{"id":4187,"date":"2016-02-08T09:01:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/far-north-jumpers-strike-a-high-profile-in-interior-alaska\/"},"modified":"2016-02-08T09:01:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T17:01:20","slug":"far-north-jumpers-strike-a-high-profile-in-interior-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/far-north-jumpers-strike-a-high-profile-in-interior-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Far North Jumpers strike a high profile in Interior Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014 <\/strong>Allison Bartlett is the woman who brought competitive jump roping back to Interior Alaska.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a 30-year-old part-time fourth grade teacher at North Pole Elementary School, a former competitive jumper and a mother of two.<\/p>\n

Bartlett started coaching jump ropers in 2008. It was an after-school program a couple of days per week in North Pole. Now it\u2019s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group with a website and three coaches, including Bartlett\u2019s brother, Chris Matter, a geologist.<\/p>\n

The Far North Jumpers started holding tryouts in 2012, and the team is drawing children from across the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Last year, the Alaska Regional Jump Rope Competition was held in Fairbanks.<\/p>\n

Routines by the Far North Jumpers have become common during halftime shows at sporting events, at the Tanana Valley State Fair and in the Golden Days Parade. They also perform at birthday parties.<\/p>\n

Bartlett has started bringing jumpers to national competitions in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n

When shopping at Fred Meyer, people recognize the 2007 University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate as \u201cthe jump rope girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartlett grew up in small-town Alaska and started jump roping when she was 6. She was a Sitka Skipper before moving to Hoonah, where they didn\u2019t have a jump roping team so Bartlett\u2019s mom started one. Her father worked for the U.S. Forest Service.<\/p>\n

Bartlett wound up coaching and mentoring teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just loved it,\u201d she said. \u201cI was one of those kids growing up; I wasn\u2019t the best. I just had a passion for it, and I loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speed jumping was Bartlett\u2019s specialty. Twelve years ago, she took second place in speed jumping at a national competition with 798 jumps in three minutes. The winner had 804 jumps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world of jump roping now is not what it was when I competed,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cHow much people have improved in the last 20 years just blows me away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years ago, if you broke 300 jumps per minute in speed jumping, you could get in the top 10, Bartlett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow you probably wouldn\u2019t even qualify in the top 10 if you get 300 jumps in a minute at nationals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Last year, five of the Far North Jumpers placed in the top 10 at national competitions in Florida. One of the jumpers placed in nine of the 10 events she competed in. The girl was in tears as she expressed appreciation to Bartlett for her coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why I spend a lot of my time doing this,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cThis is not about jumping rope. It\u2019s about relationships and connecting with those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartlett is reintroducing jump roping in the Interior \u2014 there was a team in the past known as the Tanana Turners \u2014 and the effort has taken years.<\/p>\n

Juneau and Sitka have established jump roping programs but it\u2019s been spotty in the Interior, Bartlett said.<\/p>\n

When she started coaching jumpers eight years ago, she would offer jump roping demonstrations to schools and organizations. In the beginning, rarely did anyone call back. Bartlett kept trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are coming after us now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She has aspirations to spread jump roping to Delta Junction and Healy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to keep growing the sport,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we can get more teams up here, how cool would that be?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS \u2014 Allison Bartlett is the woman who brought competitive jump roping back to Interior Alaska. She\u2019s a 30-year-old part-time fourth grade teacher at North Pole Elementary School, a former competitive jumper and a mother of two. Bartlett started coaching jump ropers in 2008. It was an after-school program a couple of days per week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":4188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}