Three cheers for Douglas S. Freeman鈥檚 Emma Crone
RICHMOND, Va. — Emma Crone has been tumbling her way through life since beginning gymnastics lessons at the age of three. Over the last thirteen years, she has spent countless hours in the gym perfecting her athletic skills while achieving quite an impressive list of accolades. Just a few weeks ago, Emma was selected to 2nd team All State for competitive cheer by the Virginia High School League (VHSL). This year, she earned a spot on the All-Region Competitive Cheerleading team, as well as reprising a place on the 1st team All Region Gymnastics team. Also, in 2022 and 2023, she served as a Region 7 Level 8 Regional Competitor.
Since beginning high school three years ago, her extensive background in gymnastics has led her to find a new passion for cheer. In addition to training at Richmond Olympiad, Emma now also competes on Freeman Varsity Gymnastics team, Sideline cheer, and Competitive cheer. After so many years spent dedicated to the sport, Emma is hopeful to close out her gymnastics career on a strong note before hopefully embarking on a similarly successful career in cheer throughout college.
The oldest of three siblings, Emma (16) lives with her brother, Trip (14), sister, Hayes (11) and parents, Ty and Kate in Foxchapel and attends Douglas S. Freeman High School as Junior. She is a fun-loving teen who also appreciates the opportunity to relax with a good book. When she isn鈥檛 hard at work, she loves to spend time with her friends and family. Emma appreciates the deep friendships she has made over the years through gymnastics. Both sports are very community based, and foster long lasting relationships, making friends feel more like family. Many of her closest friends she met through her time spent in the gym.
Both gymnastics and cheer are very challenging sports, testing you both mentally and physically. Emma believes that the soundest advice she has ever received was to not be so hard on herself. It can be easy to beat yourself up over the little things. In fact, Emma says that her biggest challenge to date has been overcoming mental blocks. Sometimes they just creep in, and there isn鈥檛 anything you can do to tangibly fix it. Emma describes it as being similar to an injury inside your head. When she encounters a mental block, Emma knows to lean in on her teammates, coaches and parents for support.
In addition to that, she says she was taught to always speak with a positive attitude before a competition. 鈥淢anifest your reality and your brain and body will believe it.鈥� Emma says that her favorite memory from cheer regionals is when her team wrote quotes such as, 鈥渨e will hit 0鈥�, and 鈥渨e will be holding a trophy at 4 pm鈥�, and 鈥渨e are locked in鈥� on the board and then all read them aloud together before the competition began. That positivity, when focused on by all of them in unison, really charged the girls. That evening, they qualified for states for the first time in Freeman鈥檚 history.
Despite all the time spent practicing, not every competition goes off without a hitch. Last year, at gymnastics regionals, Emma鈥檚 nerves briefly got the best of her. She got in her head and became anxious focusing intensely on qualifying for states. Those nerves caused her to fall on every single skill she attempted on the beam. She finished disappointed and dejected. After adjusting her perspective and realizing that it wasn鈥檛 as big a deal as she made it out to be, she went on to qualify that afternoon for states on both floor and bars.
Emma credits these sports with teaching her some very valuable lessons. Gymnastics has taught her mental fortitude. It has also taught her how to be a leader to those around her. Cheer has taught her other things, like how to be a team player, and how to support her teammates in times of need. Together, they have helped shape her into the incredibly ambitious and determined person she is.
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