by Caroline Domecq
LSU Sports Information
April Burkholder mounted the balance beam for what she knew would be the final time in her LSU career during the Individual Event Finals at the national championships in Corvallis, Ore.
What was going through her mind?
According to the gymnast, it was something her dad used to tell her about the dreaded event.
“My dad used to say that to compete on beam and to hit, you have to have ice water in your veins,” Burkholder explained. “If just to be up here you have to have ice water in your veins, obviously I’m capable of hitting.”
After a near-flawless routine, she prepared for her dismount, a very difficult round off double tuck.
“Before my dismount I took my time, and I could hear all of my team cheering for me,” she said. “But it wasn’t only my team I heard. I could hear Georgia’s team and fans and a lot of others too, and I realized how many people out there were rooting for me and wanting me to do well.
“I just took a second before my dismount, then I went and stuck it.”
Burkholder earned a 9.9125 for the routine, enough to clinch a share of the national title on the balance beam for the stellar senior.
Not only did she win on beam, but she also placed in the top eight on each of the other three events, finishing sixth on the vault and eighth on the bars and floor.
“April wasn’t going to be denied a national championship that night,” head coach D-D Breaux said. “She had made the finals in at least two events the last two years, but the fact that she did it in her senior year, after four years of excellence, was so fitting. And to place in every single event, to have her name called out and make it to the podium in all four events, puts her in some very elite company. That night was all about April Burkholder.”
With the title and her performance that evening, Burkholder capped the most illustrious career of any LSU gymnast in program history.
She added national champion to her already impressive list of accolades, which includes 14 All-America awards and four All-Southeastern Conference selections. In addition, she was named the NCAA Central Region Gymnast of the year twice (2004 and 2005), the SEC Gymnast of the Year on two occasions (2004 and 2005) and was also the conference’s Freshman of the Year in 2003.
The standout gymnast was an integral part of the program’s success in her four years, dating back to her arrival in Baton Rouge as a freshman.
A fresh start
Burkholder came to LSU from Houston not knowing what to expect from college gymnastics.
“It felt like a completely different sport, because coming from club you are used to just competing by yourself,” she said.
But the freshman quickly adjusted and found her role on the squad. She captured a team-leading 20 individual event titles, earning six on floor, five on beam, four on vault, three in the all-around and two on bars.
She even surpassed the LSU all-around record by notching a 39.875 in a meet against Centenary and Texas Woman’s. She recorded a perfect 10.00 on the floor in that meet, becoming only the third person in school history ever to ever do so.
“I knew the potential was there watching her grow up,” Breaux said. “We were just fortunate enough to be able to recruit her to come to LSU. We knew, and everybody in the country knew, what a powerful force she would be on anyone’s team.”
Burkholder closed out her first season as the Tigers’ top scorer on every single event and boasting the highest season averages on vault (9.840), beam (9.773), floor (9.861) and in the all-around (39.234).
“The only thought I really had at that time about the records was what an honor it was because of LSU’s great athletic tradition,” she commented. “I was just doing my job the best I could, and the results were coming on their own.”
Burkholder also admits that she really didn’t understand the intensity of SEC gymnastics that early in her career. In fact, her top-five choices included three other conference schools in Alabama, Georgia and Florida, and she had no idea of the intense rivalries before choosing LSU.
Even when she was named the SEC Freshman of the Year, the young gymnast didn’t realize the magnitude of that honor despite the fact that her sister Ashley received the same award as a freshman at Kentucky in 1998.
“I can remember after the SEC Championships some of my teammates telling me they thought I was going to be SEC Freshman of the Year, and I didn’t really know what they were talking about,” Burkholder said. “I didn’t really know what any of that meant as a freshman.”
But after a year of experience under her belt, the rising star saw the bigger picture and improved exponentially with each passing week.
Building consistency
Despite a stellar freshman campaign, Burkholder said she was looking for much more in her following year.
“My freshman year I had a lot of highs, but I also had a lot of lows,” she said. “I was very inconsistent. I was falling here and there, and for my sophomore year my goal was to be consistent and really just get in my groove.”
Burkholder could not have been any more consistent than she was in her second year either. She hit all 53 of her competitive routines, scoring a 9.900 or better on 34 of them.
She once again led the team in average on the vault, beam, floor and all-around en route to being named the SEC Gymnast of the Year — the first LSU gymnast ever to receive that honor. She followed that up by also being named the NCAA Central Region Gymnast of the Year.
“At that point in my career I understood more what those awards meant, and I knew I got those because of my consistency,” she said. “I was proud of myself for being able to be that consistent more than anything.”
Burkholder’s athletic achievement continued into her junior season, as she received both the SEC Gymnast of the Year and Central Region Gymnast of the Year awards for a second straight year.
She grabbed a total of seven all-around titles and 21 individual event crowns throughout that year, recording perfect 10.00s on the vault, beam and floor during the season.
Two of those 10.00s came in what is a meet to remember for the LSU gymnastics program. On March 11, 2005, the Tigers notched a program-high 197.850 behind Burkholder’s 39.825 all-around mark and her two 10.00s to defeat Oklahoma and catapult them back into the No. 1 spot in the country.
The junior had already recorded one 10.00 on the vault in the team’s second rotation, and she said her confidence was at an extreme high.
“After how well we had done on the first two events, we were just so on fire that we couldn’t be stopped,” she said. “There was no pressure on beam because we had already hit three good events.
“When I landed my beam dismount, we all knew that when I stuck it, it was pretty much going to be a 10.00. My team tackled me and literally knocked me down after that routine. It was just a great night to remember.”
Closing a career
This past season was Burkholder’s final year as an LSU gymnast. But she told her team she didn’t want to be reminded of that every time they competed, however.
“I told my team before the season that I didn’t want to keep hearing that it was my last anything,” she said. “I didn’t want to have that pressure of having to go out there and do everything right here, right now or never.”
As expected, Burkholder punctuated her career with many special highlights.
She claimed seven all-around titles and 24 individual event titles, including one on beam at the SEC Championships. She is the first LSU gymnast to win an SEC title since Amy McClosky took the same honor in 1998.
One thing many people will remember is Burkholder’s emotional tribute floor routine dedicated to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She choreographed a new routine featuring New Orleans music with an electric back-to-back final tumbling pass that was supposed to be a one-time thing for the team’s meet with Alabama.
However, several factors prompted her to go back to this routine for the final stretch of the season.
“The first time I competed it and they announced what I was doing, it gave me chills before I even started the routine,” Burkholder said. “I think knowing that it was a dedication routine gave me more adrenaline and more heart to compete so well that meet.
“A couple of people told me they had cried when I did it and that the whole PMAC was standing up,” she said. “I had no idea that I could make such an impact, and that’s what really made me want to keep the routine.”
And, of course, Burkholder will be remembered for a couple of her beam performances to close the season. She won the SEC title on beam at the conference championships in Birmingham, Ala., and then claimed the national title on the same event in Corvallis, Ore.
Leaving an impact
With all of the accomplishments she accumulated in her career, Burkholder is often referred to as the most decorated gymnast in LSU program history. The enormity of that title is not lost on her.
“I can remember when I was younger hearing that Shannon Miller was the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history,” Burkholder said. “So the first time I heard someone call me the most decorated gymnast in LSU history, that’s that first thing that popped into my mind – the impact Shannon Miller had on U.S. gymnastics.
“That’s an extreme honor, because this isn’t just some rinky-dink athletic school. This is LSU. It’s known for all of its great athletics in every sport, and that tradition is what makes my accomplishments so much more special.”
More than just her growth as an athlete, Breaux said she witnessed Burkholder transform into a young adult in her time at LSU.
“I think the biggest progression I saw in April is the thing you like to see happen to all students,” Breaux explained. “Their maturity develops, and their personality as a young woman develops. And it’s not just about being an athlete or being a child. She was a young woman who greatly evolved. She’s definitely not a one-dimensional person. She worked very hard at being a student and worked very hard at being a gymnast.”
Though Burkholder will miss gymnastics, she said she is excited to move on to the next phase of her life. She plans to move to San Diego, Calif., this summer where she will begin participation in the Sea World show Rip Tide.
Rip Tide, choreographed by head UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos-Field, is an entertainment show featuring two female gymnasts, four male gymnasts, two drum majors and 65 dancers. Burkholder will be a tumbler in the act.
She hopes that job will open doors for her music career while she is there. Since the show at Sea World is only at night, she plans on spending her days in the studio working on music and networking.
“I know it’s going to be tough, and I know it’s a slim chance for anyone to make in that business,” she said. “But I know me and I know that I’ll fight to the end and I won’t give up.”
Now that her career is completed, many question whether Burkholder’s contributions to LSU gymnastics can be matched.
According to Breaux, “You’ll have different athletes come in with different styles and different strengths. I think they’ll make different contributions, hopefully as many, because those are some very big shoes to fill. It’s a big void to fill. But April is excited about moving on and testing the waters, and she is way talented beyond gymnastics.”