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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Next Level Sportsmanship

Gymnastics coach Breasha Pruitt earns Stan Musial Award after coaching another gym’s students

Breasha Pruitt’s star continues to rise, most recently as a Musial Award recipient.

The owner and women’s head coach Breasha Pruitt Elite Gymnastics received the sportsmanship honor, named for late St. Louis Cardinals baseball star Stan Musial, on Nov. 23 in St. Louis, Missouri. The awards were broadcast Dec. 29 on CBS.

The awards noted Pruitt’s tenacity as a former gymnast as well as her grace and devotion to her athletes as a coach while modeling the treatment she wished she got as a young athlete. Pruitt was nominated by the mother of her student Natalie Nicholson, Cindi Schmidt Nicholson, after taking another gym’s students to the state finals.

Photo of Breasha Pruitt with students, both Breasha Pruitt Elite Gymnastics and former Revolution Gymnastics students, provided by Breasha Pruitt

Two weeks before state finals in La Porte, Indiana, the coach of Revolution Gymnastics in Newburgh, Indiana — which has since closed — was in a serious accident, leaving her unable to coach. Her students’ parents called Pruitt and asked if she would coach and take the students to the competition. Pruitt did not hesitate and took the nine students under her wing, in addition to 15 of her own athletes already attending.

“I knew those girls needed help, and I wanted to help them. I was in a position to help,” Pruitt says, adding that she was honored “to provide that positive experience for them. If I was in that situation, I would want someone to help me.”

At the state finals in March, among Pruitt’s students, Nevaeh Davis took first on floor, Hadley Breeze took first on beam, and many were in the top three in several events. All nine Revolution Gymnastics students improved their scores from previous competitions. The Revolution Gymnastics students have since moved to Pruitt’s gym as of May 2024.

Pruitt says her actions prove “what sportsmanship can do for others, and the role models coaches can be for youth while creating positive and caring spaces.”

She was named a Musial Award winner — the only one in the Tri-State— alongside Emmy-winning sportscaster Bob Costas and former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald Jr.

Photo of Breasha Pruitt provided by source

She attended the awards with 54 supporters, including former and new students, their parents, and Pruitt’s friends and family. Highlights included meeting track and field Olympian Jackie Joyner Kersee — who complimented Pruitt’s dress backstage — and actor and comedian Billy Crystal. Pruitt and other award recipients also took a tour of St. Louis and learned more about Musial.

“The award itself, the honor is huge. I have been this person my entire life. It’s shocking that people are noticing on a National Platform. It honors the good in sports and what people are doing in sports. I’m super grateful and blessed,” you say. “I had calls and emails from people all over who saw the awards on CBS and were in awe of the act of selfless and the positivity I did it for the girls. It’s been amazing experience.”

The Henderson, Kentucky, native’s attitude and commitment have earned her the Positive Coaching Alliance’s 2022 National Double-Goal Coach of the Year Award. That same year, she was named a Kentucky Colonel by Gov. Andy Beshear.

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Maggie Valenti
Maggie Valenti
Maggie Valenti joined Tucker Publishing Group in September 2022 as a staff writer. She graduated from Gettysburg College in 2020 with a bachelors degree in English. A Connecticut native, Maggie has ridden horses for 15 years and has hunt seat competition experience on the East Coast.

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