Stint in Marines helps Mary Lillian Sanders with gymnastics career
Sometime in the fall of 2014, Mary Lillian Sanders walked into University of Alabama gymnastics coach Dana Duckworth’s office to ask for her help. At the time, Sanders hadn’t broken the competitive lineup for Alabama, a depth-providing sophomore from Prattville whose contributions were limited to practice. So when Sanders asked to speak with her coach, it wasn’t for help on a beam dismount or floor routine. Sanders wanted to talk about a career decision.
Sanders wanted to join the United States Marines.
“I think my instant reaction was ‘Wow, are you sure?’ Really? Why?’ Duckworth said. “(Sanders) told me, ‘It’s just something that’s been on my mind, that’s been on my heart. I’ve prayed about it, and I know that it’s something that if I don’t ever attempt, I’ll have regret. I want to do it, will you give me the opportunity?’”
The daughter of a retired U.S. Army Green Beret, Sanders said military service had been on her mind for a while before she made her decision. She had considered joining ROTC if her gymnastics career didn’t pan out, but her interest began in earnest after winning a USMC sponsored pull-up contest her freshman year. That contest led to conversations with local recruiters and her father, who had trained with the Marines before choosing Army Special Forces. By the summer, Sanders had settled–she would apply for admission to the Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in Quantico, Virginia.
“There were several reasons,” Sanders said. “The Marine Corps is a very small organization. They have much more discipline. They have a system of core values – honor, courage and commitment – and they stand strongly by those things. They have a certain camaraderie and way of doing things that makes them kind of an elite. That’s something that I was really strongly attracted to. They’re infantry first, they pay super good attention to details and I really liked that.”
With the help of a recommendation letter from Duckworth, Sanders was accepted, with a recruiting officer conducting the ceremony at one of the team’s practices. He presented Duckworth with a commendation from the Marines for her role in producing an officer candidate at the same time. On May 25, 2015, Sanders reported to Marine Corps Base Quantico to begin the first of two six-week courses at OCS.
“It was the best and worst time of my entire life,” Sanders said of her time in Quantico. “It was the most challenged I have ever been. It pushed me to my limits mentally, physically. You get to the point where it takes every bit of mental energy you have just to take one more step, just to pick yourself up and keep going the whole day. It’s living moment to moment. That’s how it was and It’s very challenging, but also very, very rewarding.”
Duckworth said she and the team kept in touch with Sanders as much as possible, writing motivational letters and calling whenever able. When the OCS process began to take its toll and Sanders was fighting an illness, Duckworth said, her team was there to help.
“I know one time I got off the phone and, she doesn’t know this, but I just cried because she sounded so weak and so broken, but I knew that if anyone could persevere through it, it would be her,” Duckworth said. “And she did. She came home and she succeeded at her mission.
When Sanders arrived back at the University of Alabama, her body was so beaten down, her mind so exhausted, that the coaching staff had to develop a whole new timeline of training for her. They gave her weeks off to recover before attempting to bring her back up to speed, training the gymnastics muscles she had abandoned during her Marine Corps training.
“When she came back, we had to be very careful about how we were training her, just to get her back to being healthy, feeling like she could do gymnastics,” assistant coach Bill Lorenz said. “I think she would tell you that she would have been able to run a couple of miles with a backpack on, but that’s not what we’re doing in the gym. We’re training power and speed, but that’s endurance. We had to let her take a break and heal, and we had the summer to do that.”
As practice went on, her teammates and coaches noticed changes in Sanders’ personality. Once entirely quiet and reserved, she became a more vocal leader. She showed a new, unflappable focus, her coaches said, a perfect ability to be in the moment. When the time for leadership team elections, she was a unanimous first choice. Her beam and vault performances began to push teammates who had once been assured of spots ahead of her.
Sometime last month, Sanders walked into Duckworth’s office to ask for help. At the time, she still hadn’t broken the competitive lineup, though the team’s beam performances had been shaky in practice leading up to SEC Championships.
This time, Sanders wanted to talk gymnastics.
“We had a couple of girls struggling, and she knocked on my door and said ‘Can I talk to you,’’ Duckworth said. “She looked at me and she said ‘I would never do this because this isn’t my style. I really want my gymnastics to speak for itself. But I need you to know that I’m ready, I want this,’ and she looked at me with these eyes, dead in my eyes, and she said ‘I will not let you down.’ That was it for me.”
Sanders went into the beam lineup for the SEC Championships, posting a 9.75. Two weeks later, she scored a 9.85 at the NCAA Regionals, her career best. By the end of next summer, Sanders will have earned her full commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. But first, by the end of next week, the junior will have a chance to earn an NCAA gymnastics national championship.
“I have a purpose here as a gymnast, and I’m not done with that,” Sanders said. “I had to figure out a way to gear my mind to focus on that. It’s about what you’re doing right here, right now, not two years from now, not two years ago. It’s all about the present moment. How can I be a better person for my team here and now? This is where I’ve been placed, and by doing that and living out my full potential as a gymnast and being in the program here, I think that will continue to build myself into a better Marine.”