Blue White Illustrated Online

By Chris Morelli
cmorelli@bluewhiteonline.com

Felix Aronovich believes he is blessed. Not all that long ago, he was in his home country of Israel, completing his compulsory army service.

Just several months later, he is Blue White Illustrated’s Male Rookie of the Year.

“It’s really amazing,” Aronovich said via cell phone from his hometown of Kiryat Bialik, Israel. “Coming (to Penn State), I didn’t know what to expect. I definitely didn’t expect to do great.” But Aronovich was great.

However, to fully understand how amazing his season was, one has to start at the beginning of his journey. Aronovich was born in Odessa, Ukraine. When he was 2, his family made the move to Israel. When he was 5 years old, his father took him to his first gymnastics meet. It was love at first sight. “I just wanted to stay there,” Aronovich explained.

“I didn’t want to leave.” From that point on, Aronovich knew he wanted to be a gymnast. He got heavily involved in gymnastics at a young age and didn’t stop. During his formative years, he trained with club team Maccabi Tel Aviv. From 2004- 2009, he competed in the European Championships.

He also competed in the World Championships in 2006. At the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, he placed third in the all-around. In addition to competing, Aronovich was also fulfilling a mandatory threeyear stint in the Israeli Army.

In the morning, he worked as a teaching assistant for a second grade class. After assisting in the classroom, he would train as a soldier for four to five hours a day. When he was done with those duties, he would hit the gym. He had a friend, Noam Shaham, on the squad at Penn State. He began exploring his options and a tape caught the attention of Penn State coach Randy Jepson. With Shaham’s endorsement, Aronovich was on his way to Penn State. O n c e h e s i g n e d o n t o j o i n t h e Nittany Lions, Aronovich’s journey truly began.

 When he arrived in the U n i t e d S t a t e s , J e p s o n p i c k e d Aronovich up at the bus station in State College and took him directly to the White Building so he could begin training with his teammates. From the outset, Aronovich began to notice a big difference in the way things are done.

“Gymnastics is different here. It’s fun here. In Israel, it was more like a job. Now, it’s not about work — it’s about team,” Aronovich said. During his rookie season at Penn State, Aronovich was stellar. He claimed 13 top three finishes, including six titles and earned Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors twice. At the Big Ten championships, he finished seventh in the all-around with a score of 84.800.

He would share the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year award with Yoshi Mori of Illinois. While those numbers are impressive, Aronovich expects more of himself.

“I wasn’t sure what the level of competition would be like here. I think I can do better. I’m grateful I’ve been recognized. It’s very flattering, but I think I can do better,” Aronovich said matter-of-factly. Aronovich is back in his native Israel for the summer, where he’s hitting the gym and trying to hone his skills. Jepson has told him about some areas where he needs to improve. Aronovich plans on attacking those areas this summer.

“Coach Jepson is amazing. He’s so much fun to train with. Every day with Randy is a brand new start. If you have a bad day, you forget about it and start over the next day. He’s just an amazing coach,” Aronovich said. Wi t h a s e a s o n u n d e r h i s b e l t , Aronovich expects 2011 to be even better. He’s still learning his way around Happy Valley, but he’s broken through the language barrier he faced early on.

“That was the hardest thing, the language. I knew some English, but communicating with people all day every day was different. And it had been awhile since I was in school, so I had to learn how to do homework again,” Aronovich said.