This feature originally ran in The Standard-Times on Jan. 10, 2003.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

The same energy that has made Dylan Carney one of the nation's best young gymnasts almost derailed his career before it ever started.

"My brother started gymnastics before I did" the Stang senior said recently. "So when my parents would bring him there they'd bring me there but he wound up quitting after about half a year. And they actually told me not to come back because I was too rowdy and I wouldn't pay attention."

He was four.

More than a decade later Carney's discipline has improved by leaps and bounds and his dedication to the sport recently landed him a scholarship to Stanford.

Thanks to budget cuts and the NCAA's Title IX gender equality requirements there are only 17 Division — men's gymnastics programs nationwide.

"I e-mailed the Stanford gymnastics coach (Thom Gleilmi) about a year ago" said Carney. "I wanted to go to a good academic school and Stanford gave me the scholarship."

Although Carney is one of the fortunate few to earn one of approximately 200 available Division — scholarships his good luck is the result of years of hard work. Since he was six years old he has spent the majority of his daily life practicing and training the sport.

"I had always wanted to stay in it" explained the Dartmouth resident "but after I did well at the New England Regionals when I was nine that's when I decided I really wanted to keep going."

The drive to compete and challenge himself kept Carney going into his teens but injuries threatened to derail his career. The sport puts a tremendous physical strain on its athletes and wrist problems kept Carney from a full regimen in parts of 1999 and 2000.

As a sophomore Carney went out for the Stang swimming team as a diver to stay in shape and hone his competitive edge.

And how did the first-year diver fare? He won the South Sectional crown and finished third in the state. UMass Dartmouth diving coach Jerry Jennings said at the time that if he stayed with diving he'd "be able to compete at the Division — (college) level."

But gymnastics remained Carney's passion.

"Diving was OK for the first couple of weeks but I got tired of it because it was only one event" he said. "Gymnastics is like doing six events like doing six sports because they're all so different."

Carney has had four different surgeries including both wrists and most recently having a pin inserted into a broken pinkie.

That came into play this summer. A week after having a pin removed Carney took 12th place in the USA Championships where the national team is selected. Carney earned a spot on the developmental team and a week at a special training camp at the Olympic Training Center.

"It was six to seven hours a day except for rest days which were three hours" said Carney.

Back home a typical day finds Carney getting up for school around 630 getting home around 230 doing homework then heading up to the gym for three to four hours.

Carney's parents have also been there for him encouraging him to take gymnastics as far as he could.

"My parents have always supported me" said Carney. "I train in Stoughton which is about an hour away and for years my mom would drive me there every day."

Dylan is still training six days a week and knows that he can't rest on his laurels now training as hard as ever for the national Winter Cup competition being held in Las Vegas Nevada from February 8-10.

This story appeared on Page C1 of The Standard-Times on Jan. 10, 2003.