All V Dal Cummings wanted to do was flip since he was a young boy. The John F. Kennedy senior took one final tumble as a high school athlete with a back flip in front of the stage at St. Francis College as he was about to be given the PSAL Wingate award for boys gymnastics.
He stuck the landing like so many times before.
“This is my last year and I guess it’s my last flip for PSAL,” he said. “It has to be. My coach is watching.”
Kennedy coach Robert Colon has been watching over Cummings since he was 6 years old and his journey from the raggedy mats of the Roberto Clemente Community Center in The Bronx to PSAL stardom and a better life wasn’t as easy as the flips he performs.
“It was tough love, but I had to show him the right away,” Colon said. “There was no other way or he would have been a part of the streets in a heartbeat. I’m glad that I saved this child and I love him like a son.”
Cummings told Colon as a youngster getting instruction at the community center that he wanted to come to Kennedy to be coached by him. When he finally arrived, Cummings didn’t like what he heard. Colon wanted him to change more than his technique, but his lifestyle and mindset. Cummings was rough around the edges. His sole focus was on gymnastics and not school and was often put in the corner by Colon to watch practices. It was an experience he called horrible at first.
“Before I came to gymnastics I was a regular hood kid,” Cummings said. “I didn’t care about anything. I had no self control. I couldn’t control myself as well as my mind or body. When I got to gymnastics it calmed me down. It started making me notice everything around me. It made me more aware of my surroundings and the people I was around. It kind of brought me to be a man.”
It also brought him unmatched gymnastics success. When Cummings was a freshman, Colon told him that if he listened the Knights would win a city championship and he would be the Wingate winner, considered the best senior in his sport. With his hard work and that of his teammates Kennedy won two city crowns and two all-around titles.
“When we finally got it, it was like ‘Yes!’” Cumming said. “There is nothing that is going to beat that.”
In this year’s city championship he scored a 9.1 on the parallel bars, 8.7 on floor and 8.1 on both vault and pommel horse. Cummings holds the school record for a single match performance with 53 of 60 points. He also scored 9.9 on floor, that Cummings felt was a 10, in a match against LaGuardia this season.
“Ever since he came on, the gym is packed,” the coach said. “Standing-room only and it’s like we are putting on a show.”
Cummings will attend Springfield College in the fall to continue his career. It’s a destination he wouldn’t have seen himself landing at just four years ago if he had not thrown himself into gymnastics and school at the behest of Colon, who plans on being at all his college meets and eventual graduation. Cummings is now trying to pass the lessons of his journey on those who were once like him.
“It’s an unbelievable experience that I’m going through,” Cummings said. “Even the friends that I have I can see the difference and they can see the difference in me. I’m trying to bring them where I am.”