How this 6-year-old Byron girl became a tumbling and trampoline national champ

Willie Tolon, the new football coach at Rockford's Auburn High School, texted his brother a video of a neighbor’s daughter doing a one-handed cartwheel.

His brother was impressed. But Tolon's niece wasn’t.

Kylia Edmonson began doing cartwheels herself. A year later, the 6-year-old Byron girl is a two-time national champion in trampoline and tumbling.

“What inspired this was a fluke,” her dad, Kywan Edmonson, said. “She thought the video was unimpressive and started doing it herself, wanting to impress her uncle. She started flipping all around the house after that, so we took her to a class. It all started from my younger brother showing a video of another girl doing a one-handed cartwheel.”

Rockford is a bit of a hotbed for youth tumbling and trampoline. Three other Rockford-area girls won titles this year at the United States Tumbling and Trampoline Association national championships in Lakeland, Florida.

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Edmonson, Rochelle’s Isabelle Jackson (7-year old tumbling) and Stillman Valley’s Ava Burke (8-year-old double mini) all won from the All the Wright Moves club in Byron. Audrey Fisher from Wight Tumble Academy in Loves Park won titles in the 12-year-old intermediate tumbling and the trampoline sub-advanced level.

Terry Wight, the owner and coach of Wight Tumble Academy, said Fisher’s “form is her best asset. She is as tough as nails.”

Mary Wright, the coach of the Byron facility, said all of her national champions “are really good. They are advancing quickly, leveling up, going up to the next level.”

This is only the fourth year Wright has brought a team to nationals, but she has coached tumbling and trampoline for 44 years. Few of her students have ever caught on as quickly as Kylia Edmonson, who won the USTA national titles in 6-under novice tumbling and beginning trampoline.

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“I had her not only a month, and I knew she was (national) team material,” Wright said. “That kid is unbelievable. I am glad she is mine.”

“It’s been crazy,” Kylia’s dad, Kywan, said. “It is so unexpected and amazing to see how fast she has grown. She loves going to the gym to practice. You can’t keep her out of there. She wants to do it every day, every week if she can.”

Kylia said tumbling comes naturally to her.

“I’ve got good balance and I’ve got good power,” she said.

“She shows her friends at recess all the time,” her mom, Jethny Edmonson, said. “They are really impressed.

“I never saw this coming. I never thought I would be a tumbling mom. It’s a lot of hours in the gym. A lot of cheering the girls on and being a big supporter. A lot of doing hair and a lot of glitter and sparkles. All things I never imagined myself doing, and I absolutely love it.”

Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @MattTrowbridge. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Matt has covered sports for the Register Star for more than 30 years after previously working for papers in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City. He grew up on a farm in northwest Minnesota with six brothers and a sister. His four daughters all graduated from Rockford Public Schools.