BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- If you pay close attention, when driving through suburban Brecksville or Broadview Heights, you might spot a bright blue road sign, simple and unassuming in its design. It’s a quiet, celebratory nod to a long, athletic legacy, but it flicks at the edges of one of Ohio’s most extraordinary sports dramas of the past two decades.
In white block letters, the sign says: Home of the Bees, Gymnastic State Champions. And the silhouettes of two female gymnasts are poised atop two long rows of numbers. They are the years that the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Bees gymnastic team has won the state title. The list includes a few one-off victories in the 1990s and early-aughts – and then every year since 2004.
Every. Single. Year. Notably, the sign leaves room for future wins, as the team trains in pursuit of its 21st consecutive state championship next month.
It’s hard to overstate the pressure that builds beneath a record as long and illustrious as the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Bees’ -- the longest gymnastics state title streak in the nation. The crowded trophy display case at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School is a daily reminder of the high expectations and the burden of a 20-year legacy. Compounding that pressure is the sense that the Bees’ competitors might be secretly rooting for them to fail – a sort of “anybody but them” attitude that often dogs longtime defending champs.
But as lonely as it is at the top, no one wants to be the one who costs the Bees’ their decades-long domination. So, week in and week out, the team of 18 high school girls meet at their home base, Gymnastics World of Ohio (known widely as Gym World) in Broadview Heights – a family-run institution that gave rise to the Bees phenomenon.
There, they log countless hours, practicing vaults, beam and floor routines, grinding them into the kind of perfection that yields champions, to carry forward a winning streak that began years before any of them were even born.
It’s all happening under the tutelage of head coach Maria Schneider – who embraced the role after her mom, Joan Ganim, retired in 2019. Joan and her late husband Ron opened their gymnastics facility in September 1975.
Over the past 48 years, Gym World’s footprint has grown tenfold to accommodate the more-than 1,000 girls and boys who are involved in its programs today -- as well as the Bees gymnastics team.
Ron passed away in 2017, but Joan continued to co-manage Gym World, along with her children, and coach the high school team until her retirement.
The Bees’ winning streak began in 2004, with a nail-biting half-point win over powerhouse rivals Magnificat. Since then, the three Ganim head coaches have ushered the high school team through the subsequent 19 victories of the record-breaking streak. That includes, according to Maria and her brother, Greg Ganim, the emotional win the year of their father’s death.
Maria’s coaching style has maintained many of the principles her parents established, including the gym’s long-running philosophy to “teach the child first, and then the athlete.” To that end, Ron and Joan Ganim prioritized the mental health of their gymnasts, long before Olympian Simone Biles changed the way mental health was approached in gymnastics worldwide.
In fact, the Bees credit much of their enduring success to Gym World’s focus on mental wellness, which remains unique in the industry.
For decades, Gym World has offered gymnasts on both club and high school teams a mental health course, which they affectionally refer to as “psychobabble.” In a classroom setting, the athletes talk and learn strategies to cope with their fears and mental blocks and to manage stress.
Senior Lea Haverdill said the process really works, and she’s grateful to have access to it. Most gyms, she said, don’t offer such extensive work in mental health. The program has proven vital, not only during those ice-water-in-the-veins moments at regular season meets, but also as pressure rises on the team, each year the winning streak grows longer.
During the post season, Maria ramps up some of the strategies. She incorporates more breathing exercises, meditation and positive affirmations to help them manage the extra pressure. It also helps that most of the girls on the team have known each other their whole lives. Half of them participate in Gym World’s club team during the off season, while the others compete exclusively with the Bees.
They’re close-knit. The girls spend time together outside of the gym. They eat dinner together the night before every competition. All of it helps insulate them against the mounting pressure of achieving their 21st consecutive championship, alongside the other demands of high school life.
“There’s a lot going on with these kids right now,” Joan said. “School pressure has gotten a lot harder. There are so many more high-ranking classes, their workloads are tougher and they’re just tired. Sometimes they have a hard time dealing with everything.”
As they head into the postseason and the 2024 state championship meet on March 2 in Hilliard, Ohio, the girls are reminded of how close last year’s team came to ending the winning streak.
The 2023 OHSAA State Championship meet came down to the wire. After lagging in the scores for most of the day, the Bees knew they had to come out on top during their final event -- the vault. And luckily, the vault was one of the team’s strengths.
Bees gymnast Ella Shaheen ran down the runway twice and stopped just before jumping both times. The rules dictate that if that happens on the third attempt, it registers as an automatic zero. Her team was relying on a good score.
“Everything that girl worked for her whole life on this sport relied on her facing her fear – and she got over that horse,” Maria said recently, reflecting on those intense minutes. “Talk about mental toughness. It worked in that moment for that child, and it was pretty incredible.”
Then, Gianna Ravagnani, who was a sophomore at the time, nailed her vault, as well, earning the high score that her team needed to secure the top spot at the competition and win its 20th consecutive OHSAA State Championship title, a national record among high school gymnastics teams nationwide.
In the coming month, leading to the state meet downstate, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer will be keeping up with the Bees, with stories about the team’s history and most nail-biting victories and the athletes who have gone on to excel in the sport beyond their time with the Bees. We’ll explore the Gym World coaching dynasty that gave rise to this legendary team, the coaching philosophy that breeds success, and we’ll tell you more about the unique “psychobabble” program that keeps its athletes grounded and mentally prepared for the pressure.
What the post season holds for the Bees is anybody’s guess, say Maria and Joan.
Here in Northeast Ohio, Magnificat and Berea-Midpark are the teams to watch, but other schools, such as Medina, Strongsville, Brunswick, Twinsburg and Hudson, could prove to be top performers.
But it’s almost not worth thinking about it, Joan said, standing by a row of balance beams during a recent practice, watching the girls run their routines. They haven’t heard much about the schools in the southern part of the state this year, and even if they had, that kind of intel only goes so far.
“You just never know,” Joan said. “Until you’re on the same floor, in front of the same judges, you have to keep your mindset that it’s anyone’s title to win.”
440-202-1706
Service Areas
