.

“An advantage for us, because we’ll be familiar with the equipment,” Koehler said at Saturday’s league meet.

But the setting will be different. The regional will be held in Deerfield’s North gym, instead of the main gym, the site of Saturday’s CSL North Meet.