PLANO – Presten Ellsworth is one of America's best 15-year-old gymnasts.

He trains at Plano's World Olympic Gymnastics Academy and competes in regional and national meets. Many believe he is destined to compete in the 2012 London Olympics.

But this spring, he sparked a tempest within the local gymnastics community because, for fun, he decided to compete for his high school.

He won the UIL Region I all-around title, which helped Allen earn a berth in the state meet. Yet Presten didn't compete at state. The story behind his no-show illustrates the thorny coexistence of high school and club sports – and the predicaments that some kids face.

"I wanted to do it for the school because they've never really had a good team," says Presten, adding that it felt "pretty cool" to earn a letterman jacket as a freshman.

Presten doesn't say it, but, to put it bluntly, high school competition was a significant step down for him.He is a level-10 gymnast, which means he performs the highest-difficulty routines when competing for WOGA. The club has produced the likes of 2004 Olympic champion Carly Patterson and 2005 World Championship silver medalist Nastia Liukin.

At most Texas high school meets, the degree of difficulty for compulsory routines is 6 or 7.

MIKE STONE / Special to DMN

High school competition was a low-pressure affair for Allen freshman Presten Ellsworth.

It was Presten's parents, Mike and Cami Ellsworth, who broached the idea of him competing for Allen.

"No," Presten answered flatly.

But Mike and Cami pulled out photos from their high school days – he as an all-state football player in Florida, she as an Abilene High cheerleader. "Those were some of the best times I ever had," Mike told him.

Presten reconsidered. He had not made many high school friends, partly because he trained 32 to 36 hours a week. On a typical school day, he trained from 8 to 11 a.m. at WOGA, attended classes at Allen from 11:15 to 3:30 p.m., then returned to WOGA from 5 to 8.

Presten decided to give high school gymnastics a try. But the Ellsworths jointly decided to not tell his WOGA coach, Sergei Pakanich, because as Presten explains, "I was afraid he would make me stop."

He described his first high school meet as "cheesy" but won the individual title while experiencing school spirit and team camaraderie.

"It's a lot less pressure," he says. "Everyone's out there having fun and going crazy, dancing to the music. In club gymnastics, everyone has to be quiet. You've got the spotlight on you."

Naturally, Allen coach Dawn McCain was thrilled to have a gymnast of Presten's caliber. A former gymnast at Texas Woman's University, she teaches business computer programming and coaches the diving team at Allen but receives no stipend for coaching gymnastics.

SMILEY N. POOL | LOUIS DELUCA / DMN

Sergei Pakanich (left), Presten Ellsworth's club coach, was suprised to learn he was competing in meets for Allen and coach Dawn McCain (right).

Unlike some of the area's top high school programs, Allen has no gymnastics facilities and doesn't devote an athletic period for the sport. "Practice" consists of gathering off-campus once a week to go over routines for the upcoming meet.

A mother of five, McCain spends considerable time and money traveling to meets and attending coaches' meetings. "I just do it because it brings back a part of me," she says.

Presten Ellsworth wasn't the only area club gymnast competing at the high school level this season. In fact, high school meets are scheduled so as not to conflict with club meets. But McCain says full-time high school coaches "look down" on Allen's program and were particularly "bitter" about seeing Presten at meets.

"At regionals, they were like a hawk on Presten," she says, singling out Highland Park's Mark Sherman and Rockwall's Lee Stout.

Presten concurs that each time he did a routine during the Region I championship meet at Highland Park, rival coaches scribbled what they felt should be point deductions and placed their notes on the judges' table.

The Region I meet concluded on April 12, with the Allen team grabbing the third and final state meet team berth, ahead of fourth-place Highland Park.

McCain says that, according to her math, Allen would have earned the berth even if Presten hadn't competed. Sherman disagrees, saying Allen would have fallen short of the minimum-points criteria, as did Highland Park.

Sherman, Highland Park's coach of 25 years, says he believes club gymnastics can be a positive experience, especially for elite gymnasts like Presten. But in Sherman's opinion, Presten's competing in high school meets "did not seem congruent" with his training tract and potential.

Sherman also admits that the composition and loose structure of Allen's team is irksome and all too familiar. He notes that in 1994, Highland Park finished second in the state behind a first-year program, Pearland, which consisted of four high-level club gymnasts and a parent who worked at the school.

"I think club sports are dangerous to high school athletics," Sherman says. "I'm trying to figure out how they contribute to high school athletics. They don't host meets. They don't promote athletics in the high school."

He says high schools that build squads around club gymnasts "don't have to hire a coach. They don't have to devote an athletic period for the coach. They don't have to pay for insurance or travel. I think that's very dangerous for high school athletics."

One week after the UIL Region I meet, Sherman and Presten crossed paths in Kansas City at the Region III club meet, a qualifier for club nationals. Sherman was there as a paid judge. He regularly judges club events, having worked two U.S. Olympic Trials.

During warmups, Sherman spotted Presten's WOGA coach, Pakanich.

"Why is Presten competing in high school?" Sherman recalls asking.

McCain, who was not at the meet, contends that Sherman created a scene out of spite and should have minded his own business. Sherman says he had no way of knowing the Ellsworths were keeping a secret until he saw the expression on Pakanich's face.

"I felt like an idiot," Pakanich says.

The Ellsworths say they had planned to tell Pakanich after the state high school meet, which they hoped Presten would win, proving to Pakanich that he could successfully juggle club and high school meets.

Presten says that as he entered the Kansas City gym, Pakanich confronted him with a scowl and a question: "What's up with you competing in high school, eh?"

"No, it probably wasn't his business," Presten says of Sherman. "But I'm glad it happened so I didn't have to tell" Pakanich.

Pakanich, a Latvian Republic team member from 1978 to 1988 and six-time Latvian champion, says the episode's secretiveness is what most bothers him, particularly since he has coached Presten for seven years.

"We work with these kids, not just to teach gymnastics, but we try to bring them up as an honest and hard-working person who will succeed in life," Pakanich says. "I am not such a monster. When I found out, did I freak out and kick him out of the gym? No."

Pakanich says that, for no other reason than safety, he would have helped Presten design his high school meet routines, working with Allen's coach.

"I still don't know – is there a coach involved or not?" Pakanich says. "If there is, I definitely would urge him to not interfere with what I am doing because I have a plan, I have goals and I am trying to follow them."

Presten says that, in hindsight, he realizes it was wrong and disrespectful to keep Pakanich in the dark. The Ellsworths say that's one reason Presten decided not to compete in the state meet, along with concerns about getting injured.

The third factor, they say, is that competing in the May 3-5 state meet in San Angelo would have cost Presten valuable time in preparing for the following week's National Junior Olympic meet in Oklahoma City.

Mike Ellsworth says their decision to not go to San Angelo resulted in "a couple of scathing e-mails" from Allen gymnastics parents. But the Ellsworths say they have no hard feelings toward Sherman, who apologized to the parents in Kansas City.

Sherman says he wasn't trying to sabotage the Allen team, which finished well out of the running at state. To the contrary, Sherman says he is more upset that Presten chose not to compete. Texas high school gymnasts sign a form early in the season pledging to compete at the district, regional and state levels if they qualify.

"He took medals from other people," Sherman says. "If he wasn't going to compete at state, he shouldn't have competed at regionals. And if he hadn't competed at regionals, then other kids would have medaled."

In the Junior Nationals, Presten was in fifth place overall late in the competition. He seemed a shoo-in to finish among the top 15 and earn a spot in USA Gymnastics' premier event, the Visa National Championships. The top seven finishers there make the junior national team.

But during his high-bar routine, Presten felt and heard a sickening snap. Competitors, coaches and fans covered their eyes. Presten broke the ulna, or outside bone, of his left arm.

"I've never thought about it, but this conversation brings me to the point where I'm almost thinking he cursed himself by trying to go both ways," Pakanich says. "You know, when you try to sit on two chairs, you can fall in the middle and your butt can hurt."

Presten says he has no regrets other than not telling Pakanich from the start. He says competing for Allen enabled him to make new friends. And despite his many club-level accomplishments, his name had never appeared in The Dallas Morning News until he won the Region I high school title.

He says his goals are to earn a scholarship to Stanford or Michigan and aim for the 2012 Olympics. He says he has not ruled out trying high school gymnastics again – although he and the Allen team could face sanctions in 2008 because he didn't compete at state.

"It is very easy to decide," Pakanich says. "When you fail on the higher level, you step down and enjoy victory on the lower level.

"It's not representing the school, it is not stepping down, it is just cool. I work with teenagers. I am telling you, just to get extra points with chicks, to be cool, drives them pretty far."

Age: 15

High school: Allen (entering sophomore year)

Club: World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, Plano

Accomplishments: Made the club-level's Region III every year from 2000 to 2005, earning the right to compete in the national championships. At the 2005 national championships in Houston, he made the level-9 junior national team. ... Won this year's high school Region I school all-around title and was named the area's Newcomer of The Year by The Morning News.

Personal: Father Mike was a standout high school football and soccer player in Florida; mother Cami was an Abilene High cheerleader. ... Mike is president of the parents' club at WOGA, where Presten's 14-year-old sister, Cailee, and 7-year-old brother, Brady, also train. ... Despite breaking his left arm last month, Presten recently accompanied WOGA teammates and coaches to Latvia, the home country of his coach, Sergei Pakanich.

Brad Townsend