Pasted on the wall of the Butler Intermediate High School gymnasium, the banner almost seems out of place.

It reads: Butler Girls Gymnastics 1980-81 WPIAL, PIAA Champion.

Butler hasn’t had a high school gymnastics team since the 1989-90 school year. Seneca Valley also hasn’t had a team for more than a decade.

The sport is nearly extinct among Western Pennsylvania high schools, with only seven schools still fielding teams in the WPIAL.

“There were five sections (divisions) of gymnastics in the WPIAL in 1980,” former Butler coach Steve Heasley said. “Now there is only one.”

Expensive equipment — a spring floor for gymnastics costs $25,000 alone — and lack of qualified coaches caused the decline of the sport at the high school level.

“School districts couldn’t keep up with the evolution of the sport,” Heasley said.

“Equipment became outdated and dangerous. And when a coach left, it wasn’t like football or basketball where you’d get 20 fresh applicants. Qualified gymnastics coaches in school systems are few and far between.”

The number of athletes on the teams — Butler’s last high school girls squad had 15 — didn’t justify the expense.“Lack of coaches and the danger factor didn’t make gymnastics a worthwhile venture for high schools,” said former University of Pittsburgh gymnast Kathy Klein.“The level of difficulty increased so much that high schools couldn’t keep up.”Klein and her husband, Frank, also a former Pitt gymnast, opened X-Cel Gymnastics in Cranberry Township with 100 students in 1993. X-Cel has more than 1,500 students now.The sport remains alive through private clubs and organizations. Heasley owns and operates the Butler Gymnastics Club in Butler Township and had 60 students when he opened the facility in 1974.He has more than 600 now.

First- or second-year gymnasts may spend only an hour per week at a gymnastics club. Advanced gymnasts may work on their skills more than 20 hours per week.“It’s an addiction,” said Becky Pomposelli, a coach at Butler Gymnastics and a member of Butler’s last high school team. “I began when I was 2. Now I’m 30 and I’m still here.“The sport is so much more demanding here. Kids have to do all four events (balance beam, pommel horse, floor and parallel bars). In high school, it was more like a recreational program. It was more relaxed. You worked on your individual skills, but no one really pushed you.”The majority of gymnasts at Butler Gymnastics and X-Cel are female — roughly 80 percent at X-Cel — and are in the under-14 category.

“Most of the girls in gymnastics are straight-A students,” Pomposelli said. “They’re perfectionists. They are respectful kids, very motivated kids.”“The majority of our kids are honor students,” Frank Klein agreed. “We had two valedictorians last year. These kids have developed well-rounded personalities.“They learn how to prioritize. They have to in order to get their work done. Some leave the sport in their teens because their bodies are no longer conducive to improving. They are goal-oriented people and if they can no longer improve, they don’t want to do it anymore.”

Other than the Olympic Games, gymnasts don’t compete in the broad public spotlight. They don’t worry about dieting to maintain their shape or weight.“I eat whatever I want whenever I want,” said Rebekah Zaiser, 16, a level 10 gymnast from Marshall Township. “I spend six days a week (at X-Cel), 32 hours a week. I work it off.”“You don’t have to watch what you eat,” said Natalie Beilstein, 14, a student in the South Butler School District who trains at Butler Gymnastics. “You burn off so much energy working out.”Level 10 gymnasts — among the most advanced — are a vast minority at local clubs. X-Cel has only 10 among its 1,500 members.“Everybody sets yearly goals and they maximize what they can do,” Frank Klein said. “Few people are capable of getting that far, but they still enjoy the sport.”Kevin Hallinan coaches the boys competitive team at the Butler Gymnastics Club. He was New York State’s all-around high school champion in 1999 and competed at Temple University.The Butler Gymnastics Club has 20 members on its boys team, ranging in age from 7 to 18.“Gymnastics is mentally and physically challenging and there is no instant gratification,” Hallinan said. “Success comes over time, and there’s a lack of public recognition.“Gymnasts are self-motivated people. You have to work hard to accomplish these skills and such efforts build self-esteem.“Anyone can pick up a basketball, take a few shots at the hoop and eventually put one in. No one can just jump on a pommel horse and know what to do, not without training,” he added.

Beilstein and Kasey Davidson, a 14-year-old level 7 gymnast from Evans City, began their gymnastics careers at age 2 at the Butler Gymnastics Club.They consistently train four or five days a week, four hours per day, and don’t grow tired of it.“It’s fun,” Davidson said. “It’s like a giant play room. You’re always trying new things, expanding on moves. No day is the same.”“I’ve gotten to know so many people through this sport,” Beilstein said. “I like coming here. This is my second house. The people here are my second family.”The Butler Gymnastics Club has 20,000 square feet of training area. X-Cel, which has expanded three times since opening 12 years ago, has 15,000 square feet.While not all gymnasts stay with the sport, many use their finely honed gymnastics skills to succeed in other sports.Melanie Buczko broke the pole vault record at Bucknell University after years of gymnastics at Heasley’s club. Rachel Farabee went on to a stellar girls basketball career at Butler High School and is a pole vaulter at the University of South Carolina.Tara Maxwell is a senior co-captain in cheerleading at Butler, which recently finished fourth at a national competition by using tumbling skills learned through gymnastics.“I grew up on gymnastics and so did most of my (cheerleading) teammates,” Maxwell said. “Since there is no high school team, cheerleading was the next best thing for us.”

Gymnastics has a rich history in Butler County. Fifteen members of the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame were gymnasts, including former Pittsburgh Steelers strength and conditioning coach Paul “Red” Uram and former NFL conditioning coach Dave McKinnis.Heasley compiled a 54-2 record in five years of coaching Butler High School girls gymnastics — the best record of any coach in any sport in the school’s history.“If there was still a high school team, we’d have even more young gymnasts here,” Heasley said. “A high school team would serve to reinforce the sport.”Many parents introduce their children to gymnastics at the age of 18 months. A Movement for Life program, which involves children up to age 3, emphasizes basic movement, perceptual motor skills, rhythmic activity and ball handling.From there, youths may become competitive gymnasts, recreational gymnasts, or just occasional visitors to the sport.“A lot of people use it just to stay in shape or to work on skills for other sports,” Heasley said of gymnastics. “Only 10 percent of our clientele are competitive gymnasts.”Some kids simply move on to other things.“They develop other interests,” Kathy Klein said. “There’s Little League, scout clubs, soccer … We don’t keep everybody.”But the competitive gymnast thrives in a private arena. The lone public stage for a gymnast is the Summer Olympics, held every four years.Beilstein hopes to be on that stage someday.“I’d like to be in the Olympics, but if I’m not, it’s OK,” she said. “This is what I love to do.”And she’s benefiting from it.“Competitive gymnasts are focused, driven, organized … They know how to use their time,” Hallinan said. “They are future leaders because they’re among the best of their generation.”