OLD TOWN – Last April, Erika Urbanski packed her bags for a cross country journey that brought her from California to the Old Town-Orono YMCA as the gymnastics and field house director.

Part of Urbanski’s baggage was 14 years of coaching experience, which included working with Olympians such as Amy Chow, Kerri Strug, Wendy Bruce and Dominique Dawes.

Urbanski also brought her own experiences as an elite athlete, including competing in the 1996 Olympics in the exhibition sport of triathlon. She competed in gymnastics for 10 years and is currently focusing on trail running and ultra-marathoning.

Urbanski was attracted to the Old Town-Orono YMCA because of the unique opportunity it presented her to develop her skills in a new environment.

“I was looking to move out-of-state, because California was getting so crowded and crazy,” she explained. “[Maine] seemed like a great place to do trail running and outdoor adventure sports.

“I also wanted to continue to coach, and it was a great opportunity at the Old Town-Orono YMCA because they had built a new building and I could start from scratch,” Urbanski said.

The YMCA’s new building was completed in early 2001, and Urbanski read about the position of gymnastics and field house director in USA Gymnastics magazine.

Urbanski is glad she seized the opportunity.

“The YMCA has a slogan that ‘This is the place to be in the community,’ and it really is. I feel like I know every town member, and people are always asking how the girls are doing. That would never happen in California. … The sense of community in a small town is great and the kids are great – I feel like I’ve been here so long now,” Urbanski said.

Building a program

Urbanski coordinates the YMCA’s gymnastics program from the pre-school to the teen-age level. She supervises and instructs coaches, coaches classes, and organizes the field house schedule.

There are 25 athletes in the program, including three levels of “pre-team” for the younger girls. There are 12 girls on the competition team.

The YMCA has sponsored a gymnastics program for many years. Urbanski said she appreciates the YMCA’s approach to coaching, which matches her philosophy of preparing athletes not just for competition, but for life.

“The YMCA stresses four character traits: honesty, responsibility, respect and caring. The YMCA spends so much more time really teaching those skills in every sport,” Urbanski said.

She also is the author of coaching manual, “Acting Like a Coach, Being a Teacher,” that emphasizes similar themes.

“My intentions are to create healthier, happier, confident kids. … A lot of times coaches forget that they are teachers first and foremost, and that’s not only to teach [physical] skills but life skills,” Urbanski said.

Learning from life

The years that Urbanski has dedicated to coaching and competing have helped her learn a number of life skills – not the least of which are hard work and time management.

When Urbanski was a senior at Santa Clara University, she was not only a full-time gymnastics coach, but she won the 1995 national championship in the triathlon and trained for the 1996 Olympics .

“I don’t know how I did it,” Urbanski laughed.

After graduating with a degree in anthropology and human behavior, she became the director of West Valley Gymnastics in Campbell, Calif., where she oversaw 2,000 gymnasts. Her position there allowed her to work with Chow, Strug, Bruce, Dawes and other U.S. national team members.

When Chow competed in the 1996 Olympics, that put Urbanski in the unique position of being both a coach and a competitor at the games. Urbanski said the hard work was worth it.

“No matter how hard it would get, you could always see the outcome. In the triathlon, when you cross the finish line it’s like no other feeling because you know you’ve worked so hard to get there. And that’s how I treat the gymnasts: you’ve got to love the training and the getting there. It’s like climbing a gigantic mountain and running full steam down,” Urbanski said.

Urbanski said she acquired her love for coaching and competing from her parents, who are both teachers. Her father is a cross country and track coach.

As a child in Ohio and Arizona, she competed in road races and started gymnastics at a local YMCA. She competed in gymnastics until age 16, when injuries hampered her ability to train for the sport. Urbanski stayed involved with the sport by becoming a coach.

When she started college, she kept on coaching and took up triathlon training. Shortly after the 1996 Olympics, injuries once again curtailed her training.

“I had every intention of training for [the] 2000 [Olympics], where triathlon would be a [medal] sport. But I had a lot of injuries … so I started just doing running, and then started adventure running,” Urbanski said.

A year and a half ago, Urbanski competed in a 50-mile race in California. Last summer she competed in several long distance races in Vermont.

But two months ago, Urbanski slipped on ice in her driveway and broke her leg. She expects to have her cast removed this week, and is eager to hit the trails again. She hopes to be ready for the internationally known Western States 100-miler in the summer of 2003.

Although she misses her family and former athletes on the West Coast, she’s enjoying every moment of her adventure.

“It was hard coming to a new place and just starting out. … But I’ve never been in a community with this much support,” Urbanski said.