CARLSBAD - One would expect giving up gymnastics, the activity that has been a big part of his life for 12 years, to produce some sort of emotion in high school senior Phillip Schaecher.
After all, it was gymnastics that drove the young man to attend Carlsbad Seaside Academy and adopt an independent-study program that allowed him to spend three to four hours a day in the gym, five days a week.
But when the wiry 17-year-old speaks of the chronic back injury that has forced him to give up the pommel horse, bars, rings and floor routines he worked so long to perfect, Schaecher shows no bitterness, utters not one curse word.
"I knew that I probably wasn't going to make a career of it," Schaecher said, with a shrug and a grin.
It was that composure that spurred Terri Hueners of Tri-City Medical Center to nominate Schaecher for the North County Times' 2007 Student of Merit award. The gymnast and volunteer, who will attend UC Davis in the fall with a 4.2-grade-point average, was one of 10 students selected from a field of 140 nominees. Besides being a resume builder, the award comes with a framed certificate and a check for $750, some of which was contributed by Genentech Inc.
Hueners said she was astounded the first time she met the young gymnast who volunteers at the hospital's Cardiac Wellness Center.
"You know, we get a lot of interns and kids coming through here. Most of them come in wearing jeans and flip-flops," Hueners said. "But the first day he came in, he was wearing a white shirt and looking all spiffed up."
As she watched the high school student work with heart patients, many of whom are recuperating from surgery, Hueners said she was struck by the young man's ability to communicate with anyone he encountered.
"It was just remarkable. He was as comfortable interacting with a doctor as he was with a 40-year-old as he was with a 90-year-old who was frail and forgetful," she said. "That just really, really impressed everyone here."
When pressed for answers on the source of his general self-assurance, Schaecher points to three influences: His parents, gymnastics and taking most of his high school classes at local community colleges.
He said his mother and father, Julie and Mike Schaecher, always pushed him to be fearless in pursuit of new experiences. When he told his mother that he might want to be a doctor some day, she pushed him to volunteer at the hospital.
"She was like 'if that's what you think, go try it and see if you like it,'" Schaecher said. "I think that she has really helped me to be self-motivated."
It was the same with gymnastics. As his skill in the gym became apparent, his parents helped him find Carlsbad Seaside Academy, a nontraditional high school designed to give teens time to pursue important outside interests. The school gives its students flexible schedules that make outside careers like acting and sports possible. Snowboarding phenom Shaun White is a graduate.
Schaecher spent his final three years of high school taking his classes at MiraCosta and Palomar community colleges. The college schedule allowed him to spend three to four hours a day and five days a week honing his skills with the Magdalena Ecke Seawind gymnastics team. Practice made perfect: He was the 2004 regional champion in vault and 2006 state champion in vault and pommel horse.
Though he made captain of the gymnastics team this year, he also began feeling sharp pains in his back. His doctor let him finish the season on the condition that it would be his last. He said he has no regrets about his busy schedule through is high school years.
"I guess I'm the kind of person who hates not having something to do," he said. "I've definitely loved my high school experience even though it's been very different from the normal one."
- Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.
