Adam Pummer came to H.E. Kenney Gymnasium four years ago with an attitude and a lack of maturity. He was expected to lead Illinois back to its championships days of the 1980s and restore the program’s rich tradition. He was by no means the gymnast he is now. But today the six-time All-American senior has grown mentally to become one of Illinois’ most vocal leaders on the No.4-ranked NCAA Championship-contending team. It is in the 41-year-old gym that Pummer has redefined his personality to become more efficient, more consistent and more powerful leader.

A native of Allentown, Pa., and a gymnast who, when he was eight-years-old “never really stood out,” chose Illinois after not getting the same feeling on his other three recruiting trips as he did in Champaign. Illinois stuck out.

Pummer and senior standout Justin Spring, who have known each other since they began competing in Junior Olympics at the age of 14, both signed on with veteran coach Yoshi Hayasaki. The two, who started out as enemies in the all-around, have grown into each others’ biggest supporters. As “naive little kids” they came in not knowing what it took to make it in collegiate gymnastics and the dedication needed to succeed, Spring said.

“Training comes a little easier for us, but regardless of how talented you are at this level, you need to have the time and effort, and he’s done that great,” said Spring, Pummer’s roommate throughout college. “He realized that and he’s buckled down; he’s been a great team leader.”

Attitude adjustment

Pummer’s leadership role, though, wasn’t always needed. As a freshman, Pummer was thrown into nearly five events during every meet, a far cry from the few events that most of the current Illinois freshmen compete in this year. And by the time the national championships came in April of the 2003 season, he was drained. In his sophomore year, when he was rested for a couple meets during the course of the season, he had “a big year.” At the NCAA event finals, he finished second on vault with a 9.637 and sixth on floor exercise with a 9.312 to become an All-American on both events. He finished the season ranked No. 7 in the nation on floor exercise, No. 9 on parallel bars and No. 9 on high bar.

Since then he has dedicated himself to being patient and improving his own skills for the betterment of the team. He admits that the way he handles himself and his attitude is drastically different than when he first joined the team.

“If I’m yelling in the gym, my attitude’s bad and I’m not supporting other people,” Pummer said.

“People will follow my example and the team will just go down hill.”

Now instead of yelling, Spring says Pummer “throws it back out in the event or the skill he’s working on, that much harder.” The frustration is taken the right way – and turned into stubbornness.

The top gymnasts are the ones who are not scared to throw things out there, Spring said. Pummer’s desire to tackle the bigger skills – those that may be considered “ridiculous” to others – make him unique. A perfectionist by nature, he is driven, but driven with a goal in mind.

“It’s almost like every day he has a sense of accomplishment, where some guys might even have a good practice, and still not walk away with that feeling,” Spring said. “But Adam takes every practice like, ‘I’m good at what I do and I’m going to do that today,’ and every day he is in here and does that.”

Instead of reveling in his individual accomplishments, of which he has plenty – he has won 35 individual event titles in four years, placed in the top three in numerous events and earned four All-America honors on four events at last year’s NCAA Championships – Pummer takes honor in things such as getting to the second day of team finals at nationals as a freshman, something that had not been done in nearly seven years. But the one over-arching highlight is winning the Big Ten Championships in 2004 at Huff Hall; it was the program’s first title since 1989.

Critics, Pummer said, tried to dissuade Spring and him from donning the orange and blue, back in high school. His decision to come to Illinois, though, has always worked out.

With six sophomores, four freshmen and no junior class on this year’s team, Pummer’s outgoing, fun-loving personality has taken center stage when he accepted a leadership position others could have chosen not to. And with a strong voice he takes advantage of the younger athletes who look up to him and puts others in line when need be.

“Doing a lot of routines in the gym, hitting routines in the meets, keeping the guys going in meet situations is something I can do,” Pummer said. “Not necessarily be the best gymnast out there, but be the best person for the team; that is something that I always dreamed for.”

Bearing the fall

Until this year, his hardships in the sport included the coming and going of coaches, nearly seven of them. And at times, Pummer wanted to be a normal kid, without the rigors of training for nearly four hours daily. But none of those trials have compared to the last two weeks.

It is ironic that the leader and one of the most decorated gymnasts on the team was sidelined. Just three days before the Big Ten Championships on March 24, Pummer fell off the high bar while in the midst of a routine and landed on the wooden bar between the women’s team’s parallel bars and the men’s apparatus.

Landing on his head, his chin jammed into the shifting ligaments in his chest, causing them to swell. He thought he would still be able to compete at the approaching conference championships, but the pain was too intense. Reluctantly, he was pulled from one of the biggest meets of his career.

The hardest part, he said, is knowing that if he had even competed in just one event, one more championship banner may be hanging from the rafters of Kenney Gym. After hours of rehab in the pool and gradually getting his skills back, the relentless fighter is ready to compete again, whether he is 100 percent or not. Still with an acute bruise and a collar bone that protrudes nearly a half an inch, he experiences a great deal of pain. But it doesn’t matter. This is his last opportunity to win a national team title.

Spring says Pummer knows there are no more “what-ifs,” that this weekend is the last time the two will compete in Illinois uniforms. Pummer, a five-foot-five competitor packed with power, and a 14-year veteran of the sport, has never tired of performing. He has always wanted to be in front of a crowd. That, he said, is what made his situation in Iowa City, Iowa, so discouraging. If he ever did take his health for granted, it won’t happen anymore.

“It’s the hardest thing in the world to sit on the sidelines, when you wish you could be out there,” he said. “I think that is the last time I would ever do that.”

Hayasaki, who felt sick to his stomach watching Pummer sit out, knew his consistency was the difference between first and second place. The Illini’s coach of 30 years knows Pummer is hard on himself. But, the patience he has developed in the gym has now carried over in his quest to battle back. When Pummer was 18-years-old, he got a tattoo of the Chinese symbol for “conquer.” Hayasaki knows that Pummer has in the last couple weeks conquered the situation.

“I have to think he’s given everything he has from inside to be able to come through the injury so that we’ll compete at our best,” Hayasaki said. “He knows how good we could be, if he can compete, the way he is able to compete.”

Loyal to the end

Although early in his career he had his dedication to gymnastics tested, Pummer said it will be a “big culture shock” when he no longer is at practice from 3 to 6 p.m. every day. For Pummer, that time has turned into the brightest part of his day. He knows it will be hard to live without gymnastics, and Spring knows it will be hard for the team to do without him.

The team will have to do without his random one-liners, which Spring says the team calls “Adam comments.” They will have to do without his commitment. But most of all, they will have to do without his loyalty. Spring calls Pummer the guy that will always be there to back you up.

“He just really latches on to close friendships and relationships, and that is excellent to see,” Spring said. “To be on the other side of it and see how much you can count on the kid.”

He has turned to people like his mother, Kathy; his father, Mike; and his brother Travis, a former gymnast at Temple University, who “always kept him going.” But even as a “mama’s boy,” Pummer has grown comfortable with the distance between him and his family members. He realizes that he and his 13 brothers on the team have grown into family as well. For the senior who feels like just yesterday he was walking to his first meet at Huff Hall from the residence halls, he says that he can walk out of Kenney Gym happy with how he will be remembered and pleased with how everything has worked out in his decorated career.

“Gymnastics has molded my life so much and I love the position I’m in right now,” Pummer said. “And without it, I wouldn’t be nearly as happy I’m sure.”