04-13-2023 Howard Magazine - Flipbook - Page 38
Nicole Meek conducts practice with members of Kangaroo Kids precision
jump rope team.
BY ALLANA HAYNES Howard Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENNETH K. LAM
oward County-based precision jump rope team Kangaroo Kids
has been competing and performing for 45 years, from local
elementary schools University of Maryland halftime shows to
the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.
Established in 1978, it started as a small fitness club at Atholton Elementary School in Columbia. Today, it is a nonprofit organization consisting
of more than 200 athletes from across Howard County, according to its
website.
Athletes have competed statewide, nationally in the Amateur Athletic
Union Junior Olympics, American Jump Rope Federation National Championship, International Jump Rope Union and USA Jump Rope tournaments, and internationally at World Jump Rope tournaments.
Nicole Meek, of Ellicott City, served in a number of roles in the program
for 15 years and is now director of coaching and operations for Kangaroo
Kids — and the mom of three of its members. She said it means a lot for the
organization to be celebrating its 45th year.
“We are one of the largest teams in America and what [that] means for
our organization is that the sport is growing,” she said. “It’s trying to become
an Olympic sport, it’s trying to help more people in schools, it’s trying to
not just be a jump rope to warm up before your sport, [but] we’re showing
that jump rope itself is a sport that exists.”
Three of Meek’s four children — Parker, 26, Devin, 23, Jenna, 21 and
Mason, 17, — are competitive jump ropers.
Devin got the family involved with the team 15 years ago after watching
Kangaroo Kids perform at a cystic fibrosis walk.
Joining the program’s junior jumpers, a beginning class where participants gain basic rope skills, Devin began training when he was 6 years old.
H
38
| Spring 2023 | howardmagazine.com