BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — In a soft-spoken voice inside RGC Gymnastics in Bloomington, long-time gymnast Diamond Cook, an Edison High School graduate, showcased her skills.
"I just can't believe it, it's so surreal," said Diamond.
While gymnastics has always been a passion. "I started competing when I was nine years old."
She's getting ready to take on a new adventure, joining the inaugural gymnastics team at Talladega College.
Diamond's mother, Dr. Sharon Cook, says she encouraged her daughter to attend the Brown Girls Do Gymnastics camp this summer.
"I found out about two or three months ago," said Dr. Cook. "She didn't like camps, but I told her there will be girls that look like you," she said. "But our goal was she's going to compete Level 10 make a splash at national and hopefully get picked up by a college. We go to camp and the coach from Talladega, HBCU college is coaching her on the balance beam."
Dr. Cook says Talladega's head coach Aja Sims-Fletcher asked Diamond if she'd be interested in joining the college's team.
Fisk University made history last year as the first HBCU to launch a gymnastics program.
"I've been waiting so long for this to happen," said Diamond.
Diamond said she recently recovered from an injury and had a few setbacks, making this moment even more special for her family.
"It was a pivotal point when she got hurt this year because we really didn't know how this was going to turn out," said Dr. Cook. "Only thing I knew was to keep pushing, keep trusting god, and I taught her to keep faith in herself."
While they're looking forward to being a part of HBCU history. "You know what that means, 100 years from now they'll be looking back at the first team and Diamond's name will be on there," said Dr. Cook.
Diamond is proving it takes a little faith and perseverance to keep pushing toward your dreams.
"Keep going, don't stop, even if people are in your ear telling you stop, if you know you can do it, push through, and make it to where you want to be, keep going, because I kept going and now Im going to Talladega," said Diamond.
Diamond will officially join the team on August 16.
Watch more Breaking The News:
Watch all of the latest stories from Breaking The News in our YouTube playlist: