Braden River seventh-grader soars to even greater heights

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Thirteen-year-old Noah Candocia didn’t know what to do the first time he stepped up onto the trampoline.

Noah has seen his peers jumping around on the apparatus during his visits to Kids SuperGym, but the Braden River Middle School seventh-grader was still adjusting to his newfound sport.

Noah had been in the gym playing around on the equipment, when Kids SuperGym coach Russell Bolingbroke asked him to try out trampoline.

“Russell thought I would be really good,” Noah said. “I didn’t really know what to do at first. It was very new.”
He started training at level 6 four years ago, and it was only a matter of time before he worked his way up to level 10.

“I didn’t know I would get to level 10, which is where I’m at right now, when I started,” Noah said. “I didn’t think I would be this good. I don’t know — maybe it’s just the way I am.”

“I think it’s a lack of fear,” Bolingbroke said of Noah. “He’s a good listener and he’s got this drive inside of him that, honestly, I haven’t seen in another kid I’ve worked with. Noah is going to go all of the way.
“He’s so young and his body is still growing,” Bolingbroke said. “What he’s doing now and what he’s going to be able to do is incredible.”

Today, Noah trains one-and-a-half hours on Mondays and Fridays and two hours Thursdays and Saturdays in the hopes of moving up to Junior Elite status. Junior Elite status is the highest level Noah can achieve until he’s 17 years old and eligible to make the U.S. National Team.

Noah finished first in synchronized trampoline, second in tumbling and fifth in trampoline at the 2012 Tumbling & Trampoline Winter Classic in St. Petersburg.

“He’s a good role model and such a nice kid,” Bolingbroke said. “The other kids look up to him. His future is a bright one and we’re excited.”

In addition to competing alone, Noah also competes in tumbling and synchronized trampoline alongside his 12-year-old partner and friend, Alex Brown. The two have been competing together for about a year.

“I love it,” Noah said. “I like the doubles skills. I get to compete with my friend, and I just like doing the skills together. I think that’s really cool.”

For now, Noah is focused on elevating his routines enough to earn that Junior Elite status, but that doesn’t mean Noah hasn’t already begun thinking about the possibility of competing in the Olympics one day.

“That would be fun,” Noah said. “I’m going to have to train harder than what I do now.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].