MA two-sport athlete heading to gymnastics eastern nationals

MADISON – A common sight at any Madison Academy soccer match is one of magical proportions as senior striker Henry Yelverton will perform a front handspring throw in to his awaiting teammates. The two-sport athlete for the Mustangs playing both football and soccer has even more skills away from his high school as Yelverton is an award winning athlete in gymnastics where he excels in five different events in the sport and was recently named Athlete of the Year in Alabama and a USA Academic All-American.

A Level 9 gymnast, the son of Guy and Alysha Yelverton began the sport at age nine after seeing a gymnastic demonstration at school. “The sport immediately challenged me as I’ve always liked to be challenged in everything I do,” said Yelverton. “I was invited to a practice at Southern States Gymnastics and I began to have more and more fun and I soon became stronger and honed my skills to where I am today. My coaches, Terry Varnado and Marcus Jackson, have helped a lot over the last six years.”

At the recent Rocket City Rumble, the largest gymnastics meet in Alabama, the Madison Academy teen won the state championship in the vault, took second place in the floor exercise, third in the rings and fourth place each in the parallel bars and high bar. He qualified for the Eastern Nationals scheduled for this weekend in West Palm Beach, Fla. He not only will participate in his individual events, but will also be part of a four-man team from Southern States Gymnastics who include Bob Jones athletes Jude Wade (freshman), and Christopher Chatmon (sophomore) and Lucas McFarlane (freshman) from Sparkman High.

This will be Yelverton’s third trip to the Eastern Nationals as he finished ninth in All-Around, eighth in the vault and sixth in the floor exercise in 2023. He took a fourth place spot in the floor exercise at the 2024 Eastern Nationals held in Cleveland, Ohio.

Standing 5-foot-9 and weighing 170 pounds, which is actually traditionally slightly heavy for a gymnast, Yelverton gained his weight made up of more muscle for his play as a wide receiver and safety for the Madison Academy football team, which he started in middle school. He chose to try another challenge when he joined the soccer team as a freshman. The challenges came after his work in karate and gymnastics. He currently carries a 4.2 grade point average, which ranks him eight in his 2026 class of 63. He plans to attend Auburn University where he will study mechanical engineering. His older brother was a member of the Madison Academy band and his 15-year old freshman sister is a cheerleader for the Mustangs.

Besides utilizing his enormous talents in all three athletic endeavors, Yelverton has the uncanny ability to balance his daily schedule to accommodate his personal challenges. He added, “First, I have to be on top of my schoolwork and then I make a good balance with my schedule, many times participating in all three sports in the same day. Besides my five days-a-week workouts at school for football and soccer and the trips to gymnastics practice six days-a-week, I try and go to Empire Fitness, located near my home in Madison, for workouts on weekends. There are times my friends will ask to me to be with them and hangout or whatever, but many times I have gymnastics instead of going with them.”

In his endeavors in athletics, like many athletes, has had to endure numerous injuries to many parts of his body. “I’ve sprained my ankles more times I can count,” said Yelverton, who added, “I have broken the growth plate in both of my feet and had surgery on those in January and July of 2021, which put me out of participating for an entire season. I’ve also suffered a few concussions in each of my sports.”

Additional physical challenges include suffering in his right leg acute compartment syndrome, a severe condition where increased pressure in the muscle compartments severely restricting blood flow causing tissue damage. He was assessed by Madison Academy team doctor, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jack Moore of SportsMED who determined a recorded pressure of 90 in Yelverton’s leg compared to a normal pressure of 30. It was thought the condition stemmed from an injury he suffered in football practice. “It was the most pain I’ve ever had as the pain was in my shin area as I couldn’t move my leg correctly. I was out of action for two weeks,” said Yelverton. “For the last two months, I’ve also had problems with my patella, a bone located at the front of the knee, where I can’t jump or land without pain, but I’ve continued to play through that pain with both gymnastics and soccer nearing the big events of the year.”

Yelverton knows this Eastern Nationals will be his last hurrah in gymnastics and understands he will miss the events that present headon challenges. He described each of his gymnastics events: vault- “power, technique, as arms and legs power very important.” Floor exercise“front tumbling is my specialty as having air awareness is important so you can see your landing in the 70-second routine.” Parallel bars“wrist strength and body control important as your form has to be tight. You must trust your eyesight as your body must counter balance itself. Finding that balance point is a must.” Rings- “strength. This event strains your shoulders and I’ve been close to having a shoulder injury due to the stress of having my body hold my bodyweight. Weight training and proper calisthenics is a must.” High bar- “confidence. You must be aware of where you are as many times you’ll get dizzy during the routine.”

He also participates on the pummel horse event, but that event is not one of his best.

“My favorites are the vault and floor exercise as I feel I get to shine and showoff,” added Yelverton. “I’ve won medals at Nationals in those events as I’ve had consistent scores in each event.”

His top scores in each event are, vault 11.8, floor exercise 12.1, parallel bars 11.4, rings 11.5 and high bar 11.5.

“My sister and I started gymnastics almost at the same time,” added Yelverton. “And originally I and my best friend were together in gymnastics, but he dropped out in middle school.”

Gymnastics includes physical strength, balance, body control and flexibility, each skill Yelverton possesses. He understands his favorite sport is not the typical sport for most high school athletes, especially with boys, but has grown so richly into his skills and athleticism he can’t turn away.

“I love it. It’s my passion as I like going to practices as we have other gymnasts there as we drive each other to be better. Our four-man team sees me as the leader as we want all of us to compete well,” said Yelverton.

His family will be attending alongside their star gymnast at the Eastern Nationals on their three-day trip to what will end a spectacular nine years in the sport, which has made him a sort of a magician in three sports and the heart-stopping schedule he has followed to success.