With a bat in her hand, a wiffle ball soaring through the sky and her three sisters, mother and father in the field, McKenna Kelley’s gymnastics career began.
Kelley, LSU’s freshman all-arounder, knew and loved the spirit of competition in her household growing up.
Kelley is the daughter of International Gymnastics Hall of Fame member and 1984 Summer Olympics All-Around gold medalist Mary Lou Retton, and 1988 University of Texas quarterback Shannon Kelley.
As the spawn of two world-renowned athletes, McKenna embraced her family’s passion for sport from the get-go.
“There was always some sort of competition, some kind of race, and I always had to be the winner in the end,” McKenna said. “We always did athletic, outside or outdoor type of things. My family loved to play wiffle ball. We’d always go to the park or ride bikes.”
Back at home, McKenna said she remembered the beginning of her gymnastics career.
Thanks to Retton, McKenna will never forget jumping on her first trampoline.
“She put us all in the sport of gymnastics,” McKenna said. “One, because that’s what she knew. But two, what little kid doesn’t want to jump on a trampoline? It’s something we each developed a passion for.”
Her mother — an Olympic gymnast with one gold, two silver and two bronze medals, who became the first American gymnast to win an gold medal in gymnastics — didn’t pressure the Kelley girls into gymnastics, McKenna said. It was their choosing.
McKenna, though, does remember her first teaching moment with her mother, the one-time “Most Popular Athlete in America,” according to the Associated Press.
“I vividly remember one time, we were up in the playroom,” McKenna said. “She taught us this dance move — the ‘Switch Leap.’”
As McKenna and her three sisters, Shayla, Skyla and Emma, developed a passion for gymnastics, Retton rarely stepped in to teach or coach them.
“She’s never really done that on her own to benefit us,” McKenna said. “It’s really just a mom and daughters having a good time.”
The four girls, under Shannon’s and Retton’s influence, grew up competing. For two, gymnastics stuck. For the others, it was only tumbling.
Shayla, 20, spends her time at Baylor on a tumbling team. Skyla, 15, is a competitive cheerleader, and Emma, 13, and McKenna, 18, are still involved in competitive gymnastics.
How did Retton allow her four daughters to not all become elite gymnasts?
She’s too realistic, McKenna said.
“My mom is just like, ‘Do whatever you want to do,’” McKenna said.
McKenna grew up. She went through the elite stages of gymnastics, eventually championing the 2014 Nastia Lukin Cup at 16 years old.
She had it all: skills, work ethic, positivity and a mother with connections across the globe.
When it came time to choose a college, LSU was her last resort, McKenna, a Houston, Texas, native, said.
“You know, LSU was actually one of the last schools I looked at,” McKenna said. “My coach came up to me, and I’ll never forget this. She said, ‘What about LSU? I just got a text from D-D,’ and I said ‘OK, sure!’ And I took a visit and immediately knew it was the right place for me.”
Being the daughter of Shannon and Retton — a two-year student at Texas, herself — competing in Texas was a thought for the Kelleys. But Texas Woman’s University, a Division II program located in Denton, Texas, was not in McKenna’s sights, though.
“I was looking for Division I,” she said.
How would competing in Louisiana, a neighboring, rival state to Texas, suit the Kelley family?
Shannon, now a real estate developer in Houston, loved the idea, McKenna said.
“Since he doesn’t have to pay for college, he was like ‘That’s fine with me!’” McKenna said.
On a visit to the University, which had yet to build its multi-million dollar practice facility, the Kelleys knew McKenna would be in good company.
“My family came and saw LSU with me and they were happy to know who I would be in the hands of,” McKenna said.
McKenna, a specialist on floor for the Tigers (10-2, 6-1 Southeastern Conference), has lived up to her family name during her short time at LSU.
LSU coach D-D Breaux, a longtime friend of Retton’s, knows McKenna’s career has only just begun.
Breaux said the polished McKenna knows this is the beginning of her personal career and not just an addition to her mother’s legacy. But Retton’s influence is beneficial to McKenna’s deftness.
“She makes it very easy,” Breaux said of having a gymnast with a mother of such imperial stature in the sport’s community. “That carries a lot of pressure for Mary Lou, her family and for McKenna, but McKenna always keeps in mind that it’s [her] gymnastics and [her] performance and not her mom’s.”
LSU was the right place for McKenna, and Retton knew it, too.
“I feel like we had what Mary Lou wanted for her daughter,” Breaux said. “The key was we had to open the LSU book, say ‘This is your treasure chest, this is your X, come and find it.’”
Nine official collegiate meets in, and LSU is immediately benefitting from McKenna’s performances.
Her 9.925 on floor in LSU’s 197.825-197.125 win against Auburn on Feb. 19 was her season high. Floor, where she has experienced a few major deductions this season on stumbling out of bounds during her tumbling passes, is the only apparatus she’s competed thus far.
Her career is still in the molding process, Breaux said.
But McKenna’s light is beginning to shine. Her 9.925 and couplet of scores, at 9.850 and 9.800, earlier this season were signs of hope. Her 9.900 against Alabama on Friday made an even bigger splash, and Retton was there to watch her daughter glowingly capture center stage.
“Enjoy it. Enjoy it,” Retton said from the sidelines of Friday’s meet.
Throughout McKenna’s 9.900 routine, Retton couldn’t help but let her motherly advice mesh with her gymnastics expertise.
“Breathe, girl. Breathe,” Retton said. “Drive your heels. Patience. Go, McKenna! Go!”
With her back to the judges, McKenna took off. Her legs churned forward, her heels pushed against the mat before leaping into her tumbling sequence of the second pass in her routine.
Gracefully, in a pose featuring a Tiger paw to the sky, McKenna’s routine ended as her mother looked on.
“That’s my baby!” Retton exclaimed as her performance concluded, high-fiving others surrounding her. “I’m so proud of her.”
Retton’s “baby” is the total package, Breaux said.
“The power. The strength of her tumbling,” Breaux said. “She carries those qualities and is exuberant about what she does, besides being a good student and a good person. It’s a total package.”
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter @CBoutwell_TDR

Gallery • 9 Photos

Greta Jines

LSU all-around freshman McKenna Kelley performs her floor routine Friday, March 4, 2016, during the Tigers' 197.925-196.225 victory against Alabama in the PMAC.