Despite coaching change, injury, Plum grad Emily Innes set up for success with Washington gymnastics

As gymnasts, Emily Innes and Jen Llewellyn know plenty about leaping. Innes, a Plum grad, twice qualified for Junior Olympic nationals as a Level 10 performer. Llewellyn was a three-time All-American at Oregon State.

But when it came to their athlete-coach relationship, a different leap was required: a leap of faith.

Trained at Gymkhana Gymnastics in Monroeville, Innes generated interest from a number of schools, including Washington. The prospect of joining the Huskies intrigued her. It was a chance to see a different part of the country, and the wooded landscape of the Pacific Northwest was perfect for her interest in studying environmental science.

But between the time she committed and her arrival on the Seattle campus, there was a coaching change. Llewellyn took the reins of the program, and, suddenly, there was an element of mystery on both sides.

Llewellyn said she knew Innes mostly in name only. Innes, meanwhile, admitted being apprehensive about the new regime. She assumed Llewellyn would want to bring in her own recruits, especially considering Innes was the only one left from the incoming class. Others withdrew their commitments once the Huskies changed coaches.

One phone call changed everything.

“I remember her calling me and setting up a time (to talk),” said Innes, who just completed her sophomore year with the Huskies. “It was really special that that was one of the first things she decided to do.

“She mentioned taking a leap of faith with me because we both really didn’t know each other, but we felt like it was right in the moment. It didn’t feel like they had to offer me that spot, but because they did, it really made me feel welcomed here.”

Innes has rewarded Llewellyn’s faith.

After a solid freshman season, Innes took a significant step forward this past season, qualifying for the NCAA regionals in the floor exercise. At the regional, she posted a personal-best score of 9.95 in the event, although she came up just short of a spot in the NCAA championships.

“She was really consistent in the floor lineup last year as a freshman,” Llewellyn said, “so seeing her make an immediate impact her freshman year and be successful with the (degree of) difficulty that she did have was huge.

“In the offseason, she spent a lot of time focusing on consistency, and it transitioned right into the competition arena. … She’s really clean. She’s really consistent, and she’s kind of come into her own personality through her artistry and her dance.”

Adapting to the coaching change wasn’t the first obstacle Innes had to clear to achieve success at Washington.

During her senior year at Plum, she suffered a shoulder injury that required surgery. Innes said she believes the injury merely was the result of gradual wear and tear from more than a decade of gymnastics.

The resulting operation kept her out of competition for nearly a year.

“I rehabbed it before surgery, so I went into surgery pretty strong,” she said. “I came out of surgery getting back earlier than I expected, and I was very motivated to come back because I worked all these years to get to college … so I knew that I wasn’t going to let it stop me.”

Though the injury hasn’t stopped her gymnastics pursuits, it has kept her from competing on bars.

Llewellyn said there has been no talk about putting Innes back on the event, instead letting her focus on beam, floor and vault.

“(Bars) is not my best strength out of all four of (the events), so I am OK with focusing on the other ones and trying to better myself on them,” Innes said. “But it’s a little sad thinking that I might never touch that event again because all-around would be pretty cool.

“I am sad and OK with it at the same time.”

In the three remaining events, Llewellyn said Innes is nearly equally strong in each. Floor is her highest scoring event at the moment, but she is working to upgrade her degree of difficulty in the others.

Currently, the most difficult vault in her repertoire can score a maximum of 9.95, so she goes into each event with a slight disadvantage against other ladies who might be performing a vault that can score up to a 10.0. She is trying to perfect a Yurchenko one-and-a-half, which involves a cartwheel-type entry onto the springboard followed by hitting the vaulting table backward then doing one-and-a-half twists to land forward on the mat.

On beam, Innes is just scratching the surface of her college potential after not competing in the event during her freshman season. At a meet in March, she scored a 9.90 on her beam routine, hinting that bigger scores could be on the horizon.

Floor might be her best ticket to nationals. After coming close this season, Innes said she is confident she eventually can get over the top. Her coach is equally optimistic.

“She’s got big aspirations and goals for herself next year,” Llewellyn said. “She doesn’t need to be pushed. She doesn’t need to be told what to do. She’s self-sufficient in what she wants to accomplish.

“It’s just refining those details a little bit more. She has the ability (to make nationals). It’s just putting in the work to do it.”

Next season, Washington will begin competition as a member of the Big Ten. It will require a lot more travel, but Innes is looking forward to having meets closer to home where more family and friends might have a chance to come and watch her.

She has been lucky enough to have her parents take up temporary residence in the Seattle area for each of her two seasons. Her father, Greg, works remotely, she said, and his current company just happens to be headquartered in Seattle.

Innes has treated them to a number of stellar performances, and she is eager for what comes next.

“I think for sure (nationals) is achievable,” she said. “Especially the progress I made from last year … my freshman year being the first (time) I competed after having surgery and being off for a whole year.

“Just seeing the progress I made from freshman year to sophomore year, I can’t wait to see what happens junior year.”