Decorated Staten Island gymnast set to return to her high school alma mater, as coach of another program

Jan. 26—It’ll be a full circle homecoming of sorts for one of, if not the, most decorated gymnasts in the history of Tottenville High School. Brittanie Speirs (formerly De Meno) will return to the gymnasium in Huguenot this weekend — albeit as coach of another team.

Speirs, a 2010 grad who led the Pirates to a pair of city crowns, returns as a visiting coach for the first time on Saturday. The 31-year-old, now a mom and special education teacher, is an instructor at Roth’s Crosspoint Gymnastics, a gym run out Philadelphia, where she now resides.

Her squad of USA Gymnastics girls will participate in the New York Invitational, which the Huguenot school is hosting on Saturday and Sunday. The meet will feature dozens of clubs and hundreds of competitors and SILive.com will be there to take plenty of photos of the Islanders and out-of-towners and tell the story. But you must be a subscriber to download the photos.

The event will take place in the same gym where Speirs took home countless gold medals and earned three-time Advance All Star status as a competitor.

“I think it’s definitely going to bring some nostalgia, being back in the arena that I had so many years competing in,” she told the Advance. “But I think it’s also going to bring a different kind of nerve. As an athlete, you go in and you have control over your body. On the coaching side, it’s all on the gymnasts.”

“Being on the other side can be a little more nerve-racking,” admits Speirs. “Just knowing you can prepare and encourage the kids as much as you want, but at the end of the day, it’s their gymnastics.”

Speirs transitioned into coaching shortly after graduating from Temple University, where she was named the school’s “Most Valuable Gymnast” in 2013. She now guides her program’s upper-level pupils, which range from ages 10 through 18.

Speirs, who was a 2010 PSAL Wingate Award winner, was offered the coaching gig by her former assistant coach at Temple, Bill Roth. Her competitive career came to an unfortunate end after she dislocated her ankle during a warmup prior to a college meet.

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“I didn’t think I was going to have anything to do with the sport,” she admitted. “Turns out, I’ve been here since we opened the program. It’s been about nine-and-a-half years.”

“I was 22-years-old. My body was done. Sometimes I can still play around in the gym for fun, but nothing compared to the caliber I used to do,” noted Speirs. “(Coaching) has been so rewarding. You get to impact not only kids’ careers, but you get to help walk them through life.”

The weekend event is being hosted by Speirs’ own former mentor at Tottenville, Mary Casale. Some of her former teammates are expected to be in attendance as well.

Her parents will also be watching in the stands, just like they used to.

“It brings back most of the memories with my teammates and coaches. The camaraderie we had as a team. Tottenville was always really special to me because I got to compete with my friends,” said Speirs. “Mary Casale was such a positive influence on my life. She brought a different energy to the sport and helped me fall in love with it from a different perspective.”

“Brittanie was undeniably one of the most talented gymnasts I’ve coached at Tottenville,” said Casale, who has led the program in Huguenot for 24 years. “Coaching Brittanie, I saw potential in her leadership skills. I appointed her captain during her senior year, a testament to her leadership qualities and commitment.”

“It’s rewarding to witness her transition to coaching and I’m proud to see one of my most talented former pupils thriving in this role,” she added. “I’m really excited to see her.”

At the end of the day, however, Speirs still has a job to do and a squad full of hopeful girls to lead.

“I think it’ll bring some tears but I’m going to have to hold it together because I’m going to have so many athletes that are depending on me to coach them,” pointed out Speirs. “But it will be really sweet to see two different worlds of mine collide.”

Though she’s often in the gym or the classroom, her number one job remains as a mom. However, her son, two-year-old Finn, may soon be following in mom’s footsteps.

“It’s definitely challenging, but i think all my years of being an athlete and having to balance practice and workloads and classes (helps),” she said of the juggling act. “It kind of all just happened naturally. I’ve had to cut back my hours in the gym, but I have a feeling, in a couple of years, I’m going to have to pick up more hours because that little boy loves being in the gym more than anywhere else.”

Nick Regina

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