Danielle Brucato Aims for Another Lasting Mark on MMH Gymnastics

Holliston senior Danielle Brucato first stumbled upon gymnastics at the tender age of six and liked it so much she spent the next decade trying to perfect her skills. As a senior, she is part of the Medway-Millis-Holliston co-op gymnastic team, where she participates in all four events for the squad. Through the years of training, vault has become her favorite of the four events followed by beam, floor and bars.
“I really enjoy participating in vault (it’s also her best scoring event), although when I was younger I liked floor much better,” the Holliston senior said. “It wasn’t until last year that it changed to vault, and I started scoring more. To be a well rounded gymnast you have to be able to compete on a high level in all four events.”
When she first got involved with the sport through Elite Gymnastics in Ashland, Brucato enjoyed being able to take part in not only one event, but four different ones. It gave her a sense of ability to accomplish her skills in numerous events, instead of just one. However as she entered high school, she found herself with a dilemma – Holliston did not have a high school gymnastics team. Instead of competing for her school, the then incoming freshman just continued to work on her skills with her club team.
“It really didn’t bother me not having a high school team, as I had never really considered it to be in my future,” she said. “We never had a town team, so my mindset wasn’t looking forward to high school gymnastics. Instead, I put my focus on looking for colleges with gymnastic programs.”
While she did start to do her research on colleges, she eventually came to the conclusion that gymnastics just wouldn’t fit into her busy college schedule.
“Visiting schools, I soon found out that the major (Bio Medical Engineer with Pre-Med) I wanted to pursue would be tough enough,” Brucato said. “Trying to maintain high grades and gymnastics would not work well together, so I’ve given up on that idea. I may look at a club program but that won’t be right away.”
Holliston merged with the Medway and Millis gymnastics team, under the guidance of Coach Breanna Vacca, during Danielle’s junior year. Now, Brucato would have the opportunity to tryout and compete on a high school gymnastics team for two years before graduating.
“I was really excited, as I still wanted to have the opportunity to participate on a gymnastics team on the high school level,” Brucato said. “I wanted to share in that feeling of being part of a team.”
Last winter, Brucato, competing in her first ever high school gymnastics season, and her MMH teammates finished third in the Division 2 South Sectionals, grabbed another second place finish in the State Tournament and a third place finish at the New England Tournament. Individually, Brucato won the vault and the bars at the Sectionals to take home the top place in the All Around. She then matched that performance with another spectacular finish in the State Tournament taking second in the floor and bars, while nailing top honors in the vault and beam. The results landed Brucato her first ever All Around State Championship. She would finish fifth at the New England’s.
Having put forth such a tremendous first campaign, Brucato would be hard pressed to do better in her second season with MMH, but the Holliston senior is looking to do just that, at least team-wise.
“Last year, we put our six best girls out there in each event and made it as far as we could. This year, we’re hoping to go further,” she said. “For myself, I just want to maintain what I did last year, as I haven’t really been able to train all that much in the off-season as I had to quit the club team to be on the high school team.”
If for some reason the Holliston senior can’t improve upon her performances of a year ago and she is able to manage the same type of results she put up in the Sectionals and State Finals last year – one would have to say she had herself an incredible two-years of high school gymnastics.