Experienced coach joins NASA Gymnastics staff

Blake has 35 years, national-level gymnasts to his credit

John Smith

Special to the Gateway

Bruce Blake, a national level gymnastics coach, has joined the award-winning coaching staff at the North American Sports Academy in Gig Harbor.

Blake has trained national-level gymnasts in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington and Michigan in the past 35 years. His athletes have won Junior Olympic National Championship titles. He has qualified seven gymnasts to USA Elite Gymnastics, the highest level of competition in the world.

Blake’s star pupil from the 1980s and ’90s was Leslie Angeles from Madison Heights, Mich. Angeles won the Junior Olympic National Vault Championship title in 1990 and went on to compete in USA Elite Championships in 1991 and 1992.

Angeles rose to the top as an elite gymnast and battled with soon-to-be American Olympians Shannon Miller, Kim Zmeskal and Dominique Dawes. Angeles eventually earned a full gymnastics scholarship to Georgia, an NCAA Division I school. She went on to win the NCAA floor exercise championship in 1995.

Blake will join forces with directors Linda and John Smith at NASA Gymnastics to round out an accomplished staff.

Linda Smith, one of the top choreographers on the West Coast, has trained five national floor exercise champions and numerous state and Pacific Northwest champions. She is revered for her ability to work with children of all ages and abilities.

John Smith has been the director of NASA Gymnastics since 1981. He has trained 13 national team members for USA Gymnastics, and five NASA gymnasts have won international titles since 1992.

Smith was inducted in the USA Gymnastics Washington State Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2006, joining the top 10 coaches in the state. In 2007, Tiffani White, NASA’s first elite national gymnast, from 1993-98, was inducted into the Tacoma Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.

“I am so excited to be working with the talented gymnasts at NASA,” Blake said. “I have always been impressed with their excellent form, flexibility and strength. This program has steadily produced champions, and I am thrilled to be a part of the excitement taking place here in Gig Harbor.”

Linda Smith said Blake and former national gymnast Mackenzie McIntyre will help raise the level of performance and increase opportunities for children in the community.

NASA Gymnastics is registering students for all classes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 18-21, with levels 4, 5 and 6 team tryouts at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 20.

Tryouts are open to the public for a nominal fee.