VERONA, Wis. — Alisa Krylova has entered her senior year at Verona Area High School with a 4.0 GPA. She’s also one of the hardest working members of the Gymnastics team.
“If you can’t do it on your foot, that is fine,” said gymnastics head coach Rachael Hauser to her team while they were warming up.
Krylova has been in gymnastics for four years. Hauser said she always goes above and beyond.
“She has always been someone who stands out as really dedicated to not only this sport but all of the school activities that she does, which are numerous,” said Hauser.
Krylova is also a member of the tennis team, plays the violin and volunteers during her free time at the Madison Russian School, where she works with younger children.
“She can balance all of the things she does and still perform at this top level and we haven’t had our tryouts yet but I suspect she is probably going to make the varsity lineup,” said Hauser.
Krylova said for her, gymnastics is much more than a sport.
“There is a lot of challenges that you have to overcome physically and mentally and overcoming those challenges makes me a more confident person and it gives me something to think about outside of school or life,” said Krylova.
Scott Vandermeuse is a music teacher at Verona Area High School.
He has been teaching Krylova since freshman year.
“She is a good example of a student who has decided to take ownership of her own skill and technique and sought out private lessons and still grown herself and works hard at everything she does,” said Vandermeuse.
He said seeing her graduate will be bittersweet.
“You form those relationships with people and you see them grow and pour into them and then they go off and do great things, which is good. That’s how it is supposed to be, but she is definitely somebody that I am going to miss as a person and the ensemble will miss her as a violinist,” said Vandermeuse.
Krylova said growing up, she was a very competitive person and wanted to pick one thing to excel at.
As she has gotten older, she said her competitive nature has calmed down and now she strives for greatness for different reasons.
“I just want to live a comfortable life, I want to support others and I feel like being successful in academics, that can translate into life later on, so I just want to bring myself that content in my future,” said Krylova.
Krylova said she plans to go to college in pursuit of becoming a doctor and helping others.
“It brings so much good to this world to become a doctor,” said Krylova. “I just want to go that route and see what happens and if it is not for me, that is okay, I will do something else and try my best to be successful.”