She loves the sport enough that if her mother, Bonnie, suggests that she take a day off from gymnastics, Trinity Ambruso will answer with, “What if I just go in for an hour?”

Ambruso, a freshman at Norwich Free Academy, is so enamored with the sport that she can attend a high school practice for two hours, then leave there and attend a practice for her club team lasting three more hours.

Gymnastics is so innate in Ambruso that during the pandemic, with the world on pause, she found a woman named Alison Arnold, “Doc Ali,” who specializes in mental training in the sport, and began working with her in online sessions.

“Especially at a young age she had good motor skills and strength,” said Bonnie Ambruso, who competed in gymnastics throughout high school and at Springfield College, talking about her daughter’s passion for the sport.

“She played other sports; it just always came back to she would rather do a handstand than kick a soccer ball. If she had time, she’d be on the trampoline in the backyard. We let her decide how much time she wanted to spend in the gym. I’m not one who wanted her to put a lot of hours in, especially at a young age. I never put any pressure on her to do that.”

Ambruso, who won the New England championship in the balance beam with a score of 9.675 and finished third all-around in the meet at 37.5, was selected as The Day’s 2023 All-Area Gymnast of the Year.

She also won the State Open title in the beam (9.6) and uneven bars (9.35), third all-around with 37.275, saving her best for the season’s end. She was the Eastern Connecticut Conference champ on bars (9.5) and third all-around (36.8), leading NFA to a second-place team finish.

The 14-year-old Ambruso, who is 5-foot-1, said she has acquired the mental toughness required to excel at her craft — and especially the balance beam, which can be the most imposing event of them all — from experience and from the knowledge of her coaches.

“I think I competed for a long time, so I think over time coaches have taught me ways to keep my composure and stay confident on beam, so it’s just the coaches and learning through all my experience,” said Ambruso, who has been a gymnast since she was 3.

“There are things, you get scared of them but you learn to get over it. I think it’s actually the mental aspect of it, just believing in yourself and knowing that you can do it. It comes with experience. It’s just you and the beam or you and the apparatus. You’re not really focused on anything else.”

Ambruso, who competes at Dunne’s Gymnastics in Hebron, recently qualifying for the Level 9 Eastern Championships in Kissimmee, Florida, May 4-7, is in the process of attempting to reach Level 10, the highest achievement in USA Gymnastics.

She admits there are days she doesn’t just wrestle with one event, but all of them.

“Part of that journey is learning to push through those moments,” Ambruso said. “Now that I’ve gone to high levels, nothing really comes easily, so it’s sometimes overwhelming when you’re struggling on every single event.

“And you’re not sure you’re going to get there and somehow if you work hard enough, it always pays off.”

Ambruso found a way to juggle high school gymnastics and club gymnastics, thanks to cooperation from both sets of coaches, including NFA’s Tandi Carignan. Ambruso even thrived in doing so.

“I feel like just this year she has grown so much in her sport confidence-wise, experience-wise,” Bonnie Ambruso said. “High school gymnastics was a good experience for her. Her coaches (from Dunne’s), we were talking and high school gymnastics has made her better in so many areas.

“The pressure meets of high school helped her perform in this meet (to qualify for Eastern nationals). ... Being a part of the NFA gymnastics team gave her a group of people; we were hoping she could find that core group.”

Bonnie Ambruso said her daughter is better than she ever was at gymnastics. She hopes that Trinity continues to embrace the circle of friends she’s found the way Bonnie developed lifelong bonds with her former teammates.

“I’m always so impressed,” Bonnie Ambruso said. “The way she handled the pressure at high school New Englands, that was unbelievable. She was laughing with her friends and cheering on other teams and was still able to focus and perform. It was a proud moment as a parent.”

Bonnie Ambruso is a physical education teacher at Lyme Consolidated School, while her husband Mark, whom she met at Springfield, is the principal at Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School and the former NFA football coach.

Trinity’s older brother, William, is a senior at NFA and a member of the boys’ soccer team, where he was a first team All-ECC Division I pick.

Trinity has embraced the mental toughness aspect of gymnastics, Bonnie said. She has motivational notebooks and note cards that she uses in preparation for big meets.

“My mom was a gymnast. She competed in college so she’s definitely one of my biggest role models,” Trinity Ambruso said. “I’ve always had the dream of being an elite gymnast and going to the Olympics but I also dreamed of being a college gymnast, so right now that’s kind of more the goal.

“I definitely reached my peak at the right time for those (postseason) meets. I had nothing to lose at New Englands so we just kind of went for it and it worked out.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

The Day’s 2023 Gymnastics All-Area Team

Player of the Year - Trinity Ambruso (NFA)

Lydia Laskey (Stonington)

Emily Looney (Old Lyme)

Mary Lord (Stonington)

Emma Robinson (Fitch)