2008 Myers Family Letter

Another amazing year.  Justin competed the whole season for the OSU men's gymnastics team.  He competed four events for almost every meet.  He missed vault one time do to injury.  Justin went the entire season not missing one high bar routine.  This ranked him 20th in the country by the end of the season.  Pretty amazing for a walk on athlete.  He also did not have any major falls this year except for one on parallel bars which got great coverage on the Big Ten Network.  That was too fun to watch your child get television coverage and have the announcers talk about him.  We met some friends at Cleat's and watched our kid on television.  Justin competed at Big Ten's and NCAA Championships but the team just did alright, hopefully next year will be better.  Justin was again name Most Improved Athlete of the Year but it doesn't mean so much this year.  They offered him no scholarship money at all.  You think the school could have thrown him 1000.00 bucks or so just to let him know that they appreciate his effort this year.  We are so disappointed in this coach and this program.  It sure doesn't live up to the Ohio State name.  Hopefully this fuels Justin's fire to beat even more of the scholarship athletes.  On a much better note, Justin made the Dean's list the last two quarters of his sophomore and the last quarter was straight A's.  Wow!!!

Jessica finished up her last season of cheerleading as captain of the Varsity Basketball squad.  There was less drama and I took some great photographs.  The girls had a number of games where almost the entire squad tumbled.  They looked really good.  She started track 15 pounds lighter than last year because of cross country.  That seemed to help because she jumped her PR, personal record, every meet.  Jessica also broke the school record three times and made Plain Dealer player of the week.  Her best meet was the Mayfield Relay.  Jess won the meet at 9'6" without missing a jump.  You get three try's at each height and those misses help break ties if you need it.  She then went on to jump 10' which shattered the meet record.  Jess also set a new Highland High School pole vault record for the second time that week.  She took 5th in a really tough Suburban League Championship, third at Districts, and then placed 8th at Regionals with a jump of 10'.  She is the first girl from Highland to place in Pole Vault at a Regional meet.

To cap off this great season the University of Toledo offered her a guaranteed walk on spot on the track team.  I can't believe both kids are D 1 athletes.  How cool!!!

2007 Myers Family Letter

Wow, what a year, I don't even know where to begin.  How fun to have unlimited space to write my letter.  Just kidding.  I will try to keep it to a few hundred pages.  Just kidding again. 

This year has been tumultuous at the very least.  Justin started the craziness by having a seizure right after he finished high school.  I immediately accused him of taking drugs but much to my relief he wasn't lying to me.  I found out afterward the epilepsy runs in my family on my father's side.  Justin then started his freshman year at OSU and walked on the men's gymnastics team.  He made line ups mid season and competed for the Number 1 ranked Bucks at Penn State in February.  How exciting for us to watch his dream come true.  Even better, Justin hit all three events he competed.  That means he didn't make any major mistakes.  Bob and I cried like little babies.  We brought a contingency of 15 loyal friends and family to see this milestone in my son's life.  Thanks to all of you for supporting Justin.  I know he really appreciated all of you there in your Justin Myers Fan Club shirts and holding Justin's face on a stick.  See the photos below.  It was hilarious.  Justin then went on to compete in California at Cal Berkeley.  Bob and I made the trip a little early and spent some quality time in San Francisco.  Justin had an amazing crash off High Bar in warm-ups.  Check it out on You Tube.  Just type in Justin Myers Gymnastics.  He then turned in another solid performance on floor to score again for the Buckeye's.  By the end of the night both of his heels were completely black from hitting the floor.  Justin didn't make line ups for the Big Ten Championships but he was an alternate.  They won for the third year in a row!  First time in Men's gymnastics history.  Justin received his Big Ten Championship ring at the beginning of this school year.  It is an amazing ring.  Much to our excitement Justin made line ups for NCAA Championships.  The day the team was to leave Justin had a second seizure.  Thank God his roommates were home and called an ambulance and made sure Justin was okay.  This time Justin was put on medication for epilepsy.  Sadly the team left without him.  I drove him down to Penn State the very next day but much to my relief and disappointment they pulled him from the competition.  I can't tell you how weird that is to be sad and glad at the same time.  Sad for him not competing but so glad they were not going to let him take that risk so soon after his seizure.  The team didn't fair so well and ended up 7th in the Nation.  Justin was giving one of only three awards to the team.  Most Improved Athlete of the Year!  The craziness didn't stop here.  Justin then took his first skydiving trip two months after that second seizure.  He wanted to jump solo but his mother freaked out so he jumped tandem.  We, of course, hired a photographer who jumped with him and took pictures on the way down.  That is going to be my new job.  LOL!!!  How funny, those pictures made the National Sky Diving magazine.  It seems OSU is one of only a handful of schools in the whole country who gives a college credit for jumping out of an airplane.  Bob and I took a motorcycle trip to West Virginia for Mountainfest07.  It was a really fun trip until we pulled into our driveway to find an ambulance there.  Justin had his third seizure with only Jessica and his girlfriend Beth Ann there.  Both girls did an amazing job of keeping him safe until the medics got there.  I am so proud of Jess for using her first aid and cpr training to take care of her brother.  She was really scared but did everything right.  Thank God again he was in a safe place.  Turns out if you miss your seizure medication it will trigger another seizure.  I bet Justin doesn't miss his meds again.

Justin ended his year on a great note when the OSU Men's Gymnastics team was named the Academic Team Champions for all of men's gymnastics.  They had an accumulated team GPA of 3.4.  They beat Stanford University who hadn't been beaten in four years.

      Jessica had a great year.  She finished up the Winter Basketball season on the Varsity squad.  Are we glad that's over!  Way to much drama.  Jessica again this year was Highland's number one pole vaulter.  She still didn't get that 9 foot mark but was the first girl from our school to ever make Regionals.  The district meet was really tough.  All the girls were vaulting in the rain.  It was very scary but Jess did great and took second place at Districts.  She made a great effort at Regionals but did not make the opening height which was higher then her personal best.  She missed it by less than an inch.  It was an amazing try.  Jess went on to earn her third straight Varsity letter in track and second straight in cheerleading.  Jess began training this past summer to run cross country.  Last year she offered to run if I would let her quit dance.  I did and she didn't run.  So this summer I told her to get practicing because she owed me a season.  Much to my surprise Jess got up four days a week and ran the park with the team at 8 am.  Yes, that's right a teenager got up early in the summer.  Jess then went on to run the whole season.  The first couple of days during regular season Jess came home and said, "Mom, no one is talking to me".  I asked her, "Are you talking to them?"  She wasn't and she did and Jess went on to make a bunch of new friends in cross country.  Jess made Varsity Football cheerleading and was named Captain of the squad.  She did a good job of running the squad but still goofed off way too much.  I never had so much fun taking pictures until I took pics of Jess and her friends cheering on the sidelines.  They were hysterically funny.  The temptation to slide in the mud the last game was huge and I am proud to say Jess controlled herself and didn't get punished this year.  The mud sliding pics from last year are still my favorite.

Jess and I went on a college trip to the University of Toledo.  We loved the school and she has narrowed her college choices down to three;  Kent, The University of Toledo, and Akron.  Yes, she will be graduating in the spring and expect an even bigger party than Justin's.  We girls love to party.