When she was six years old, current Pioneer gymnast Heather Huffaker had too much energy for her mother to be able to handle. Her mother’s solution: put her daughter in gymnastics.

“I was just a really energetic kid when I was little,” Huffaker said, remembering the events that led to her participation in what is now a major part of her life. “Also, my cousin did it, and I saw it on TV and thought that it looked like a lot of fun.”

This decision led Huffaker into a sport where she is now one of the better competitors in the country and on one of the most successful teams.

Huffaker, a senior leader for this year’s Pioneer club, has had a terrific start to her final campaign at DU. Competing in all four events that the Pioneers have had this season, Huffaker is averaging an all-around score of 38.917, which is tops on the DU squad.

Also, Huffaker has won four individual events this season, including the all-around title in an event against the Air Force Academy.

Growing up in DeSoto, Texas, Huffaker competed for the same coach from the time she started gymnastics at age six all the way through until she graduated from high school.

“He was a huge part of my life,” said Huffaker of her childhood coach. “He knew me so well. He always knew what to say to me to get me motivated.”

While competing for her coach at the Texas-based gymnastics club Trevino’s Gymnastics, Huffaker was the state vault champion three different times, won the state all-around title once, and was selected to three Junior Olympic National Teams.

While competing with the national team, Huffaker was the national vault champion in 2003.

All of her success while competing with Trevino, landed her a number of scholarship opportunities. After surveying her options, Huffaker chose to come to DU.

“I really loved the coaches when I was looking at coming [to DU],” Huffaker said regarding her decision making process. “All three of [the coaches] brought something different, but all are so good together.”

Huffaker also said that coming to the Mile High City was appealing, as she really enjoyed the area on her visit.

Since arriving on campus, Huffaker has done nothing but impress. Huffaker had one of the best freshman seasons of any gymnast in school history.

She won 13 different event and all-around titles and held an average of 39.171 in the all-around, which was second on the Pioneer team.

The highlight to her rookie season, though, was an impressive perfect 10.0 in the vault in a meet against the Air Force Academy. It was only the fourth perfect score, in any event, in DU history.

Huffaker has qualified for Nationals twice in her three seasons as a Pioneer, as both a freshman and a sophomore. She became the first DU gymnast ever to individually qualify for Nationals in back-to-back seasons.

Through all of the success, Huffaker feels that she has improved greatly since joining the Pioneers four years ago.

“I feel that I have gotten much more consistent,” said Huffaker. “I have just tried to continually improve to be able to hit every weekend, while improving my mental and leadership skills.”

Huffaker hopes that all of the hard work that she has put in during her career will help her and her Pioneer teammates to have a very good season.

“Our Regional tournament is at home this year, which will be really fun,” said Huffaker of her team’s goals for the rest of this season. “I really want us to make it to Nationals… And make it all the way to the Super Six, which is like our equivalent of the Final Four in basketball.”

With all that Huffaker has accomplished while representing the Pioneers, she feels that she still has a lot to accomplish.

“I would like to make All-American this year,” said Huffaker. “Its one of the things that I haven’t done since I have been here and I’d really like to.”

No matte how the season turns up, Huffaker says that she has really enjoyed her time here as a Pioneer, and upon graduating in June, she will have many things to cherish.

“I will just always remember my time with the team,” said Huffaker. “Sometimes, it has been hard, but overall its been so great to have 14 people that I know that I can always count for anything and that they can count on me.”