BUTLER TWP— Seven youth gymnasts and two coaches from Slovakia recently visited the Butler Gymnastics Club for an exhibition competition and a week of training.

The visit was arranged by Steve Banjak, a representative of Sokol USA, an international organization promoting fitness and sound moral values.

Banjak also coached gymnastics at Slippery Rock University from 1968 to 1985. Steve Heasley, one of his gymnasts during that stretch, owns and operates Family Sports Center and the Butler Gymnastics Club.

"I was in Slovakia for two months last summer and was asked to arrange a trip to the United States and a gymnastics competition for this team,"Banjak said. "I thought of Steve's facility right away.

"A lot of gymnastics centers have excellent girls programs, but Butler has a strong boys team as well. I thought it'd be a good fit."

The seven gymnasts, 17-year-old Vladimir Vojtek and 11- and 12-year-olds Eduard Marcak, Martin Pajtas, Jakub Fodor, Jakub Belan, Matus Stehlik and Matus Majernik, were accompanied by coach Peter Jenik and coach and internationally rated judge Jozef Ducat.

They hailed from Kosice, the second-largest city in Slovakia.

The meet between the teams was not scored, but Butler coach Kevin Hallinan said his team "was a little farther advanced."

"What they (Slovaks) performed, they did very well with great precision,"Hallinan said. "But our gymnasts had a wider range of skills, and they were impressed by that.

"Their routines were simpler, but they performed them better."

The teams competed in floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and beam.

Ducak clutched a Butler youth gymnastics training book tightly and smiled as he spoke through an interpreter.

"We are very much looking forward to using some of these techniques and methods," he said. "The young boys are very advanced in their skills here."

Hallinan said both teams were friendly and supportive of each other during the competition. Members of the Butler girls gymnastics squad cheered for both teams.

"It was a positive experience for both sides,"Hallinan said.

"I was impressed with the discipline of the boys from Butler,"Jenik said. "They are very serious about their training here.

"I look at the walls around this gym and the word 'Think' is posted everywhere. I like that."

There are seven gymnastics clubs in Slovakia, a country with a population of 5.5 million people.

This marked the Kosice team's first trip to the United States. It has competed in Hungary, Germany, Austria, Poland, Ukraine and Belgium.

Jenik was impressed with the Butler facility.

"Our gym is a little smaller and much more narrow," he said. "They have good equipment here and the floor is better.

"It was a pleasant surprise, how nice we were treated here by everyone. The host families, everywhere we visited, people were wonderful."

Besides the Butler Gymnastics Club, the Slovak team visited the Pittsburgh Zoo, Carnegie Science Center and Niagara Falls.

Banjak said the Butler gymnasts have been invited to Slovakia to compete in an international meet in May.

"I'm sure they want to go. ... It will come down to fundraising and that sort of thing,"Banjak said.