Jan. 21, 2016
By Mandy Bell, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" Three-year-old Mason Hosek was kicked out of her local dance class. As other kids were slowly getting into dance, Hosek was the rambunctious child that just wanted to do flips. Her dance teacher knew she did not belong in dance. Hosek was a gymnast.
At age six, Hosek's club coach Tami Jaso took her team to Auburn University for a gymnastics camp. Auburn's head coaches at the time, Jeff and Rachelle Thompson, watched the young Hosek gravitate toward the beam and always avoid the bars.
"She was the cutest thing ever," Penn State head coach Jeff Thompson said.
Assistant head coach Rachelle Thompson competed with club coach Jaso at Louisiana State University. Because of that bond, Jaso took her club team to the Thompsons' camps multiple years at both Auburn and Penn State allowing Hosek to create a strong bond with the couple.
In ninth grade, Hosek committed to the University of Oklahoma to continue her gymnastics career. As a result, all ties with the Thompsons had to be severed because she was no longer allowed talking to other collegiate coaches.
"At that time we weren't ready to pull the trigger on any ninth graders," Thompson said. "As she got closer to graduating her priorities changed."
As her collegiate career inched closer, Hosek decided to decommit from the University of Oklahoma. With Hosek back out on the market, Jaso knew she had to act quickly.
"My club coach called Rachelle and said, 'Hey Mason's open what do you think?'" Hosek said. "Rachelle called me that night and said 'we want you. Come please' and I was like, 'yeah, this is my dream school.'"
Hosek went on to become the national champion on both the balance beam and the floor exercise in her junior year of high school at the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympics National Championships, however, during this time, she started to experience some discomfort in her back.
"I had two bulging discs in my back," Hosek said. "I was out for about a year, on and off, during my junior and senior year. That put me back a little bit."
Because of her injury, Hosek debated whether coming back to gymnastics was the right decision. But once Hosek received another phone call from Rachelle Thompson, she knew she needed to compete again.
"Rachelle talked to me and said 'you need to come back. It'll be good for you'," Hosek said. "And it has been. I haven't had any back problems since I've been here."
Hosek has made a quick impact for Penn State as she has performed in both of the first two meets of the 2016 season. She competes in the floor exercise, the vault and the balance beam for the Nittany Lions.
"College gymnastics is so completely different from club because, in club, if you fall it only hurts your score. Then they get to college and its 'oh my gosh, if I fall everybody's going to be mad at me,'" Rachelle Thompson said. "There's a period where they try too hard, and I think Mason worked through that in preseason because she's done very well competing."
Hosek's favorite event is the beam. Ever since she was little, she realized the beam was something that came naturally to her even though most kids found it to be the hardest event. For Penn State, Hosek has the second highest score on beam so far this season with a 9.825.
"The season is young. We are not ranked as high as what we know we will be at the end," Rachelle Thompson said. "But the opportunities are there for her to be in the lineup every weekend on three events, so she should strive to get as close to 30 as she can."
The Nittany Lions will travel to College Park to take on the Maryland Terrapins at 4 p.m. on Sunday.