Editor’s Note: This is part four of a four-part series on the disappearance of men’s gymnastics in the United States. The first part of the series was published on April 17, 2018, and can be found here. The second part of the series was published on April 18, 2018, and can be found here. The third part of the series was published on April 19, 2018, and can be found here.

Change.

It’s a simple word, but the meaning behind it can be complex. In this sense, it’s very complex.

There are numerous high schools and private clubs across the country along with 21 college programs nationwide. There are also 12 spots on the U.S. Senior National Team. The numbers aren’t big, but the entire sport isn’t gone.

Yet.

There was a mutual agreement between the different college men’s gymnastics coaches that change needs to come sooner rather than later for this sport to grow. Otherwise, it’s going to be an easy cut for athletic departments to throw away.

Nebraska head coach Chuck Chmelka and former Cedar Rapids Washington boys gymnastics coach Russ Telecky agree the first step to making men’s gymnastics popular is to focus on the younger children who will be starting the sport at a young age. If there’s going to be any increase in numbers, there needs to be an increase in private clubs these boys can attend.

Therefore, there’s a need for more boys gymnastics coaches to teach these younger gymnasts the correct ways of participating and loving this sport.

Out of the three college coaches interviewed for this story, all of them have been coaches or directors of private clubs in their local community. The reason behind their participation isn’t just for the love of the sport, but because they’re the only ones that understand the sport and can teach it to younger gymnasts.

To bring the interest to younger boys, there needs to be more male gymnasts in college and after college to bring their knowledge and understanding of the sport to increase the love and passion for the younger gymnasts who want to continue this sport during their childhood.

The next step is to make men’s gymnastics not only a want, but a need in college sports. If the numbers in private clubs and high schools increases, more and more men are going to want to participate in college sports. If club teams at universities increase, it might draw an eye within the athletics departments across the country.

Iowa State athletics department’s Title IX Coordinator Calli Sanders said there are plenty of steps an athletics department takes to add a sport within its department. One of the aspects they look at is interest within the community. If there are five or six boys gymnastics clubs going in the high school level and a men’s gymnastics club at the college level, it shows there can be continuous growth throughout multiple years.

The final and biggest step to making gymnastics relevant again for men is making it a national sport. The main way to make it national is to showcase these men’s gymnastics programs on a television network like ESPN or Fox Sports.

For example, this upcoming weekend is the NCAA Men’s Gymnastics National Championship. It’s the biggest meet for men’s collegiate gymnastics programs and the entire two-day event will be streamed live on NCAA.com. The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics National Championship will be aired this weekend as well, but on ESPNU.

“The Olympic Games are on television 24/7 during those days of competition every four summers, so men’s gymnastics receives some publicity during that time,” said Ames native and gymnast Ben Eyles. “But that can’t be the only time to gain more attention.”

Jepson said he relates men’s gymnastics to wrestling because the sport of wrestling faced this type of decline a few years ago. Many colleges were cutting the program because there wasn’t enough interest in the sport and universities didn’t want to keep a sport that didn’t bring in fans or money.

After a few years though, wrestling started to crawl back as a relevant sport. The participation numbers steadily increased at the high school level. More and more fans packed the stands at college duals and more and more television networks started to come to more duals.

Now, Flowrestling and Trackwrestling are two big websites that gain a lot of traffic because of wrestling, both high school and college. ESPN is the sole television network that broadcasts the NCAA National Championships for wrestling each and every season.

It’s not only on WatchESPN, but some of the matches can be found on the actual network on television. It took some time for wrestling to grow, but now it’s relevant again across the country.

“It’s just going to take small steps to get this sport back in the right direction,” Eyles said. “I’m just going to continue to love this sport and show that love and passion to others around me.”

Men’s gymnastics needs to take these steps or the sport is going to slowly die. For Eyles, he knows the popularity of men’s gymnastics is small, but he also thinks those numbers will continue to rise over the next four or five years.

He’s just going to stay in the gym and continue to pursue his passion and dream of competing in college and, someday, standing on top of that podium as an Olympic champion.

For now though, Eyles will be at Triad Gymnastics in Ankeny, Iowa, working on his double layout with a full twist landing off the high bar. As he’s practicing this routine, the door flies open and two small boys run over to where Eyles is practicing in the gym.

They don’t do anything, except watch him spin around and around on the high bar. Every once in a while there will be a combined “wow” as he continues his routine.

Then, finally, he starts to dismount from the bar and sticks his double layout with a full twist and the two boys smile and converse about the recent routine. Once he’s done talking with his coach, he runs over to the two boys and smiles at them before starting his routine again.

Before he jumps onto the high bar again, there’s a smile that shines across Eyles’ face. The smile isn’t about sticking his landing in his last routine. It’s not about the fact that he enjoys the sport of gymnastics, even though he loves the sport.

It’s the fact that he knows there’s a future in men’s gymnastics. It might only be two boys today watching him perfect his routine, but it’s two more boys than before who have the same passion and love for this sport of men’s gymnastics.

Then, he jumps back onto that high bar in search of that perfect routine.