The first thing you notice walking into Hanna Shin’s spacious Inverness home is the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
“Here, try one,” said Fremd’s standout gymnast. You soon discover Mrs. Fields has nothing over Miss Shin.
As Hanna prepares for an interview, she politely asks older brother Duke, one of the state’s top swimmers, to keep an eye on the latest batch.
You haven’t seen family values like this since Wally and the Beaver. Older brothers helping younger sisters bake cookies isn’t exactly your typical suburban scene. Earlier in the day, Hanna had gone Christmas shopping with her mother.
Sometime this winter, the House of Shin could become the home of champions. On paper, Hanna is the state’s top returning all-arounder and Fremd is the state’s top-ranked team. Duke Shin, Tyler Holcomb and Brian Brinkley give Fremd an excellent shot at the state swimming title.
It’s a rarity for one school-much less one family-to claim two state titles in the same season.
That’s a story line that could materialize at the end of February. For now, attempting to home in on the unique wavelength that separates Hanna Shin from your average high school gymnast is the telling tale.
It begins with her parents, Lloyd, 52, who came to this country from South Korea, and Helena, 46, from North Korea. They met while attending Northern Illinois University, where Lloyd studied relentlessly to maintain a scholarship. His was a life of endless homework, keeping one step ahead of the fierce academic competition common in the Far East. Working just as incessantly, he is now president of a lithographic company in Mt. Prospect.
Which makes it seem almost sacrilegious when his daughter, an A-minus student says: “Sometimes I put sports first and school second.
“That’s really bad, and I have to realize that school comes first. I’m not going to make a living through gymnastics.”
Her father smiles approvingly at his daughter’s sentiments.
“Sports is the quickest way to learn about life itself, at a young age,” said Lloyd, a career valedictorian and onetime national debate champion in his homeland. “I don’t know of anything that teaches as quickly. They learn about pain when they fall short. They learn humility after failing, swallowing your pride and getting up to try again.
“Getting along with your coaches and teammates is not an easy thing. Life is what meaning you derive out of each situation, and sports has the most values a young person can learn-even more than books. I was deprived of that. Intellect alone won’t make a perfect person.”
From an early age, there was something different about Hanna, perhaps something instilled by her parents. She won her first competitive swim meet at age 4, all 3 feet and 45 pounds of her. She began ballet at 3, gymnastics two years later and competitive diving when she was 7.
Her parents are still amazed at how Hanna faced her first big dilemma at 9. Seems her mentor of a gymnastics coach had just been fired for the second time. What was Hanna to do? She proceeded to get out pen and paper and write out clearly her four options: 1: Follow the coach wherever; 2: Switch to the best club, requiring a two-hour daily drive; 3: Attend the second-best club, which was closer; 4: Quit gymnastics.
“Mom, dad, let’s sit down and discuss my options,” Hanna said, eventually selecting No. 2.
One year later, Shin was selected to attend a high-intensity, two-week training camp in the Soviet Union. It was then she decided the sacrifices to become an Olympic-caliber gymnast were too severe.
Instead, she burst onto the high school scene last February as a freshman, finishing fifth in all-around and fourth on the uneven bars at the state meet. That was after she had won the state diving title in the fall.
State gym finalists were asked to fill out questionnaires for a meet telecast. Under “Past Achievements,” Shin wrote: “None.” Fortunately, Fremd coach Larry Petrillo caught the oversight and penciled in: “State diving champion.”
If judges factored modesty into their scoring, Shin would never be far from a “10.” The 5-foot, 93-pound artisan seems uncomfortable being singled out at a meet.
Yet there’s no denying Shin’s stature. Last year’s all-around champion, Rock Island’s Tiffany Chapman, probably is out for the season with a knee injury. Runner-up Jenny Snell of Mundelein graduated, as did No. 4 Eme Cole of Carmel. Third-place finisher Sandy Menard of Downers Grove North opted for club gymnastics.
That leaves Shin and Elk Grove’s Lynette Brossett, who tied for fifth, as all-around favorites. There’s also Naperville North’s Nikki Drennan (7th), Buffalo Grove’s Dawn Haag (8th) and New Trier’s early-season sensation Alyssa Rapp.
“I don’t set individual goals like winning all-around,” Shin said. “A team title, though, is something we all really want. It’s in the back of our minds every day at practice.
“People call us the favorite, and I think we deserve it. Anything less than first place and we, the gymnasts, will be more upset than anyone. That happens when you start to believe all the good things that are written about you.”
“I was kind of disappointed,” Shin said. “It was kinda bad that I won it so soon because, how much higher can you go? Then I got started late in gymnastics because of diving, and that’s kind of frustrating. My last performance at state was my best ever, and you want to continue right from that point. It’s like I knew I was there once, how good it felt and I want so badly to get back to that feeling.”
You can’t blame her for wanting to be good at everything she does.
Oh, and that last batch of cookies?
Mmmmm, you’d have to give it a 9.9.
