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Craig Mattick: Welcome to another edition of In Play. I'm Craig Mattick. Today's guest holds the state record for individual titles in a career in her sport. She is also one of only a handful of South Dakota gymnasts who also went on to college for gymnastics. She was key for helping her school win three state titles, a couple of runner up finishes. She was a two-time athlete of the year. A total of 19 state gymnastic titles, that's a record which has now stood for more than 13 years. She's the Deuel Cardinal now living in Battle Creek, Iowa, Samantha Wiekamp Sadler. Sam, welcome to In Play.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Thank you.
Craig Mattick: You had an incredible gymnastics career at Deuel and it started so young, you were just in the seventh grade.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yup.
Craig Mattick: In the seventh grade you win all four events, and the all around at the state gymnastics meet in 2008.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Oh, that's so long ago. Oh, my goodness.
Craig Mattick: When did you get interested in gymnastics?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: So actually, thank you to my sister for getting me involved. She's 12 years older than me, and she actually happened to be in Watertown and came back home one day and was like, "Hey, mom, they have gymnastics. You should put her in gymnastics." Because I would climb on the door handles and hang on them, and my dad would sit in the recliner and I would put my arms over the chair and I would swing back and forth, and so she was like, "I think this would probably be really good for her." So at the age of three, my mom enrolled me in gymnastics and it kind of took off from there.
Craig Mattick: Deuel High School, by the way, for those that don't know, located in Clear Lake. It's in Deuel County, Northeast South Dakota, includes the Deuel. The school district also includes the towns of Clear Lake, and Gary, Goodwin, Altamont, and Bemis. Now, I have been to Clear Lake and Gary, I've never been to Altamont and Bemis, which is not too far from Clear Lake. I'm going to have to get there, to those unincorporated towns that we have in South Dakota, but you lived in Clear Lake, right?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I actually lived in the country, so Goodwin was my address. I was about 15 minutes from town.
Craig Mattick: So why did gymnastics take off for you?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Oh, I don't know. I enjoyed the flipping. I enjoyed the tumbling, the thrill, the ... I don't know if I love practice so much, but the thrill you got from being at a gymnastics meet and getting to perform those skills, and work through those fears and that kind of stuff, I guess is kind of what allowed me to stay in it. I mean, I liked practice too. I liked the camaraderie and that kind of thing, but I think it was just being able to compete and show off the things that you've been practicing and learning. Also, there comes some thrill when you start to win medals and that kind of thing, but there's more from it than just winning, which I got to learn in high school. Losing is also a part of that, but I think just all the life lessons that came with it, and the ability to just show off those skills that you've been learning was awesome.
Craig Mattick: Did you play volleyball for Deuel?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I did not. I did football cheerleading, and I did track.
Craig Mattick: Gymnastics is so unique. Here in South Dakota, you have to try to master four events, and you did as a seventh grader. What do you remember about that state gymnastics meet in 2008? You're just a seventh grader. First time at the state meet.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Honestly, one of the one things I remember is that when I was running up to see my mom and dad after the meet, I tripped and I fell, and everyone was like, "You can stay on the balance beam, but you can't walk upstairs." That's one of the things I remember. Truthfully, it was such a whirlwind. I don't remember a ton from it other than, "Well, I can do this, I can do gymnastics," and just do what you know how to do, but other than the falling off the stairs, and the, whoa, I'm in this big arena ... When you're in club gymnastics you're used to competing in a gym or in, maybe a high school gymnasium, but mostly we were competing in the club gymnastics' home places, and so being in Brookings and competing under the lights, and so I think just being in awe of, "Oh, wow, I'm competing at this level here," I think was crazy at that time.
As I got older and I started to do that more it wasn't so crazy, but when you're that young and you're competing against seniors in high school, and you're like, "Well, I think I can do this." I definitely know winning wasn't on my brain like, "Oh, I'm going to win. I'm going to beat these guys."
Craig Mattick: Well, it was in Brookings. Yeah, Brookings.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: It was in Brookings, yup.
Craig Mattick: That first year, and of course Madison went on to win their 14th straight title, and you had all these Madison athletes going after you. You had Breuer, and the Fincks, and the [inaudible 00:05:59] from Madison. I mean, you knew that these girls were after you.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I know I, so to speak, knocked off a couple seniors that year.
Craig Mattick: Yes, you did.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I don't think they were too thrilled about that, but yeah.
Craig Mattick: Did you think though going into that meet that you'd be winning at vault? Or the bars? Or the beam? Or the all-around even?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Like I said, I don't honestly remember going in thinking, "Oh, man, I'm going to win all the events or one event." I think they've changed it a little bit since I've been there. So we did like, it was individual team night one night, and then the other stuff was the next night. I don't remember thinking, "Oh, my gosh, I'm going to go in and win." I just wanted to go do gymnastics. It wasn't about the medals. It wasn't about the first place.
Craig Mattick: Deuel, by the way, finishing in the team points fourth that year. Madison, of course, winning again, so dominant. By the way, those four events in gymnastics in South Dakota includes the vault, which you won six times.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yup.
Craig Mattick: The uneven bars, you won three times. The balance beam, you won the state title three times on that. The floor exercise, you won four times, and the all-around champ three times. In Class B, only seven athletes have won all four events and the all-around in one year. You did it twice. Sam, that's crazy.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I guess I didn't realize that.
Craig Mattick: It's crazy.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah.
Craig Mattick: It just shows how tough though it is to accomplish.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: It is crazy to think about. Wow. All those stats are saying, I don't think about that stuff that much.
Craig Mattick: Who was motivating you at the time early on as a gymnast?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Myself. I don't remember a specific person, and no one ever said, "You need to go to gymnastics." If I didn't want to do it, I'm sure my parents would have said, "Okay, we don't have to do it." I always wanted to do gymnastics, and so I always wanted to improve, I always wanted to be better. I always wanted to, how can I make myself [inaudible 00:08:10] better in an event? But I don't remember there being any specific person, but I know my mom and dad were 100% behind me. Clear Lake itself, I'm sure was 100% behind me. I worked out in Watertown at Dakota Gold, so they were behind me, but I don't know if there was a specific person that was like, "Oh, man, I want to do it because of this." I mean, obviously, young gymnasts you watch Olympians and you're like, "Oh, man, that's so cool," but not one specific person, I don't think.
Craig Mattick: You know you knew what it took to ... well, maybe you didn't know what it took to win everything as a seventh grader, and then the next year, it's 2009, you're back at the state meet. It's out in Rapid City. You're a state champion again in the vault, the beam, the floor, you're the all-around champ, but you placed third in the uneven bars.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Because I fell on my butt, on my dismount, I think.
Craig Mattick: Madison, of course, won the team title again for the 15th year. Was Madison always in the back of your mind when you were performing?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Not really. As a team, yes. We knew that as we started to improve as a team, we wanted to beat Madison. We wanted to, not because, "Oh, we want to knock them off, they won too many times," but you want to win, but as an individual, no. I don't think I ever was like, "Oh, man, Madison's going to be there." That was not a thing. Just as a team. As a team, we really wanted to have that first place title.
Craig Mattick: 2010, you're a veteran now. I mean, you're a freshman and a veteran at the state meet, two-time defending all-around champ. You win the vault and the floor exercise again, but you're fifth in the uneven bars, fourth on the balance beam, finishing third in the all-around. Was there more stiffer competition that year?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Honestly, it was just me. I was in my head about another competitor, and they were very good, and they came to play, and they showed up, and I just ... I could not get past that, my mental blocks, my things. That year was tough. That was a really hard year after that. I don't talk about this to many people, and my mom knows this, but I really felt like at that point in my life I had let down an entire town, not just me, an entire town because I didn't win, and I felt people became accustomed to that. My mom reassured me, "You didn't let anybody down." Ultimately, at the end of the day, I let myself down, but I know I didn't let down other people. Other people were, "Woohoo! This is great," whatever, and I think that allowed me the next year to come back even stronger, but yeah, that was a tough pill to swallow. When I said, "As I got older and you learn to lose," that was one of the defining moments of you've got to learn to lose as well as win.
Craig Mattick: You know, Sam, the older you get, the tougher gymnastics can be. Was your body able to handle getting older? Maybe getting a little bigger? What was going on?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: So I always told myself, this I never told anybody, but I always told myself if I have to take ibuprofen every day to do gymnastics, I'm not going to do it anymore. It's not worth it to me to have to take ibuprofen every single day, every single gymnastics meet to compete. I love the sport, but that's not worth it to me. I made it all the way to my senior year in college where I finally had enough nagging injuries that I started to take that ibuprofen. But I think just in college, we do a lot of weightlifting and sports performance type things that allowed us to recover really well, so that helped a lot as I got older and learned that weightlifting and stretching, and those recovery mechanisms were really important. In our college, and I'm sure most colleges do a really great job of making sure your athletes stay in shape, between athletic training stuff, and those drink training exercises, so that helped a lot learning those things as I got older.
Craig Mattick: 2011, you're a sophomore, and it's a big year for you and the Deuel Cardinals. For the second time, you win all four events in the all-around, and Deuel snaps that Madison championship streak at 16, Deuel wins their very first gymnastics title. What was going on in 2011?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: That was awesome. I remember that year was just, "I'm just going to go do gymnastics. I'm going to do as myself." We knew there was a chance as a team that we could win, and you're slightly keeping track of that as a team, but we just had the talent that year to finally kind of push that envelope of, "We could do this." I just remember listening to those games, "This place, this place, this place, and second place," and then when it wasn't Madison, and I don't want to speak poorly of them, they're a great team, they've done a lot of great things, when we won the whole gym was like erupting. It was so cool. That was awesome.
Craig Mattick: Well, that year you were pushed by a teammate. Meaghan Sievers was second to you in every event that year. Meaghan was an eighth grader, you're a sophomore. What was that like knowing you had a teammate right on your back?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yup. So she was part of my freshman year too, and it was good. She was a phenomenal gymnast. She worked really hard. She did a lot of amazing things, and that pushed me as well. Hey, she's coming up, and she's just like any competitor, she wants to win, and it's that person or teammate, or even if it's from a different team, that's that person that you're like, "I got to work harder. I got to do better reps. I got to put in more hours in the gym to keep up." It's hard when ... just like when I was in seventh grade and I came in, and those seniors were there. It's hard when you have a younger competitor coming in, a little bit more, I've got that spunk still, but she definitely was a good push, and a good, "Hey, I got to work harder. I got to do more. I got to do better if I want to keep up and be in the top."
Craig Mattick: Lynn Gudmundson was your coach. What kind of coach was Lynn?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Mr. G. Oh, he was awesome. He just definitely ... I think it's not hard, but it's a different dynamic when you have kids coming in who've done club and high school is not their first time doing the sports. So a lot of his athletes were first time gymnasts, they came in seventh grade, they wanted to compete, they loved the sport, versus Meaghan and I who came in, and we had done club for all our lives. So he did a lot of, not so much teaching because we had the skills, but just maintaining and knew our goals. He did a really great job making practice flow, and meets for fun. He's awesome. Mr. G is awesome.
Craig Mattick: Well, he's still at Deuel. He's been, of course, involved with football and golf there. Of course, after he stepped down, you had Caitlin Steffensen as the coach, won some titles there, and now Morgan Kwasniewsk or Morgan Waege, she's the coach. Of course, she was a gymnast at Deuel at one time. Pretty successful as well.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yup. I did club gymnastics with her for a while. It was awesome when those past athletes can come back and be the coach because they know what it's like to have been there in that school, in that setting. So that's always awesome when those athletes can come back and be coaches.
Craig Mattick: Have you thought about coaching?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I have. I've coached in Iowa. I don't currently coach. I would love to. That would be my ultimate goal. I do judge gymnastics, so I come to South Dakota periodically for club. I haven't gotten into high school scene, mostly because it's kind of hard to leave work on Tuesday or Thursday to get to a high school gymnastics meet, but coaching definitely is always in the back of my brain as something that I would love to do if I get the opportunity to do so.
Craig Mattick: Sam, you talked about working out in Watertown on a daily basis. Right before, it was right the 2007 school year, the Deuel Gymnastics Center was formed. It was built by funds raised by Deuel Gymnastics Incorporated. It started when you were a seventh grader. What was Deuel Gymnastics Center like? Were you involved with it at all?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Oh, yeah. I got to help put the ceiling in. I'll never forget one of the first practices. We had heaters going in there because it wasn't all finished, but it was finished enough that we could practice. Here's another Mr. G story. I'll never forget my sixth grade year, he caught me in the hallway one day and he says, "You're coming to compete for us next year, right?" And I was like, "I don't know." I had told my parents if they got a building I would go compete for them, and then we ended up getting a building, and so that's how the pieces fell, and so that's where I ended up.
Craig Mattick: That's pretty impressive, impressive for a town of 1200 to back the gymnastics program.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah, absolutely. It was awesome. They had a ton of support. I'm not saying we couldn't have done it where we were practicing, but having that building definitely, I think, contributed to our ability to be better. Now they have a club there, which is so awesome. Those kids don't have to necessarily drive to Watertown like I did, which is awesome for them. Caitlin's awesome. I worked out with Caitlin. I know she competed for Watertown, but I did club with her and she's a phenomenal person and coach. So yeah, kudos to Clear Lake for getting that building put up and backing it, and raising all the money, that's fantastic.
Craig Mattick: So as a seventh grader, eighth grader, ninth grader, sophomore, you're almost getting ready for your junior year at Deuel, was there any thought during that time that, "You know what? My body is set enough, I maybe need more motivation, maybe I don't want to be a gymnast anymore," was that thought ever present?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: The thought of wanting to not be a gymnast wasn't necessarily because of my body. I was getting to a point of frustration with the sport in different ways, which is a story for another time, but it wasn't because of my body. My body was never the problem. I was very glad that after my senior year I took a year off, and then I was contacted by Utah State University, I went there to visit. I did the things, and I came back, and I talked to my ... who was coaching me at the time, Dennis Champoux at Power & Grace in Sioux Falls, I came back and I was like, "I can't go there. That's not where it is." He knew some people, and knew Kasey Crawford, at the time assistant coach, now head coach at UWL, and got a hold of her.
Then Barb Gibson was my coach for two years, and then Kasey was my coach for two years, got a hold of Barb and kind of the rest was history. But taking the time off between senior year and when I started competing in college was very good for me to refind the love and passion for the sport.
Craig Mattick: UWL, by the way, University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse, we'll talk about that in a moment. Specifically when it comes to the four events in gymnastics in South Dakota, the vault, that's where you seem to be the best, for six years you just didn't lose. What was it about the vault and the success that you had?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Honestly, vault is my favorite event. I always told people I don't really have a favorite, or at least a most favorite or a least favorite, mostly because you have to do them all. I love and hate them all equally most days, but vault definitely, if I had to pick one and tell people my favorite, it was vault. It was quick. It was power. I could dance, I could do the floor routines, I could do this stuff, but I really liked the power and the dynamics of vault, and I just ... it worked for me. I could do it. I could be explosive. After graduating, I learned a new skill on vault, and so that helped me later on as well. I just always loved the vault.
Now, I do remember coming back after I had graduated and was trying to get back into it, and do a couple meets just to compete, and I was like, "I don't know why I'm scared. I know how to vault. I've done this. I'm good at this." There was some time where I was afraid of vault, but it was always one that I just never had any fear on. The other three, there was fear at some point. Vault, until I took some time off, there really was never any fear in doing vault.
Craig Mattick: Between the vault, and the bars, and the beam, and the floor, which one did you have to work harder at to become good?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Probably bars, but mentally always balance beam. Balance beam and I, I ended up being okay at beam. Obviously, I have a couple titles. I did all-around in college, I was okay at beam, but mentally on balance beam that's where that got me. It took a lot of work just learning how to do visualizations, and words, and different things to get past the, "I'm afraid to do this event."
Craig Mattick: It's 2012, you're a junior, state gymnastic meets in Brookings. You win the vault again, fifth time. You win the uneven bars for the third time. You finish second in the all-around. Deuel repeats again, state champs, you beat Madison. You're named the Athlete of the Year for the second time. Boy, gymnastics is on a roll for Deuel. Working at perfecting four events, you have 19 individual titles at that time. What was the summer like prior to your senior year, knowing all the success that you had had so far in gymnastics?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I don't know. I don't honestly remember that summer very much, other than, again, just going back and wanting to improve and wanting to be my best. At some point, maybe not in high school, did I realize, but as I got into college, there is something to be said about it's not just about you. You want your team to do well, and you want your team to perform well, and I always knew that the better I could do and the better I could perform, the better my team was going to do if they counted my score. So I went back to practice at Dakota Gold and worked on improving, and I also did club at the same time.
So I did high school gymnastics for that season, and then I would go back and I would compete as a club athlete as well. So working on those skills to make sure that those routines were up to par. We didn't water down much just because you would come back from high school and go to club, and you had your stuff all watered down you were going to not do very well. So we tried really hard not to water down a lot of stuff, putting in the hours and the work, and hoping for whatever was to come would be the best.
Craig Mattick: Throughout the season you have gymnastics meets, and then you have the gymnastics meet itself, and you've run into these other athletes throughout the season, throughout the years, what was the camaraderie like? Let's say all the participants in the vault, you'd seen them two, three, four years in a row, all become friends? Was there-
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah. I think, I don't know if in high ... I mean, yeah, you start to support those other girls, and you watch them and you see their success. Again, in high school, I didn't see this as much, but as I got into college, I was better at doing this, better at looking out around me versus focus on just me doing me. But yeah, you start to become friends, you start to cheer them on, you start to, "Hey, wow, you did this. That's so fantastic. You weren't doing this last year," that kind of thing. So you start to support them because you see them for however long, because you're either all in gymnastics for four years or six years, or however long, whenever they started. So you start to see and watch them improve or do better things, and so, yeah, definitely.
Craig Mattick: No jealousy though, right? No jealousy out there amongst the athletes.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Sure.
Craig Mattick: 2013, it's your senior year. Deuel wins the Gymnastics Team title for the third year in a row. You tie for first in the vault, which would be your sixth straight title, but it's Meaghan Sievers, your teammate. She's been pushing you and pushing you for years. She eventually wins the all-around, and she had almost the year that you did as a seventh grader, except you guys tied in the vault that year.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Right. Yup.
Craig Mattick: Your feelings coming off the mat for the last time as a senior at Deuel. After all those years, was there emotion after that gymnastics meet was wrapping up?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah, there was. I remember I had an okay meet balance beam, my favorite event, you know.
Craig Mattick: You were third.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I didn't do so well on that event, and I remember coming off of that event specifically and just breaking down and like, "Oh, my gosh, that could have gone a lot better. It's my senior year." Not disappointment in the career that I had, but just in that day of I knew I could do better. Obviously, emotion when you've done a sport for as long as I had, and have done, been involved in, it feels like a piece of you is done. That can be maybe a little bit later piece of this, but when I was done with that it was like, "Oh, okay, well, now what? I'm done with gymnastics. What do we do now?" Luckily, I still did track and all that, so there was still more for the senior year in sporting capacity, but I do remember that being a very emotional ... I cried. I know I cried. I remember it being very emotional, and mostly for, "I wish I had done better."
Craig Mattick: It's crazy, here in South Dakota, we always encourage, and we follow athletes who go from high school to college. We have seen it done numerous times in all the sports that we have that are sanctioned in South Dakota, with the exception of gymnastics. We really haven't had a large number of athletes who have gone on to college and continue to participate in gymnastics, but you did. I'm thinking there's maybe five or six, or am I way low on-
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah, I think that's ... That's it, I think. Five or six, yup.
Craig Mattick: You decided to take a year off before UW Lacrosse gave you a call.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I did.
Craig Mattick: What were you thinking? What were you thinking?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah, kind of like I said, I was burnt out of the sport itself, not injured, not body-wise, just mentally I needed a break. Then I went to college, and oddly enough, I have all of one video on YouTube that I didn't even upload of me doing a skill at a camp. Utah State University contacted me, they're like, "Hey, we saw you can do this. Can you still do this?" And I was like, "I haven't done gymnastics in six months, but I can go back and train and whatever." So I got back into training, and I went to Power & Grace in Sioux Falls because I was at Vermilion at that time, so it was just an easier drive than getting all the way back to Watertown. Then like I said, I went to visit there, and just kind of a long story made short, I realized I didn't want to go that far away from home, and came back, and a couple of days later I talked to my coach and I was like, "I can't go there."
So we looked around, and I talked to Barb Gibson, the head coach, and her first question to me was, "What do you want to get out of coming here?" And I said, "I want to compete. If I'm going to work out and I'm going to put my time and my effort in, I want to compete." She said, "You'd probably compete for us on vault," and I was like, "Great. That's all I wanted to hear." So then I did a couple just little meets with Dennis, just to kind of get back in the groove or whatever. Then I went to UWL that fall, and as a D3 team we had to try out for the team, we weren't just given a spot. I told everyone, I said, "You know what? If I don't make the team, I'm going home. Nothing is keeping me here. I'm five hours away from home, and if I don't make it, then I'll go back home."
By the grace of God or however you want to say it, I made the team, and that was a really good year to fall back in love with gymnastics, and learn myself again, and realize that, "Oh, I do really love this sport, and I really do love what it has given me and taught me, and all those things."
Craig Mattick: What was the transition like that first year at UW Lacrosse after being off for a year?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Because I'd been working out at that point a year, it was not terribly hard. It was very, not necessarily humbling, but it was really awesome to see now you're in a gym with athletes who are all doing the same thing. Working out at Dakota Gold, there was two of us who were level 10s, and so we were the oldest on the team from the time we were like eighth graders, and the highest level for a long time. So going to a gym where everybody was at the same level and on the same timeline, that kind of thing was awesome, and really fantastic to be around people that were like-minded, and wanted to be there for the sport because as D3 athletes we don't get the scholarships. You're there because you love the sport.
Craig Mattick: As a junior, you tied for the national title on the vault, earned all American honors as a senior, all American honors in the all-around at the national championships. What were you most proud of as a college gymnast?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Honestly, I will never forget that national title in vault because the day before was team and all-around, and they did the award ceremony for all-around, and "I won," and then they have a supper that night, and there was some buzz going around like, "Oh, the all-around results weren't right. They weren't correct." My head coach was like, "Hey, something happened. I don't think you actually won," and I was like, "Okay." The next morning she comes to get me and she's like, "You got to come with me. We have to go meet with the head of the NCGA," and I was like, "Okay." So we go, and that lady says, "Hey, we're really sorry. We never want this to happen," all of that, and I looked at her straight in the face and I said, "Can I just have my silver medal that I won and I earned?" She looked at me, her jaw dropped, and she's like, "Yeah, if we can find it," and I was like, "Great, I'll bring you my gold medal. You can have it back. It's not mine. I didn't earn it."
So I brought it back to her, and luckily that silver medal was on the top, she gave it to me. The person who won, Ebony, she was fantastic, a phenomenal gymnast. She deserved to win. We go to vault, and in college that rotation that we did was one event at a time, and I thought I was first, turns out I wasn't first. So I was all ready to go and then there's someone going on a different event, and there's cheering and I'm like, "I'm not competing." So I had to get refocused and reput together, and I ran down, did my vault, I stood there. If you watch a video of it, it all happens in a matter of seconds, but I stuck that vault and I stood there, and in my head I was there for a minute like, "You're standing here, you should probably take a step. Oh, you're not taking a step. Oh, you stuck it. Oh, you should probably salute now because you look like you don't know what you're doing." So I saluted, and everyone was like, "Oh, my gosh, that was so crazy. That was so awesome."
Craig Mattick: Almost like an exclamation point to your career.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Yeah. So that was really awesome. We won that year, the team did the night before. So that was just kind of a gymnastics is cool, gymnastics is awesome.
Craig Mattick: Six years of gymnastics at Deuel, another four in college, overall, how did the body react all those years? Did you ever have a nagging injury that prevented you from doing something? It seemed like you got lucky and was able to be healthy for most of the time.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I did get lucky. The only thing, my one year in college I sprained my ankle really severely doing a skill, and that bothered me for a while. But like I said, I really never wanted to be that person that had to take painkillers to get through the sport, and so I never had a serious nagging injury that stopped me, and I'm very lucky for that because a lot of people don't get through gymnastics without something. So I'm very thankful that I never had to experience a really, really big injury that needed surgery or those kinds of things.
Craig Mattick: It's not like you get up every morning and the knees are talking to you or your hips talking to you?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Oh, I didn't say that. That happened. I have Rice Krispies over here, Snap, Crackle, Pop, but other than that, things were good, things with the body are good. But yeah, definitely every morning I'm like, "Okay, well, I might have arthritis by the time I'm 40, but we're doing good."
Craig Mattick: You're now a high school counselor in Battle Creek, Iowa, which is a little west, I'm sorry, a little east and south of Sioux City. When did you decide that that was going to be a career path for you?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: So I got done with gymnastics and graduated, and I got married, and I was coaching at that time and I, like I said, coaching is always in the back of my mind. My husband is actually from this area where we live now, and he was like, "Hey, I want to go back. I want to do feed sales with my dad. Are you okay with this?" And I'm like, "Sure." So we moved back to Iowa. We were in South Dakota. We were in Sioux Falls for ... I was only there for like three months before we got married, and then we moved back a month after we got married, and I said, "If I can't coach, I still want to work with kids."
I had a psychology degree. So January of 2019 I started my professional school counseling degree, and a couple of years later I was able to get my first job. I was actually a middle school counselor when I started, and then the position at OABCIG opened up, and it's 15 minutes from my house versus 50 where I was driving for middle school counseling, and that's where we are. I knew I had a passion for working with kids and helping kids, and if I couldn't coach gymnastics ... Now, could I coach a different sport? Sure. But at that time, if I couldn't coach gymnastics, I wanted to work with kids still, and so counseling was my next place to do that.
Craig Mattick: You met your husband while you were both at USD, right?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Correct.
Craig Mattick: Now you have a couple of kids, right?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I do. I have two little boys. I have a three-year-old son, and almost 10-months old.
Craig Mattick: Not quite old. Well, maybe the three-year old could do some gymnastics.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: He is in gymnastics. He's at Siouxland Gymnastics in Sioux City, mostly probably to get prepared for wrestling. My husband was a wrestler, so the mobility, the agility, that kind of stuff is preparation probably for wrestling or basketball, whatever he chooses.
Craig Mattick: Back in 2013, the Deuel Cardinals and you were formerly recognized by the South Dakota legislature. What did that mean to you and the Cardinal team?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: It was an honor. Unsuspected. We didn't know that was coming obviously, but such an honor to be recognized, especially in a sport that's not as big as things like football and basketball. So being able to be recognized in a sport that's not lesser than those, but not as recognized was really fantastic. Just the fact that they even thought of us and wanted to recognize us is really amazing.
Craig Mattick: What's one thing that you think about going back to those hours of training back in Clear Lake, at the Deuel Gymnastics Center, trying to perfect the floor routine, or the vault, or the beam, or the bars? What's one thing you think about from time to time about what you did?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: Oh, wow, that's a great question. I don't think about it a lot. Honestly, I don't talk about it a lot. Even though I do work with kids, I don't talk about it a ton. I think what I take from it or what I think about is the lessons I learned. Winning is awesome, accolades are great, but ultimately what I've learned from the sport, time management, perseverance, determination, how to keep going when you feel like you're not good enough, even though you are, those are the things I think back on, and those are the things that have made me who I am, and have allowed me to accomplish what I have.
I don't think it's really a practice thing or an accolade per se, it's just the life lessons I learned, and the awesome coaches I had who were able to teach me those life lessons, each of them having their own spot in my journey. If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have been the athlete or the person I am. So I think those are the things that are the most memorable. Yes, like I told you the story about my vault, I will never forget that, but ultimately the life lesson I learned from that whole thing is more valuable to me because it taught me a lot of things, and how to be a good person, and how to treat people the right way. Yeah.
Craig Mattick: I got two more questions for you, Sam. One is you talked about your one son who's three is in gymnastics. You see a lot of club gymnastics around the area, and you see a lot of young kids, three, four, five years old, six years old who are involved in gymnastics. What do you tell their parents about what does gymnastics do for kids at that age?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: So at that age, you are learning gymnastics, but you're more learning things. The biggest reason my son is in gymnastics is to learn to stand in the line, wait his turn, to listen. You can learn that in school, your parents should be teaching you that, but there's something to be said about sports that teach you those things, any sport, not just gymnastics. But at that age, it's about having fun. You're learning the sport, but you want to have fun, not that you shouldn't have fun when you get older, and I would never ... Yes, maybe your kid wants to go to the Olympics, but not a ton of people go to the Olympics, and that was never my goal. I can distinctly remember thinking, "I don't want to do that because I don't want to work out 30 some hours a week, and I don't want to be homeschooled."
Ultimately, sports aren't just about having fun, they're about, like I said, those life lessons of determination, time management, perseverance, that if you get nothing else out of a sport, take those things away from the sport.
Craig Mattick: And Sam, is anyone going to break your record of 19 individual titles in gymnastics?
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: I hope so. That would be really cool. It's amazing that it-
Craig Mattick: They're going to have to start pretty young.
Sam Wiekamp Sadler: They would have to start in seventh grade for sure. If they did, that would be fantastic, and I would hope someone would tell me so I can come congratulate them myself, but I hope so. I don't know. It's doable if they have enough, the talent, the hard work, the determination to do it. It's work. It's not going to be easy because you have that, my dad always said you always have that next young one coming up that wants to win, so it's definitely not easy, but I think it's doable.
Craig Mattick: In Play with Craig Mattick is made possible by Horton in Britain, where smiling at work happens all the time. Apply now at hortonww.com. If you like what you're hearing, please give us a five star review wherever you get your podcast. It helps us gain new listeners. This has been In Play with me, Craig Mattick. This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
