Reagann Leleux jumps between classes as a gymnastics teacher.

Keeping it all in the family, sisters cheer one another to new heights

Relationships between siblings are as varied as their personalities. For two of Bridget and Shane LeLeux’s daughters, rivalry is better described as an alliance as they cheer one another’s successes in a sport that has become the family business.

Morgann, 22, and Reagann, 15, are running neck and neck to see who will reach their goal as an Olympic pole vaulter. With seven years difference between the girls’ ages, in reality the competition is inspiration.

“I’ve been watching Morgann my whole life,” said Reagann. “Morgann has always been my biggest inspiration for gymnastics, dance, pole vault, always the most beautiful, talented girl I ever met. I’d see all these amazing people, but no one caught my attention like Morgann. (She is) very graceful, she just glides and everything flows with her. It’s so easy.”

The sport the girls started with was gymnastics. Described by their mother as an athletic “stud,” their father, now their pole vault coach, began building the family business, New Heights Gym, when the program and coaches available to the older Morgann left the area. This forced the family to either create an environment for the girls to train in or take them back and forth to Texas, Morgann said.

The accidental coach Leleux, played many sports while attending Catholic High School in New Iberia, but it wasn’t until the late in his career that he began with pole vaulting. His athletic abilities earned him a partial football scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. He said it was there he discovered a passion for the high-flying sport.

LeLeux said there were some great pole vaulters in the late 1980s and ’90s when he began to learn new techniques. There was no single coach or college courses that prepared him to lead at times up to 80 students during the school year. It was his own achievements and working with Morgann that secured his role.

“Morgann has set the tone for the program,” LeLeux said, “but it’s set up so anyone can do it, or not.”

“Beginning with gymnastics creates a step-by-step approach that builds strength, motor skills, work ethic and pits athletes against themselves,” LeLeux explained. “Body weight helps to tone the muscles that will then take them to higher goals.”

“Morgann inspires and is a role model. Whenever she is here working out, all I have to do is say watch, look, listen, learn and the students do the rest,” LeLeux said.

Morgann said in the early days she wanted to be an Olympic gymnast. At eight years old she watched as Carly Patterson won in the 2004 Olympics and she said, “Oh, I want to be her so bad.” She started in gymnastics at two, but she only played around with pole vaulting at age 11 or 12, she said. It was in high school that she really began to focus on the sport.

The average age for pole vaulting is 30, she said. Going into college for gymnastics, an athlete is a level down from Olympic goals. Choosing to pole vault, Morgann said she could go to college and keep working for that Olympic dream. Receiving a full scholarship to the University of Georgia in pole vaulting has given her the opportunity to improve her abilities, which she hopes will lead to a professional career in pole vaulting.

“Pole vaulting was growing, so my dream changed. I still want to go to the Olympics but now in a different sport,” Morgann said. “You have to be consistently jumping over 15.6 feet. I’ve jumped 14.9 and 15 in practice, but I’m not a consistent jumper yet. I’m still young. There’s hope,” Morgann said. “It’s a longer career and I get to travel in Europe if I go professional. That’s exciting to me. To make a living at it, you have to be one of the top 10 in the world. I plan on being one of those.”

The confidence Morgann carries as she approaches a jump is not what she hoped it would be at this stage of her career, but she is making a major comeback that only time can build.

“I jumped 14.9 feet indoor season my sophomore year in college. Three days later, I was in surgery to get a buckle in my eye,” said Morgann. “I had to lay down for 2 weeks, lost a lot of weight, muscle loss, from not eating. Jumping didn’t bother me until I got the surgery and it took forever for (my eyes) to come together. I was seeing double.”

The detached retina was not a result of a jump but rather a genetic defect that became a mental challenge. Spotting the box where the pole is placed is a crucial element. Morgann’s determination and discipline to continue with her long-term goals is another inspiration for her younger sister Reagann.

“(Watching Morgann train for a comeback is) inspiring, very inspiring,” Reagann said. “Watching her makes me a better competitor. Watching her succeed after eye surgery is a big inspiration to me. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost my sight. It means if I ever got hurt, I’d have someone to look up to. She got back into the grove. I could too.”

Reagann said when they first began (gymnastics), they had a coach. Over the past five years, however, Morgann has been Reagann’s coach, along with their father.

For the younger Leleux, pole vaulting comes naturally. She is fearless in the sport. At 15, Reagann is jumping 12.7 feet, Morgann at 15 was jumping 12.6 feet. Reagann said she doesn’t believe she is competing against Morgann, but if someone is to beat Meagann’s records, it should be Reagann.

Both girls are at the New Heights Gym training or teaching every day. Bridget Leleux said the chances of Morgann’s records being broken by her sister are no longer an issue.

“When Morgann jumped for Catholic High, they were in a different division than the team is today,” Bridget Leleux said. “They cheer one another on, but they are competitive.”

“I kind of led the way,” said Morgann. “So I hope she follows.”

Coach LeLeux said his girls can’t be compared to each other — something they dislike anyway — because each brings her own set of abilities to the sport. Morgann is taller and faster with a good work ethic. Reagann, he said, has a natural strength that pushes her over the top.

Morgann owns the Outdoor State Track and Field Meed Composite record in all classes. She also owns the Indoor State Meet Division II record and the Catholic High School girl’s record in pole vault.

Both girls are working to compete in the Olympics one day and then go professional. They both have alternative educational goals and hope to enrich their lives traveling the world with pole vaulting before settling back in their home town.

Morgann said the record she’d like to beat is her father’s. To do so, she’ll have to reach 17.9 feet, which at this time, would be a new women’s world record.

Residents of New Iberia can hope for the best, to one day hear their hometown announced at the Olympics. Then they, too, can cheer as the sisters compete for the gold.