Senior Reflections: April Baker
Mar 12 | Women's Gymnastics
PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Rutgers gymnastics is set to host the Big Ten Championships Saturday at the RAC. It will be the final home meet for the Scarlet Knights' three-member senior class, who celebrated Senior Day at the Livingston Gym on Feb. 11. This will be the first time RU hosts a conference meet since 2006. Click here for more information.
A native of Andover, Massachusetts, April Baker has competed in 28 career meets, including all 11 so far this season on uneven bars and balance beam. She holds career highs of 9.900 on vault, 9.825 on uneven bars, 9.800 on balance beam and 9.875 on floor exercise. A three-time academic all-conference selection, Baker will graduate with a exercise science & sports studies degree.
"April has had to deal with a lot of adversity over her career," head coach Louis Levine said. "Probably one of the most talented gymnasts we've ever had here, and she's had to deal with a lot. But she's never given up. She was a well-trained gymnast when she came here, and I think for most, I don't know if they would have been able to handle all the adversity. She's been able to just keep battling back time after time and working to finish up strong here."
Here is Baker in her own words on her career...
On starting gymnastics: "I actually started about four or five and I started because I saw my sister doing it, my younger sister of two years, and I was jealous of her as sisters tend to get. So I had to try to one-up her."
On getting into competitive gymnastics: "It definitely got competitive as soon as I started gymnastics. I remember to this day my old coach talks about it. I went for my tryout my very first day, and I'd never done gymnastics before, and he just remembers me doing things that girls that have been doing gymnastics for years weren't even able to do so he knew it was pretty natural. I grew up with Olympic teammates, a few of my teammates went to the Olympics (Aly Raisman, Alicia Sacramone). I kind of knew that that lifestyle wasn't for me, but I saw so many girls went to college and I knew right away that's what I wanted to do."
On Rutgers: "Rutgers entered the picture I think just along with every other school kind of. I always grew up saying I wanted to go to these top-five schools, and there comes a point when you see that it might not be realistic. So we started reaching out and other schools started to reach back out. I had to get a big knee surgery in the middle of recruitment, so luckily (head coach) Lou (Levine) saw past that and gave me a chance."
On the college experience: "It's been obviously a great experience. A little not the way I expected it to go, but I'm not unhappy with that. I think I learned a lot of stuff about myself that doesn't have to do with gymnastics, so I think that's just as important as growing in the sport itself."
On fighting through adversity: "There were times where I think like five injuries ago, I said that if I get injured again I'd quit, and here I am. I proved a lot to myself and I think to a lot of people. If there ever comes a point in time where I'm like, 'I can't do this,' in my career or in any other aspect of my life, I think I'll reflect on these times."
On the future: "I think at some point my goal is to get my MBA, but for now I want to travel a lot. I want to move. I've been in the northeast for 21 years so I'm ready to get out. So that's pretty exciting."
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