SAMANTHA "SAMMIE" DEBRINSKI

Birthday: July 1, 1989 Height: 5'1" (just under) Past Results Journal Official Website

Gymnastics:

Considered the DeBrinski with the most raw talent and natural technique, Sammie is just beginning to tap her potential in the sport. But she also happens to be the least conventional and has a flair for risk taking, which can sometimes put off coaches and judges alike. Her strength lies in the more powerful aspects of the sport - fast and fluid swinging on bars, hold elements on beam, and tumbling on floor - just to highlight a few. Bars is admittedly her best event, where she doesn't necessarily cram a lot of difficulty into her set (i.e. an abundance of E or SE value elements), but combines a fast pace, classic swinging skills and high release moves. Balance beam is also a strong event for her because of her fearlessness in performing difficult acrobatic elements. Her style and dance on the event is not quite as developed as her mastery of basic skills, but she is now at a point where she wants to pay more attention to this aspect. The same goes for her floor routines. Until just recently, dance has always been cute or "pixy-ish". She feels that her current routine performed to Smash Mouth is moving in a more purposeful direction, but is looking to create a new routine which will really reflect her personality more. Vault has never interested Sammie much, and thus, is her weakest event. She doesn't spend as much time on the event unless she is forced to, and while she doesn't outwardly show that she dislikes it, she does the bare minimum whenever possible.

Biography:

Samantha, or "Sammie," is the youngest of three daughters born to Nathan and Amelie DeBrinski. Her family is from the west coast, with her father's side based out of Seattle, Washington and her mother's family from Vancouver, British Columbia. Now, most of her extended family is scattered all across the US and Canada now.

Her father is a lawyer - a federal prosecutor to be exact. He use to be the legal counsel for a non government organization, where he met Amelie. She also has a law degree, but she's a special interest lobbyist. Even though both were very career oriented, they knew that they wanted a family. They moved to Cascade Locks, Oregon and shortly thereafter had their first daughter, Regina. Alana and Sammie followed suit. It wasn't long before all three needed something to occupy their time, and so when a local gym opened up on the outskirts of town, they were practically the first to join. Each girl had their own distinct style and strengths, and now, they are all doing different things with their gymnastics career.

Regina will be turning 18 shortly and is currently attending the University of Washington . She is a gumnast on the school's squad and primarily performs on balance beam - her best event. She's going to school for sports psychology. She is also taking the necessary steps to become a judge for gymnastics.

Alana is 15 and also participates in gymnastics. She has always been considered the most lyrical and balletic of the three. She has currently decided to pursue both gymnastics and ballet. After she left Cascade Locks for a while, she went to Topopolilly. When it closed last year, she returned home for a while before deciding to go to Boston and train at Mass United. She is also attending the School of Ballet Boston and Boston Public school.

As for Sammie, she wasn't always the "rebellious teeny bopper" that is seen today. In fact, two years ago, she was considered a little angel. But a bout with a viral infection convinced her that life was too short to be a conformist - even in gymnastics. This incident has also made her much "older" than her thirteen years gives her credit for. While in the hospital and recovering at home, she spent a lot of time reading, writing and generally soul searching. Her time off provided her with a new found passion when she returned to the gym. Unfortunately, it also made her restless. For the past year, she has been moving from gym to gym, trying to find the place that suits her the best. She's gone from her hometown club, Cascade Locks, to places such as Endo and Crystal Lake. She's not sure what she's looking for, but she definitely wants to take her gymnastics to the next level.

Outside of the gym, she's a tomboy-ish teeny bopper who wears cargo pants and polo shirts. In times when she isn't scheduled to compete, she has been known to dye her hair cranberry or magenta hues. She's into into hard rock and heavy metal music, and also plays the accoustic guitar. She takes modern dance and jazz, but spends a lot of time studying the dancing of musicians in their videos, creating a style of her own on floor.

ROUTINES:

Primary Vault: Front handspring, 1 1/2 layout off (9.9)

Secondary Vault: RO 1/2 on, 1/2 twist to back layout off (9.8)
Uneven Bars:
Straddle hecht vault to HB; kip cast to handstand; stalder 1/1-giant hop full-giant; higgens roll; invert 1/2; stalder-Ricna tkatchev-straddle tkatchev; straddle back to LB-clear hip circle to handstand with full turn in handstand-stalder shoot to HB; kip cast to handstand with straddled legs and bent hips; piked sole circle backward to handstand with full turn- giant 1/1-giant-double layout (Double 1/2 in 1/2 out in EF)
SV: 10.0

Balance Beam:
Jump to cross straddle hold, press to handstand, stag reverse planche; full turn above horizontal - front aerial walkover; switch leap-ring jump-double stag ring jump; 2 ft fh-front tuck 1/2; split jump 1/2-full twisting bh-back walkover swingdown to v-sit (or rulflova in EF); li-li spin; valdez back walkover to stand; stand on 1 leg w/ other held above 90 degrees to side; RO-double piked w/ full twist on first salto
SV: 10.0

Floor Exercise:
Pose (Stand with legs shoulder length apart with arms crossed in front with attitude and slightly turned to one side. When music starts, release arms out to side and jump with feet together and face opposite direction) Stretch jump 1 1/2-RO-arabian fh; split side jump 1/1, step forward and lower into a split and hold, bring back leg around with front leg and turn to stomach, then crawl to the opposite corner; RO-bh-bh-arabian double front; Jump to legs shoulder width apart and grab head in hands with surprised expression and then head bang before turning away, step a few; Punch front step out-fh-ft layout-rudi; fall back to lay on mat, reach arms out to the side and slowly bring the right one up and around over head and then down over the torso - air guitar; needle scale to stand; full twisting bh-popa 1/1-shushanova 1/1-valdez to near corner; double turn-wolf 1 1/2; RO-1 1/2-RO-bh-triple full-double stag leap; tour jete to ring leap-kick to handstand double pirouette-forward roll to end pose (kneeling with one leg out to side, one hand on the floor supporting upper body and the other splayed in front of face with palm facing audience, as if blocking something from vision).
Floor Music: I'm a Believer (Smash Mouth)
SV: 10.0