Jan. 21, 2009
At first glance, senior Adam Stanton looks like your average, clean-cut midshipman. Don't let that fool you. Beneath the uniform lurks 5'8" of rock solid muscle honed by over fifteen years of rigorous gymnastic training. Paired with a voracious determination to succeed, Stanton proves himself to be a formidable competitor.
A native of Aurora, Colo., Stanton discovered his love for the sport of gymnastics at age five when his mother signed him up for lessons at the same gym as his older sister. There, Adam found that he possessed a talent and enjoyment for the sport. Until seventh grade, Stanton was dually active in gymnastics and baseball. However, the time commitments were overwhelming and he was forced to choose. His passion for gymnastics prevailed and Stanton has never looked back.
Though Stanton knew he wanted to continue gymnastics on the collegiate level, the Naval Academy was not initially where he had pictured spending his college career.
"I didn't think I wanted to go to a service academy at first," says Stanton. "But I ended up sending recruiting tapes to all three Academies. When I started talking to the coaches here, I took more of an interest and began checking Navy out. I liked what I saw and decided to come. It was a good fit."
A good fit it has been, both athletically and academically. While admitting a difficult transition from high school to the rigorous demands of the Naval Academy, Stanton has managed to balance his schedule of classes and athletics with other academy requirements, such as mandatory lunches and dinners, a nightly midnight curfew, and his junior officer practicum - a training course to ready him for his post-graduate assignment. A systems engineering major, Stanton has maintained a 3.5 grade point average during the past three semesters and was named a 2008 second-team Academic All-American by the College Gymnastics Association.
As a competitive member of the Naval Academy men's gymnastics team since his freshman year, Stanton has demonstrated his athletic prowess in various arenas. Most notable was last year's victory in the USAG Collegiate Division Championships, where the Navy Midshipmen won the gold for the first time since the creation of the Championships. During the competition, Stanton earned individual All-American status in three events: pommel horse, parallel bars and still rings. Over the course of his collegiate career, Stanton has earned numerous medals in all three events. His teammates and coaches have recognized his skills both on and off the mats. Elected as the team captain for this 2009 season, Stanton will provide the leadership to guide his team to success.
Head coach Sho Fukushima is especially proud of how far his senior captain has come and the future that is in store.
"To be our team captain, he is ready for the much bigger assignment in the fleet after his graduation," said Fukushima. "In these three and a half years, I have seen Adam develop from a young high school senior to the almost Junior Officer in the U.S. Navy. Although his maturity, growth, and development is attributed to the cultural environment in which Adam has immersed himself, I believe that gymnastics and shipmates in our team have played a large part of it. It is a mutual effort: he gets from the team and he returns to the team."
Post-Naval Academy years hold new challenges for this resilient young man. Stanton has selected to fulfill his service requirement years as an officer on a nuclear submarine. While he would prefer to be stationed on the West Coast in California or Washington, the Navy could place him at any number of bases from Guam to Georgia. After his five-year requirement is satisfied, Stanton expressed interest in making a career in naval engineering.
"I really like my major and would love to continue engineering for the rest of my life," Stanton attests. "But who knows where I'll be at the end of all of this. I'm keeping my options open."
