Jumping At A Shot For Gold -- Kirkland Jump-Rope Team Is Hot Pepper At `Playground' Sport

KIRKLAND

The ropes cut the air in a whizzing blur. The slap of sneakers on wood and grunts of exertion filled the school gymnasium.

With fast footwork and gymnastic precision, members of the Hotdogs USA senior jump-rope team practiced the moves they hope will net gold medals at next month's world championship in St. Louis.

There is a lot at stake for the five Eastside teens who make up the team: They are defending champions, taking the overall team gold at the 1997 competition in Australia in the age-12 to 14 category.

Now competing in the 15 to 17 range, the Hotdogs would be the first team in the sport's short history to win back-to-back titles.

"It's an absolutely wonderful sport that's always been used for conditioning and training for other sports," said Hotdog coach Amy Stavig, 30, a teacher at Helen Keller Elementary School in Kirkland, where the team practices.

"People are now just realizing its potential as a sport in itself because it allows jumpers to challenge themselves conditioning-wise as well as artistically."

The Eastside team will be part of the 82-member U.S. team with jumpers in three age categories: 12 to 14, 15 to 17, and 18 and older. Hotdogs USA's junior team of 12 to 14 year olds will also compete in St. Louis.

This year's world championship is really the first of its kind, with an international panel of judges, more formalized rules and judging criteria and broader representation. Although the first event was held in 1972, the United States was the only country involved. Canada joined a few years later, and slowly more countries have sent teams to the biennial competition.

At least 11 countries, including Hungary's renowned freestyle team and Sweden's top-notch speed jumpers, will battle for points from an international panel of judges in St. Louis.

While most people have childhood memories of skipping to the tune of nursery rhymes, this is jump-roping like most people have never seen before.

At a recent practice, Kyle Hair, a 17-year-old Bellevue High School student, leapfrogged over the heads of Ariana Johnson, 16, and Kim Daane, 17, who stood shoulder to shoulder. Johnson and Daane each turned the end of a rope, while Carla Pitts, 17, turned the other end of both. Hair hit the floor between them and began jumping as the ropes passed under his feet.

During their 75-second, four-person double-Dutch routine, one trick blended seamlessly into the next. Handing off the ropes countless times, they took turns flipping, cartwheeling, somersaulting and donkey kicking (palms on the floor in a half-handstand) in time to the slap-slap of the ropes. Push-ups, splits, aerial lifts and other strength moves weaved together in a display of speed and dexterity.

The four teammates have been jumping together since they were preschoolers. Their fifth member, 16-year-old Kenda Mortland, joined last year after jumping with another team whose members moved on to the 18-and-over category. Mortland, Johnson and Pitts attend Juanita High School in Kirkland, and Daane goes to Inglemoor High in Kenmore.

Not only did the team win for its freestyle double-Dutch routine at this year's national championship at Disney World in Orlando, but it also holds the national speed record for the two-person double-Dutch relay, with 756 jumps in two minutes.

With sweat beading her brow, a breathless Pitts modestly acknowledged that she is the most decorated female jumper in the country, having won six grand national championships in different events, as the best across-age categories, in the past two years.

Likewise, Hair, a shy and lanky young man who also punts for his school football team, is one of the best male jump-ropers in the world, with six grand-champion titles in the past two years. Both have won numerous medals starting in elementary school, with Hair first becoming a grand champion in the second grade.

"I try not to think about it," said Pitts of her growing fame. "When you let winning get to your head, it doesn't do you any good."

Hotdogs USA has been national champions in its age category for two years running. It also won gold at the 1998 Junior Olympics but couldn't compete this year after Daane broke an ankle a week before the competition.

Next year jump-roping will become an event in the Pan American Games, and sport organizers hope to see it become an Olympic sport.

Unlike the European teams, the local teams do not receive any state or corporate funding. Instead, their parents organize fund-raisers, and the jumpers teach at jump-rope camps around the United States to earn money.

Still, between the cost of team uniforms and travel expenses for demonstrations and competitions, each jumper's family pays $3,500 to $4,000 a year. But the team parents think it is money well spent.

"It's really good for her to know people seek her out, and the recognition makes her feel good about herself," said Mortland's mother, Linda Mortland. "With teenage girls, self-image is so important, and she knows she is one of the best in the world at something, and that's jump-rope. It's broadened her horizons."

Because three out of the five members will go off to college next year, this is also the last time they'll compete at a major event as a team.

"It's going to be really sad," Daane said. "I'm sure we'll all take our own little ropes to college, but it won't be the same, not seeing the same people every day you've seen your whole life.

"But dude, if it became an Olympic sport, I'd be down here in a flash."