Soccer senior flips to success

A shot off the foot of Andy Adlard goes in for a score, and the 5-foot-9-inch senior runs toward the sideline in celebration.

Up to this point, it’s a typical goal celebration. But Adlard isn’t a typical goal celebrator.

The run is followed by a cartwheel that turns into a back tuck. Hoosier fans in the stands clap louder. Photographers hold their shutters longer, capturing a goal celebration that is as close to the college version of a Brandi Chastain-goal celebration as there will ever be.

But Adlard doesn’t just do a back flip, he gets air to the point that his upside down head is level with 5-foot-11-inch Chris Estridge’s shoulders.

“Wanna know the cool thing?” Adlard said, smiling. “I can get higher.”

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When Adlard was 5 years old, he loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and he loved Michelangelo.

“I really liked what he could do with his yo-yo,” he said. “I just thought it was cool. I was pretty good with yo-yo. I had the book and everything.”

But Michelangelo’s use of a yo-yo as a weapon isn’t what worried Stephen and Shelly Adlard.

His parents believed the TMNT are what inspired their son to flip from the top bunk of his bed into a bean bag chair on his bedroom floor.

“I even remember watching them and doing round offs and front flips off my coffee table into a bean bag,” Adlard said. “I was stupid as a kid, and I didn’t have much fear.”

His parents were scared their son was going to hurt himself. They wanted him to channel his talent into something, so they placed him in gymnastics.

“The first day I went to gymnastics they basically pushed me flat into the splits, and it was really painful,” Adlard said. “My mom always says I liked everything else but not the splits. ...I cried because I didn’t want to go back and do the splits.”

But Adlard returned on the second day, and for the next seven years he practiced soccer and gymnastics.

He practiced at M&M’s Gymnastics in New Berlin, Wis., three days a week for three hours at a time. Adlard admitted he was pretty good, but he only got better. He competed against the Hamm brothers, who participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics for Team USA.

“At 7, he was the youngest boy to do a round-off back handspring where he took gymnastics,” his mother said.

Adlard made it to state when he was 13, winning the pommel horse. He placed third overall. He was on to regionals, and then he was the alternate for nationals.

Soccer was beginning to take up too much time, though, and after Adlard peeled off the high bar trying to do a dismount that caused him to fall on his neck, he decided to hang up his leo for good.

Adlard returned to his gym once a week to train with his coach in a conditioning program they called “soccernastics,” which combined the best of Adlard’s two worlds. But he never competed again.

“When I landed on my neck, my chin went into my chest, and there was a big bruise on my chest for a few days,” Adlard said. “I definitely miss it. Some days I get the urge to just go do some flips.”

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Nearing the end of his IU soccer career, Adlard has only done two flips this season, one during the second game of the season against UCLA and one for a winning goal in a game at Massachusetts.

Hoosier fans “oh” and “ah” when Adlard goes up for his flips, but his extreme goal celebration isn’t just a Hoosier tradition. When his Brookfield East High School team went 21-1-3, Adlard occasionally flipped after he scored.

Chellsie Memmel, a 2005 World Champion gymnast who trained with Adlard and who he refers to as “a sister,” remembers watching her friend celebrate after a goal.

“He’d do a flip and throw in a front handspring,” Memmel said. “To me, it was just Andy. I knew he could do it.”

While Adlard and Memmel no longer travel to competitions together, they stayed close. Memmel said she believes although Adlard chose soccer, he could have been great in gymnastics.

“He definitely had potential, but it’s hard to be great in any sport and do another one at the same time,” Memmel said. “He had no fear in the gym. He’s an athlete. I’ve never really seen him be bad at anything that he’s tried that has to do with athletics.”

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Not all of Adlard’s celebrations are back flips. While he said some mornings he wakes up and thinks if he scores a goal, he’ll do a flip, a majority of his celebrations involve a run to the sidelines, two clenched fists pumped in triumph, a leap in the air or a hug from a teammate. 

“It’s still if I’m feeling it at that time,” Adlard said. “It depends on how the game’s going too.”

Gymnastics has helped Adlard’s perception on the field in other ways. When jumping for a header, Adlard said gymnastics helps him know where his body is and how to control it to land.

“It definitely gave me a lot of my agility and my quickness — my balance,” he said. “It’s helped prevent a lot of injuries, I think.”

And although flipping through the air sounds like a way to cause an injury, Adlard said, “It’s natural. It’s second nature.”

While he said on a soccer field he could get as high as 6 1/2 feet in the air, he keeps his air time to a minimum.

“I just chose not to because then I might do something stupid or land wrong,” Adlard said. “It’s just momentum.”

While Adlard’s mom said she doesn’t get nervous anymore watching her son flip, there is someone on the sidelines who gets a little worried when he sees the No. 10 jersey upside down.

“We don’t need to make that an every goal thing,” IU coach Todd Yeagley said. “I certainly love to see him do it because he just had a goal, but he just needs to make sure nothing happens on his flips. He’s got a lot of passion, and it’s just one of his ways of showing his emotion. We just don’t want him to get hurt doing one of his after-goal celebrations. Maybe he’ll tame it down after the next one, but it’s all fun because he has a good time with it.”

At a soccer camp, Adlard was asked to show off his skills. He had to tuck a soccer ball between his legs and do a standing back tuck.

“He’s always been kind of the daredevil type person that will try about anything,” his mother said.

As Adlard’s career as a Hoosier comes to a close, he doesn’t know how much longer he’ll be able to do flips on the field. That all depends on a Major League Soccer draft that comes in the spring.

But whether it’s on the field or at the gym, Adlard said he will keep soccer and gymnastics in his life for as long as he physically can.

“If I’m not playing or I end up having to get a real job, I’ll probably just mess around and go to the gym once and a while and keep the flips going,” he said. “I’d like to keep both as long as possible so it’s how my career turns out, but I haven’t really thought about that.”