By JOE VOZZELLI JR.

jvozzelli@news-gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Michael Paradise described his high-school recruiting process as easier than most.

Then a junior at Bartlett High School in the Chicago suburbs, Paradise began reaching out to men's college gymnastics coaches via e-mail. Paradise, who started out in the sport as a 2-year-old by taking parent-toddler classes at Bartlett Gymnastics Academy and has made it "a lifelong thing," had always considered Illinois his dream school.

Little did he know that Illini men's gymnastics coach Justin Spring was prepared to make that a reality.

"I ended up hearing from Justin before I sent an e-mail to him," Paradise recalled. "He basically said, 'Hey man, we've been watching you. We saw you at nationals this last year. We think you'd be a really great fit. Do you want to come out on a recruiting trip?'"

Paradise's answer? Of course. He made a visit to the Illinois campus later in his junior year and also followed through on his scheduled visit to Iowa.

When he visited Champaign-Urbana, however, it was love at first sight.

"I knew this was the place for me," he said. "This was home."

Nearly five years later, the gymnastics portion of his college career ended earlier than expected. 

Paradise and his teammates on the Illini men's gymnastics team — along with all other winter and spring sports teams at Illinois — had the rest of their seasons canceled in mid-March, the result of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was a tough dose of reality for not only Paradise, but also for an Illini team that felt it had made significant progress ahead of the Big Ten and NCAA Championships in April. 

"I had about 20 different emotions flow through me in the blink of an eye," Paradise said. "The one that wanted to stick around was sadness. My career was over. For the team as a whole, everyone else was in complete shock and in complete disbelief that we didn't get the chance to go for a Big Ten or national championship."

In Paradise's estimation, Illinois was coming off what he considered the team's "defining moment" of the season. He looked at the Illini's Senior Day tri-meet victory at Huff Hall against No. 2 Michigan and No. 8 Penn State on March 7 as a potential springboard for the rest of the season.

"I really think after that competition, after we had that huge upset victory, that the team was finally getting its form, finally figuring out what it needed done to contend for that title," said Paradise, who earned his 10th career event title on the pommel horse that day with a career-best score of 14.950. "I could just see by the work in the gym that everyone was really starting to get it. Unfortunately, we didn't get to contend for the postseason titles, but that last meet was one really good way to go out."

Paradise's journey at Illinois has been successful one, though the senior athlete and his head coach both admit it took time for Paradise to reach a complete product. Beyond Paradise's accomplishments both in the gym — a two-time NCAA pommel horse All-American, a mark given to the top eight athletes at the NCAA finals — and in the classroom — a two-time Academic All-Big Ten pick with a GPA of 3.80 entering the spring semester as an aerospace engineering major — Spring said Paradise also flourished into a leader.

"He was really forced into being more of a vocal leader. Not a place that he's comfortable," Spring said. Paradise was named one of three team captains this past season along with senior Jacob Light and sophomore Clay Mason Stephens. 

"Michael became that leader we needed him to be," the Illinois coach continued. "He really brought a lot of intensity in the gym. He demanded that from others. He was a guy that really made the guys around him better."

Now, Paradise turns his attention to the next stage in his life. He's already enrolled in a one-year graduate school program at Illinois in the College of Engineering with a focus in aerospace systems engineering. 

Paradise also has plans to pursue gymnastics after college, including a goal of making the men's U.S. national team one day. If he does, he would follow in his coach's footsteps, as Spring won a bronze medal at the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008. 

Paradise said his four-year career at Illinois, which included overcoming "anxiety" and "inconsistencies" his first two seasons before becoming a consistent pommel horse performer as a junior and senior, has prepared him for the adversity he may face in the future.

"When I'm up there on the event, I'm blocking out the crowd, blocking out all the sounds and what is going on around me and focusing on what I need to do in that moment to hit my routine," Paradise said of the changed mental approach that led to his success at Illinois. "If I did that, all the results that I wanted came together. Once I did that, I really felt a shift in my mindset and my career. That was a defining moment that I will always remember."