The first thing anyone notices about Ty Jordan is his smile.
Even in an interview beginning with a slight mishap, the smile never left the sophomore’s face. Locked out of the practice facility where the interview was meant to occur, Jordan happily chatted en route to the athletes’ academic building. His smile never left during the interview either.
The second thing to notice about Jordan is his energy. Enthusiastic in everything he does, Jordan’s attitude matches that of the Michigan cheer team.
“(Jordan’s) a great teammate,” Michigan coach Pam St. John told The Michigan Daily. “He’s a lot of fun, he’s fun to coach. He’s got a good sense of humor. You’ve probably picked that up if you talk to him.”
Put those traits together, and an ideal cheerleader emerges. But Jordan didn’t start as a cheerleader. His story begins on the mats of a gym in Southern California.
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Like many gymnasts, abundant energy is how Jordan got started in gymnastics. As a hyperactive child with two working parents, Jordan was sent to a summer camp that featured various sports, but gymnastics stood out. A coach noticed his aptitude for the sport and asked his mom, Meredith, if Ty would like to join his gym. Ty immediately said yes.
Thus began a career in gymnastics that started when he was six years old. It traveled with him from California to Colorado — where his family moved when he was 10 — and then even further to Michigan for college.
Ty’s journey to Michigan wasn’t straightforward, though. A rings specialist who often competed in the all-around, he went on recruiting trips to a few colleges, including Penn State and Oklahoma, but received no offers. When he figured his gymnastics career was over, his mom encouraged him to email other schools and see what they thought.
“I bite my tongue every time because she was so right,” Ty cheekily told The Daily, grinning. “And I hate when she’s right.”
Ty emailed Michigan, and Wolverines’ assistant coach Jared Gaarenstroom — who handles much of the recruiting — replied quickly, eager to sign the talented gymnast. Within the week, Ty had an offer. He signed with the Wolverines and then toured the campus, falling in love with the school. And that is where the story ends, with Ty Jordan as a gymnast at the University of Michigan.
Except not quite.
Much like the interview, Ty’s story took an unexpected turn. Ty didn’t compete during his freshman year aside from the Maize and Blue intrasquad meet. Instead, he was injured repeatedly during summer training and could only manage watered-down rings routines as he recovered. The constant demands of men’s gymnastics had begun to take a serious toll on his body.
But more than that, his heart simply wasn’t in the sport anymore. It was a feeling that he’d had for a few years, but now, it was becoming too much. Though Ty loved his teammates, that wasn’t enough either. He could feel himself losing his smile.
“Starting my junior year of high school, I started feeling like I didn’t really love it as much as (it was) something I was good at,” Ty said.
Ty isn’t a quitter, though, so he continued through with his recruiting. But when his hair began to fall out from stress while training last summer, he knew it was time to make a change.
He’d never lived without sports. Gymnastics had been an integral part of his life for more than twelve years. It dictated his schedule; it landed him a spot with the Wolverines. Who would he be without that structure?
“I want to be done, but I don’t want to do nothing,” Ty said. “I’ve never done nothing, and no hate on people that don’t do sports like that, but for me, it just seems weird. I can’t comprehend just doing school.”
While considering his options, Ty met now-senior cheerleader Nicholas Merritt at a potluck. Merritt immediately saw Ty’s strength and simply followed what Ty referred to as “the male cheerleader code.” Merritt asked him if he’d ever thought about becoming a cheerleader. Ty explained that he was a gymnast, but the two hit it off and talked for most of the dinner with Ty fascinated by Merritt’s stories of cheerleading.
Then, a lightbulb went off. And Ty could feel that smile creeping back onto his face.
“I was like, I could do cheer,” Ty said. “I could retire from gymnastics, and do cheer.”
It was a huge decision for Ty to leave the only sport he’d ever known, and he wanted to make sure it was the right one. He spoke with one of his housemates — Josh, a retired gymnast himself — because Josh understood what it was like to leave the sport. They talked for nearly two hours on their porch, and Josh gave him pretty simple advice: make a pros and cons list.
“I did all my pros,” Ty said. “I go to my cons, and … I don’t see a single con.”
What ultimately sealed it for him was attending an open gym session for cheerleading with Merritt. He loved what he saw and found that he excelled at the basics of cheerleading. Ty’s mind was made up: he was going to be a cheerleader.
He hadn’t told his parents yet, though. In fact, he hadn’t told his parents anything about the whole experience: the stress, the desire to quit — none of it. He decided to call Meredith first, who was very supportive of her son’s decision. In fact, she only had one fear when Ty called.
“I was like, oh gosh, here’s where he’s going to tell me he’s going to join a fraternity or something,” Meredith told The Daily. “He’s like, ‘I’ve been talking to the cheerleading team, and I have a plan, Mom. I can do this, I’m stunting, and I’m killing it.’ … He sent me a video of him doing stunts and … I was just surprised. I didn’t know any of this was happening, and I was just so happy for him.”
And as for any regrets or doubts about his path, Ty has none.
“The biggest thing I struggled with was that I did all this work in gymnastics my entire life to retire in college,” Ty said. “In my head, I was like, ‘You did it all for nothing.’ And then I realized I didn’t do it for nothing. I got into a school I never would have gotten into without it. I made friends I never would have met without it. It wasn’t for nothing.”
Ty found a home for himself on the cheer team. He loves the more relaxed environment, different from the rigid structure of the men’s gymnastics team. He loves working with his teammates and doing tosses with his partners — though he admits it’s more stressful for him to be responsible for another person’s safety. He’s learning more complex stunts, and he’s loving every minute of crowd work that they do at basketball and football games.
Cheer’s put Ty’s quintessential smile back on his face.
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