It's been a battle waged by high school gymnastics programs for years upon years.

Getting athletes.

While many Kansas State High School Activities Association-sanctioned sports have dealt with losing their athletes to club programs throughout the year, more and more prevalent in recent years, it's a battle gymnastics has fought throughout its existence.

Amanda Harrington, who coaches the programs at all five Olathe High Schools – East, North, Northwest, South and West – knows it all too well. Mainly because she's been on both sides of it.

"Gymnastics is the only sport that club doesn't shut down for, in the sense that it's a sport that that's an all-year sport," Harrington said. "At the high school level, we just don't really get the club kids."

And in a sense, Harrington, who has coached in club gyms for eight years and has spent the past five years coaching high school – the last three for the Olathe programs, gets it. There are plenty of factors that go into the separation between the two entities.

• Supply and demand. Or make it demands.

In the club world, gymnasts typically are practicing three, four, five hours a night, five days a week in a highly intense atmosphere. There are no shortage of bodies pushing for spots on their teams, especially in the Kansas City metro area where 10 of the 14 KSHSAA programs exist.

Clubs not only pull from the Olathe and Shawnee Mission districts where high school programs exist, but also from Blue Valley and other surrounding districts that don't have high school programs.

With those numbers, gymnasts often can face a tough decision if wanting to compete for their high school as well. Athletes competing for KSHSAA programs are not allowed to concurrently compete for club programs in that same sport.

"A lot of clubs, if the kids wants to do high school, they won't hold their spot for them," Harrington said. "It's not really an option. And they're also not going to shut down for the high school season because you have all these other kids who would then have no place to go for two months."

• Equipment. Most high school programs practice in their own gyms, not at club facilities.

"We don't have a spring floor, we only have a hard cheerleader mat floor," Harrington said. "So they can lose a lot of skills on the floor exercise. If they're not working on those skills the whole time, they can fall behind. Floor is a really big challenge."

Even in fighting the constant battle, Harrington has seen a bit of a shift. This season, she's welcomed a number of new gymnasts to her high school programs who have excelled in the club environment for a long time.

At Olathe North, senior Ella Margheim quit club gymnastics after 13 years, leaving as a Level 10 gymnast, which is the highest level for the club. At Olathe Northwest, incoming freshman Emmy Keller also makes the transition after being a Level 9 in club. At Olathe South, junior Madelyn Fletes is out for the first time after a long club stint.

There's a handful of others as well who have changed their paths and now will compete for their high schools.

It's been refreshing, to say the least.

"I'm super excited," Harrington said. "I think it stems from some of our previous girls advertising high school gymnastics a little more, talking to their friends and saying, 'Hey, this is fun. Come do this. You will enjoy it.'

"Club gymnastics is super-intense and most people that have been around it know that. Coming to high school, I just try to remind them that it's fun. I have to get them to enjoy the sport. We get a lot of kids who quit and usually you quit because you don't like it. It's helping them love the sport again, that's my main job. I'm here to help them enjoy gymnastics again."

Harrington is hoping the 2021 season can be an extremely fun one for her programs. While Free State captured last year's team state championship – led by all-around champion Talia Gary – Olathe North finished second and Olathe West was third.

North won almost every meet held last year, including its first Sunflower League title, and broke nearly every school record in the process. But Free State enjoyed a banner day at the state meet to snatch away the championship.

North was less than two points away from bringing home the program's first state championship with Free State posting a 107.313 point total to North's 106.175. Returning four members off last year's state team as well as adding Margheim, the Eagles has designs on adding one of the missing piece in Olathe's championship crown.

Olathe East has the most titles from the district with nine (2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019). Olathe South has three titles (1989, 1992 and 1994), while Olathe Northwest has one (2017).

"(North) was extremely competitive last year, even within the program because we had seven gymnasts and only five spots," Harrington said. "They are extremely hungry to win. Last year, it drives them to want to win how state went down last year. They worked extremely hard in the offseason and I can see it in their work ethic that they want to win state this year as a team."

Free State will again be a top contender despite graduating Gay, who also was the champion on the uneven bars for the fourth consecutive year and the balance beam. The Firebirds are led this year by Kenzie Vaughn, who took fourth in the all-around.

Olathe West returns Alexis Purdy, third in the all-around, from its third-place team, while Lawrence returns Paris Spotted-Tail, who captured state titles on the vault and floor exercise last year.