COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — He may be going away to college at Penn State, but Nick Grant feels like he's coming home.

Grant, a former Butler High School student and Butler Gymnastics Club member, has spent the last two years training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

He recently accepted a gymnastics scholarship to Penn State, the defending Big Ten champion. The Nittany Lions won their 12th men's gymnastics national title in 2007.

"Being away from Pennsylvania for two years, I wanted to come closer to home," Grant said. "My goal is to compete in the 2012 or 2016 Olympics and I'm looking for a place to settle in.

"After college, I can see myself staying at Penn State and continuing to train or relocating to Colorado Springs."

Grant specializes in floor exercise and vault. He will be joining another former Butler Gymnastics Club member, Karns City graduate Cody Carnahan, who is a redshirt sophomore at Penn State.

Grant also considered Big Ten schools Minnesota, Illinois and Ohio State, along with Stanford, before deciding on Penn State.

Randy Jepson is in his 18th year as coach of the Nittany Lions. He has been NCAA Coach of the Year three times during this decade and has three national titles and two Big Ten crowns to his credit.

Only Penn State's third men's gymnastics coach in the past 64 years, Jepson has coached 87 All-Americans and 17 individual national champions at Penn State.

"Nick has a great foundation. The sky is the limit for him," Jepson said in a press release. "He will immediately give us great depth."

Grant's work ethic won't be so bad, either.

Besides being a fulltime student at a high school minutes from the Olympic training facility, Grant trains four hours a day and works two part-time jobs. He works in the gift shop at the training center and coaches little kids at a local gym.

In between, he manages to do his homework.

"I've done a lot of growing up the past two years," he said. "It shouldn't be hard adapting to college. I've already been on my own."

Grant lives with a host family, but had to adjust to getting up and ready for school, studying and training on his own.

"There were some anxious times at first," he admitted. "I wondered how I was gonna cope without my mom.

"It was a lot of changes all at once — living with a new family, a new city, work change, school change, friends change ... everything. I called my mother every day at first."

Eventually, Grant settled in. He opted for the invitation to Colorado Springs after his boys gymnastics coach at the Butler club, Kevin Hallinan, opted for a job in New York.

"At that point, I decided to try broadening my horizons," Grant said. "I love Butler, but I always wondered what it'd be like somewhere else.

"One of the Olympic training center coaches (Ron Brant) saw me at a regional meet and invited me to come down. After a while, I decided to go for it."

Steve Heasley, a former gymnast himself and owner of the Butler Gymnastics Club, respected the decision.

"That's a gutsy thing for any kid," Heasley said. "The move down there helped Nick grow as an individual and within the sport.

"He's no longer a boy. He's a solid young man. He visited us over Christmas and demonstrated skills in his floor exercise I haven't seen a guy do in a long time."

Grant finished second in vault at the Pacific Coast Classic this year. He finished seventh in all-around at the 2007 Region VII Championships and placed 17th in the national qualifier last April.

"I'm so much more disciplined now," Grant said. "Competing with and against so many high-caliber athletes, I don't have much fear out there."

How has the Colorado Springs experience benefited him most?

"I'm more mature, more responsible, and I appreciate my family a lot more," Grant said.