March 21, 2018
By Madeleine Balestrier, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - In the summer of 2014, current senior Quest Hayden went to coach at Woodward's gymnastics facility in Pennsylvania before he started his first semester at Penn State. That same summer, current junior Chris Sands left his Lancaster, Pennsylvania home to go train under the staff at Woodward.
Four years later, the two gymnasts have evolved into teammates and even closer friends.
"We understand each other on a personable level," Hayden said. "He's very understanding of me and I am very understanding of him."
Their friendship grew through their combined love of gymnastics. Although only a year apart, Hayden became a mentor for the younger Sands and his evolving gymnastics career.
"Quest and I met at Woodward," Sands said. "He came to coach with (former Penn State assistant coach) Slava [Boiko] and we met there and he helped me through a lot. He is a really technically perfect gymnast. He really knows how the human body rotates and all of the biomechanics and stuff like that and I was not a good gymnast when I was in high school."
"I coached there and trained there, but while we [Hayden and Boiko] were there he [Sands] was a gymnast there, a camper and I coached him a lot," Hayden said. "He was a cool guy and we would always talk and we had lunch together. Me and Slava would work together to help him be a better gymnast."
Through the ties of then Penn State gymnastics' assistant coach Boiko and Hayden, Sands spent his senior year imagining himself in Blue and White.
"Well, I drew a lot of inspiration from Quest Hayden when I came here," Sands said. "He and I have been friends from years so I drew a lot on him. He's done a lot for me. He helped me actually like get interested in Penn State. He's helped me all along the way so I mean I can't thank him enough. "
As Sands narrowed his options between Penn State, Ohio State, Navy and a few other schools, Hayden gave his best-selling pitch in the only way he knew how: gymnastics.
"I was on my recruiting trip on senior night when he [Hayden] was brought in on vault last minute and he came in and absolutely nailed it and stuck that vault and everything," Sands said. "His ankles were hurting, everything was going wrong, but he came through and did that. That was a huge eye opener for me at the time."
As much as Sands needed Hayden's mentoring to focus and evolve his gymnastics career into the dominance he currently displays on rings, floor and the high bar, Sands has been a reliable friend and teammate throughout Hayden's injury prone career, one of the many teammates that has helped Hayden.
"Chris helped me with my injuries, but also the team," Hayden said. "Maybe after my shoulder surgery if I wasn't training for the team and the team's benefit I would have stopped gymnastics, but seeing these guys have a goal and I have a similar goal that I would train just as hard and harder to get back to where I need to be. So, they all helped me."
"He was really a big influence on the progression of my gymnastics that summer [2014] and he helped me through some injuries as well and now it's kind of coming full circle," Sands added.
Both gymnasts are grateful for their opportunity to not only be teammates, but also help each other process and confront the challenges that lay ahead of them as student-athletes in one of the toughest sports, physically and mentally.
"Quest likes to psychoanalyze a lot, I mean he is a psychology major, so that's most of his rehabilitation in a sense," Sands said. "His body is going to heal on its own, but it's helping him through the mental aspect of that helping him stay like up beat with him."
"Me and him [Sands] can always have deep talks with each other," Hayden said. "I'm a pretty silly guy, but deep down I think deep and he understands that."
The two gymnast's roads will diverge as Hayden graduates this spring and Sands returns for his senior season. Even after devastating injuries, Sands believes Hayden's inspirational connection with gymnastics will be a consistent influence in his future beyond the walls of Rec Hall.
"I really hope he [Hayden] finds like his true calling," Sands said. "Gymnastics is one of those things that he is just in love with so he's obviously going to try and continue that...I don't see him leaving the sport anytime soon."
Although Hayden will not suit up alongside Sands next season, Hayden still has high hopes and expectations for the evolving gymnast and the entire Nittany Lion squad.
"For him [Sands] the sky is the limit," Hayden said. "He is a very good gymnast, very talented, very strong...If he works on his technique and form, whatever goals he sets he can reach next year."
After years of learning from one another, pushing each other through challenges and creating a thoughtful support system, the two athletes have created a bond through and beyond the sport that brought them both to Woodward four years ago.
"He's helped me all along the way so I mean I can't thank him enough," Sands said.