Chappaqua Gymnastics School Rooting for One of its Own at Olympics

By David Propper

When Jason Hebert thinks of Olympic gymnast John Orozco, he can’t help but think of the nontraditional route both traveled. Gymnastics was a rarity where they both lived, even if the demographics were starkly different.

For Hebert, the operating director and team coach at World Cup Gymnastics in Chappaqua, he hailed from a small town in southern Louisiana; Orozco is from the Bronx. Both were forced to travel great distances to train with the elite in their sport.

“The Bronx, there’s no gymnastics, in south Louisiana at the time there was no gymnastics so we both kind of came from not very much gymnastics to going to a place where gymnastics is everything,” Hebert said.

With the drive to compete against the best, Orozco traveled 30 miles each day to World Cup Gymnastics starting at eight years old to be trained by top tier coaches, including Hebert. Now Hebert will watch this week as Orozco competes in the Summer Olympics in London as a member of the U.S. men’s gymnastics team. Hebert can watch knowing that World Cup gave Orozco his start and helped the now 19-year-old accomplish his dream.

From the first time Orozco stepped onto a mat at World Cup, he exemplified talent not often seen. Coming from a different gym, Orozco had to try out for World Cup Gymnastics’ team. Coaches asked him to show them what he could do. Their jaws dropped in disbelief.

His tumbling was at an “incredibly high level,” Hebert said, especially since Orozco was only eight or nine years old at the time.

“We knew from the very beginning that we had a special talent on our hands,” he said.

Talent was also recognized by the other gymnasts his age. Ron Ayello, a former teammate of Orozco’s at World Cup and now competing at SUNY Brockport, said you couldn’t help but be drawn when you saw Orozco’s routine. He was so much better than anyone else.

While Ayello acknowledged everyone struggles at some point, Orozco didn’t until he reached a much higher level later on.

“It was kind of like training with an Olympian,” Ayello said.

Orozco won competitions that paved the way for his Olympic berth, taking gold medals in multiple events in the U.S. Nationals Championship Junior Division. It’s when Orozco tried to compete in the U.S. National Visa Championship as a senior competitor at 17, with Hebert as his primary coach, that disaster unexpectedly struck.

In what Hebert described as a freak landing while competing on the vault, Orozco tore his right Achilles tendon. His competition was over and so was his career at World Cup. The injury was heartbreaking for both athlete and coach.

Soon after Orozco left for Colorado, where the Olympic training center was located, to rehab and eventually prep for the Olympics. As for Hebert, he was left in a “funk” after Orozco’s injury. He saw the departure of an elite athlete he helped train for nearly a decade. For a few months, Hebert didn’t even want to go to work.

“It was terrible,” he said.

It wasn’t until he started working with a new group of younger gymnasts that he rediscovered his passion for a sport he’s loved since childhood.

And now as his former trainee competes on the sport’s greatest stage, he can look back and know he and World Cup made invaluable contributions to Orozco’s development that helped him reach the London Games. Coaching Orozco for as long as he did, Hebert still follows his career every chance he gets.

“We feel this is our dream, too,” said Hebert. “Our dream is happening as well, even though we’re not physically there with him. We know we put in 90 percent of the legwork, 90 percent of the foundation. And this last 10 percent, the other coaches are taking all the credit for but we know in our hearts that we were a huge, huge part to what’s happening to him now.”

And so Hebert, other staff and students at World Cup and the rest of the country will watch intently as Orozco competes in search of a medal to bring home. World Cup will also host a live viewing this Wednesday to watch Orozco in the Men’s Individual All-Around from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Ayello has no doubt that Orozco will win an Olympic medal, saying his humble and hard-working approach makes him easy to root for. Herbert said Orozco can even stand at the highest point on the podium if he nails his routine.

“I’m not trying to be cocky or brag or anything like that,” Hebert said. “He’s that good and if he hits his routine he’s going to bring home gold. He can help the (U.S) team win gold and it’ll be one of those dreams come true.”

A dream others gymnasts and coaches at World Cup Gymnastics will proudly share with him.