Chelsea Plourde makes transition to the college life

By Kevin Hampton
Mid-Valley Sports

Chelsea Plourde sat in a classroom for the first time in September.

The first few weeks of college can be disorienting for a freshman. Classes are packed, and getting around campus without a map can leave a first-year student confused and frustrated.

Plourde arrived at Oregon State last fall to start her college career and compete for the gymnastics team.

It was a big step.

Home schooled from kindergarten through her senior year of high school, Plourde had never hunted down a class and settled in for a lecture along with dozens of her peers. The only time she had joined a group of students was to take her SATs.

Plourde also had to adjust to practice with new coaches and teammates, joining a new church and getting rained on several months of the year. And while she had a nice big bedroom at home in Reno, Nev., she is sharing a small dorm room at OSU.

"It's a huge change," Plourde said. "Everything in my life changed drastically, all at once. But I guess for anyone there's an adjustment coming to college."

Sandy and Doug Plourde decided to home school Chelsea and her older brother Zach to give them an education that emphasized Christian principles.

"They really felt like God was calling them to home school me," Plourde said. "Every time they turned around they were seeing things like Columbine and issues, and my parents were very protective, so they kept me home and got me ready to come out here."

While Sandy Plourde did some of the teaching, most of the work was independent education, in which Chelsea would complete a project and then mail it into a center where the work was graded and sent back.

Although some home-schooled children might feel left out, Chelsea was encouraged to get involved in a variety of activities from an early age.

She tried a few other sports, including soccer, but when she spent a game tumbling across the grass while her teammates were kicking the ball back and forth, it was evident that gymnastics was her sport.

Dance caught her fancy as well, and she cuts a rug any time she gets a chance. She became good enough that she played a Russian dancer in the Nutcracker and was paid for her performance.

"Dance is my passion," she said. "I've done it all. Ballet, jazz, tap, lyrical. Everything."

The hours spent in the gym and with her studies meant a few sacrifices. Staying overnight at a friend's house was usually out because she had to get up the next day and be ready for practice.

Plourde had no problem making friends despite studying at home and keeping a tight schedule.

She was a member of a home school group and was involved with her church's youth group.

"Everywhere I went I seemed to meet people and just connect," she said. "Reno is one of those places where if you're born and raised (there), there's kind of an everyone knows everyone kind of atmosphere for people who have lived there for a long time."

There were also the other gymnasts at her club.

Plourde trained with future OSU teammate Chrissy Lamun at Gymnastics Nevada and later at Flips USA in Reno.

Lamun said she would go to Plourde's house when they were little, tape their ankles and pretend they were Olympic stars.

"She would be Kim Zmeskal and I would be Shannon Miller, and we would jump on the tramp for hours and hours and make up routines and pretend to be them," Lamun said. "When we were older we started doing different things, but there would be times where we would just hang out and go have coffee together or even just go to a high school dance."

The flexibility of going to school at home turned out to be a big help for Plourde when she reached the elite level and started working out eight hours a day.

To fit school in, she would work three or four hours a day during the week and make up the time over the weekends.

It was a sacrifice Plourde was willing to make even though the possibility of enrolling in a public high school had been raised.

"She needed to talk to God about that," Sandy Plourde said. "Sometimes there was a little struggle with desiring to be in a public school. (Being an elite gymnast) pretty much locked her into double workouts, and it became obvious that she needed to be home schooled along with that."

The investment in time and work paid off with a college scholarship.

Plourde had gotten the attention of nearly every top gymnastics program in the country. She narrowed her choices down to Michigan, Oregon State, Washington, Utah and Arizona State and planned to take trips to all five schools.

She made it to Michigan and then OSU.

"After I came here, I knew this is where I wanted to be," she said.

Plourde has made a big impact on the Beavers in little more than a month. While the team entered the season without three athletes, Plourde stepped in and has won three all-around titles in four meets.

She said being a part of a team and focusing on the Beavers' goal of reaching the NCAA Championships and the Super Six drives her to succeed.

"Competition makes Chelsea tick," Lamun said. "When we were little, she always loved the competition. She's just an energetic person and loves the sport with a passion and would do gymnastics all day long if she could. It's definitely the competition that gets her going."

Plourde is still getting used to college life.

She's 500 miles from home and misses her friends and family.

Schoolwork is not any easier when it is assigned in class.

"I'm not doing quite as well academically as I would like, but I'm realizing that it's just me adjusting and I know I'll improve as time goes on," she said. "I feel like everything was dropped on me at one time, but that's life."