WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — On March 9, 2022, Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee, got the green light to add a gymnastics team.
11 months later, the school would become the first HBCU to have a collegiate gymnastics program.
The bulldogs have taken on all comers in its debut season competing against Division I powerhouses such as Michigan, Georgia and Ohio State.
On Sunday afternoon, Fisk traveled to Williamsburg to take on William & Mary.
The meet was a homecoming for one member of Fisk's coaching staff from Suffolk.
Kourtney Chinnery is an assistant coach for Fisk who never imagined she'd be returning home to Hampton Roads during Black History Month while in the process of becoming a part of history.
Her entire family attended HBCU's, and many of them gathered at Kaplan Arena for her homecoming to support her.
As for Chinnery, she was forced to choose between following her athletic career or going to an HBCU knowing that one with a gymnastics team didn't exist.
Chinnery had an impressive career at Penn State University, where she was Academic All-Big Ten and named a Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Academic All-American.
Helping lead the first HBCU gymnastics program ever, Chinnery is glad that young black gymnasts don't have to face the same ultimatum she did.
"It's nice to just open up options for individuals that whatever their priorities are or whatever their goals are its more accessible now," she explained.
"They don't have to be so limited anymore so I just think it's great that they have more options and they don't have to choose between their dream and an HBCU experience."
Head Coach of the Tribe Kelsey Hinton is one of only four African American female head coaches in Division I women's gymnastics.
Fisk's head coach is Corrinne Tarver, who at Georgia became the first Black gymnast to win the all-around in the 1989 NCAA Championship.
"Just to have two of the four African American head coaches here is extremely historic. We'll be shaking hands on the floor at the same time and that's something I wanted everyone to see and witness," Hinton said.
"It's a long time coming. It's something that should have happened a long time ago and it's kind of surprising that it had not," Tarver said.
"There's more than enough women of color out there who would like to have the HBCU experience and still continue their gymnastics career, so we need to get more teams to add."