This hometown gymnast is part of history-making HBCU team

A Valley Stream graduate is part of the first gymnastics team from a historically Black college or university to compete at the NCAA level.

Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education established before 1964 with the mission of educating and serving primarily Black Americans. There are currently over 100 HBCUs across the country, each competing at the NCAA level in various sports, but only one of them does so in gymnastics.

At the start of this year, Fisk University, in Nashville, became the first and only HBCU to compete in gymnastics at the NCAA level, debuting its team at the Super 16 event against North Carolina, Southern Utah and Washington on Jan. 6 in Las Vegas. Other schools have gymnastics programs but do not compete at that level against others.

Fisk gymnast Kaylei McDonald, 19, grew up playing different sports, primarily basketball, around Valley Stream. When she turned 8, she was getting bored and wanted to try something new. She decided on gymnastics.

“I actually didn’t even start out thinking about gymnastics,” McDonald said. “I tried all the sports to see what I liked, and eventually I found gymnastics.”

She began taking classes at Long Island Gymnastics Academy in Cedarhurst just to try it out. After learning the basics and practicing, she quickly started getting the feel of it and competed in small, local events.

Soon, McDonald was ready to the join the district team. She joined the squad in seventh grade and was captain all through her years at Valley Stream South High School.

She qualified for the 2017 Level 8 State Championships in eighth grade and placed second on balance beam at the 2018 Level 8 State Championships. For the 2019 season, she moved up to Level 9, where she placed ninth on floor exercise. She qualified for the 2020 Level 9 State Championships, but no one competed due to Covid-19. She has also been a New York State Public High School Athletic Association Section 8 State Gymnastics member for three years. She helped bring the Valley Stream gymnastics teams to the state championships four times.

Levels 8-10, the highest and most competitive levels, are considered optional, and gymnasts in these tiers are considered masters of their routines and have the ability to create their own unique routines during their meets.

Being a part of the inaugural HBCU competitive gymnastics team means a lot to McDonald, and she hopes progress will continue. This summer, Talladega College in Alabama will launch its own women’s gymnastics team. Talladega’s team began forming on Jan. 14 with the help of Brown Girls Do Gymnastics, an advocacy group that supports athletes from Black and brown communities. The group also helped start Fisk’s program.

“It means a lot because we are the first place to start this,” she said of gymnastics at HBCUs. “So, we’re like the stepping stone and other universities will hopefully follow our lead in the future.”