Gymnast in unexpected position

A vitamin deficiency will keep the young athlete from twisting, tumbling and turning for a year.

By CHRIS WAGENHEIM, Times Correspondent
Published September 14, 2007

Sasha Noffz, 12, has a vitamin D deficiency that makes her bones more likely to fracture and break. After consulting with doctors and coaches, Noffz's parents have decided to keep her from any sport for a month, while her medication builds her bones back up.
	[Zach Boyden-Holmes | Times]

The second time 12-year-old Sasha Noffz broke her arm in more than one place last March, no tears were shed. However, when the doctors got to the bottom of why she was getting such violent fractures, her heart broke and then the tears came. She would have to sit out gymnastics for a year.

Learning that she couldn't practice her beloved sport was hard.

She cried when she told Teri Ippolito, director of Millenium Gymnastics. But all agreed to follow the doctor's suggestion.

"It was just a real common sense decision," Ippolito said. "Although we love the sport we have to think about their future 30 years from now, 40 years from now."

Noffz was told she has a vitamin D deficiency, making her bones more likely to fracture and break.

After eliminating the possibility of disease as a the culprit of the deficiency, the doctors' and parents' best guess is that it stems from malnutrition due to Noffz growing up in an orphanage outside Kansk, Russia.

Noffz has been in the United States for three years under the care of her adoptive parents Annette and James Noffz.

Before being officially adopted, Noffz and her younger sister came to the Pasco area on a special program that arranges a two-week visit between orphans and their prospective parents.

During that visit, the family went with other adopting families to the YMCA in Tampa where Noffz was introduced to gymnastics. The facility has a large tumbling area, and Noffz was learning round-offs and cartwheels with ease, much to the surprise of the other parents.

"The other parents asked if she had ever done gymnastics before," Noffz's mother said. "I said 'I know just as much about my kid as you do about yours.' But we knew we needed to get her in (to gymnastics)."

Noffz begged her parents to take her back to the YMCA, and they decided to enroll her into Millenium Gymnastics a year and a half ago.

Ippolito said that it was the first time she had seen a student move from novice ranking to elite ranking in one meet. Novice, advanced, open and elite are all based on overall meet scores.

Ippolito said it usually takes anywhere from three meets to a whole season in order to move through all the rankings.

"It's unfortunate to have her out, because she really has everything it takes. She is just one of those kids that you can say 'this one just might be able to make it all the way,'" Ippolito said. "She has the mental focus, the physical ability, she has the right attitude, the right work ethic. Everything is phenomenal about her."

After consulting with doctors and coaches, Noffz's parents have decided to keep her from any sport for a month, while her medication builds her bones back up.

After the month is up Noffz said she will be taking swimming lessons and eventually coming back into the gym to keep up her flexibility and low-impact skills.

After six months she will go back to the doctors who will assess her bone density. Noffz hopes to return for the next fall season. She will however, keep in contact with the other athletes at the gym. She said she drags her parents to their meets and that the athletes have sleepovers. But Noffz misses competing.

"Gymnastics keeps me active and happy," Noffz said. "It really gets me going."

[Last modified September 13, 2007, 23:40:11]