Superintendent’s Spotlight: Nola Alzamora

Warwick Valley Middle School fifth grader and gymnast Nola Alzamora has been on the mat since she could walk. She started with “mommy and me” classes and now earns podium finishes at top regional competitions.

Now a Level 6 gymnast, Nola trains four days a week, Monday through Thursday. She balances life as a middle schooler with a rigorous practice schedule. Much of her time outside the classroom is spent in the gym, a commitment that has already begun to pay off. Reaching Level 6 is challenging. Gymnasts must meet specific benchmarks in vault, floor, beam, and bars, showing consistency and difficulty across all four events. This season, Nola did just that.

After placing first on uneven bars at states, Nola qualified for the USA Gymnastics Regional Competition in Springfield, Massachusetts. She competed against top regional gymnasts and delivered a standout performance. The result? She earned the 2026 Region 6 Level 6 Junior C All-Around Champion title with a score of 37.50. She also captured the uneven bars title with a 9.650, which was one of the competition’s top scores.

Nola’s season was big, not just for the results, but for the work behind them.

Last summer, while close to landing a layout flyaway, she broke her toe. The injury slowed her briefly, but she returned to competition and added both a tuck and a layout flyaway to her routine. By midseason, she was performing the layout flyaway from a handstand—an upgrade crucial to her uneven bars success.

“I used to like beam because I was really good at that when I was younger,” Nola said. “Then this season I just got really good at bars in the middle of the season.”

Even as bars have become her strongest event, they remain demanding. Gymnastics requires precision and focus, especially on the uneven bars, where small details matter.

“If I don’t have my toes pointed or my arms straight, I could get a deduction,” she explained.

To work through difficult moments, Nola keeps a positive mindset, blocks out distractions, and trusts her training.

“I just tell myself, ‘You’ve got this; just believe in yourself,’” she said.

In many ways, the sport has become as much about mindset as it is about skill. Nola noted that this part of her training has carried beyond the gym and into everyday life.

“It just taught me to be brave and not to get discouraged and to learn from my mistakes,” she said.

With the competition season complete, Nola is already looking ahead. She plans to continue training and working toward Level 7, which includes mastering skills like giants on the high bar and more advanced combinations across events, including a round-off back handspring layout.

“I just want to keep going and getting better,” she said.

At school, Nola found her rhythm during her first year in middle school and enjoys the added independence of moving between classes. She also looks forward to her classes, especially writing, math, and art, where she enjoys hands-on projects.

“We did this lemonade painting, and I kind of liked it,” she said. “Now we’re working with clay to make paintbrushes. Once it dries, we’re going to paint them to look real.”

For now, Nola focuses on taking things one step at a time—improving in gymnastics and enjoying everyday middle school moments.