By JOE VOZZELLI JR.

jvozzelli@news-gazette.com

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Jacob Light has strong family ties to Penn State University.

Light, after all, grew up in Macungie, Pa., a town of 3,074 residents near Allentown in southeastern Pennsylvania. His parents, Gregory and Kathryn, are both Penn State graduates.

That's why Light had some convincing to do when he was ready to make his college choice. 

He wasn't going to attend his parents' alma mater, but rather a school nearly 750 miles away from his hometown. 

Ever since Light visited Champaign-Urbana during the fall of his senior year at Emmaus (Pa.) High School, however, his mind was made up.

"I had known where my heart was at and that I wanted to come to Illinois, but it was a difficult conversation to have with my parents because they weren't so familiar with the school, and being Penn State alums, they were excited for the possibilities of me ending up there," he said. "I just felt something special (at Illinois) amongst the relationship of the team members when I came (on my visit). It was just a short couple of days that I was here, but it was just something unique that I could tell set the team apart from the other teams that I had looked at. 

"It was something that I really wanted to be a part of — to have that bond with just a great group of guys."

Light said he was looking for a coaching staff that had "energy" and he found that with Justin Spring. 

During Light's campus visit, the Illini coach also expressed the lofty goals he thought Light could achieve at Illinois. 

That fact  "reinvigorated" Light and made him realize C-U was the right place for him to continue his gymnastics career, a journey that began at a local gym in Macungie, where he started taking gymnastics classes at age 5.

Injuries throughout his four years as an Illini — including a "beat-up shoulder" that carried over from his preps career at Emmaus — prevented Light from reaching many of his ultimate goals, at least from a gymnastics perspective.

By the time Illinois' season ended in mid-March with all winter and spring sports canceled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Light — one of five Illinois seniors on this past season's Illini team — had already accepted his fate.

"I had been having a really tough time with a string of injuries," Light said. "It was kind of coming down to the end where I couldn't really do what I needed to do in the gym.

"When we found the news out in Puerto Rico (that the season had been canceled), you know, I had already come to terms with my season pretty much being over. My career being over. So it was a bit different for me in the sense that I was just extremely devastated for our team. 

"I look at my class of seniors and all the things that they did accomplish (and) all the things that they still wanted to accomplish with those last couple of meets that we still had. ... To not have that opportunity was just extremely disappointing."

During his college career, Light had to overcome three shoulder surgeries, which limited his ability to compete in arguably his top event of still rings. Two days after his freshman season ended in 2017, he had surgery on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum and partially torn rotator cuff.  

Light was limited to mostly vault and floor exercises as a sophomore and was also sidelined for nearly two months with a stress fracture to his left fibula. He returned from that injury in time to be an event finalist on vault for Illinois' Big Ten championship team in 2018. 

Despite a nagging foot injury for much of the season, Light was productive as a junior, earning a vault title at Ohio State in 2019. He posted a 14.566 on vault at the NCAA Championships as the Illini finished in fifth place during the meet at State Farm Center in Champaign.

Still, Light was back on the surgical table shortly thereafter. About a month before the NCAA Championships, Light had suffered a torn labrum and partially torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder. He had that shoulder fixed up in the offseason. 

But Light continued to experience discomfort in his left shoulder. Just before this past Thanksgiving, he had scar tissue removed from that shoulder, leading to two more months of rehab. 

With a bothersome hamstring "flaring up," Light made only one appearance as a senior for the Illini, competing on floor at the Windy City Invitational on Jan. 18. 

Before Illinois departed for Puerto Rico, Spring and Light had a candid 90-minute conversation in which the two discussed if it might be in Light's best interest to stop training. While the two agreed Light's chances of returning to competition were slim, the gymnast wanted to continue training. Spring was ready to submit paperwork to allow Light, one of three elected team captains, to remain on the traveling roster even if he couldn't compete. That became a moot point when the season was canceled on March 12.

"It's hard for me not to tear up when I talk about Jacob," Spring said. "He's one of the most selfless people I've ever met. He set a bar for connecting with his fellow teammates more than I have ever seen. To come in with a positive attitude, and bring that into the gym every day, even through injuries, I cannot say enough about that kid. He made our team so much better and it was never anything about what he did athletically."

Light's journey may not have gone according to plan. His body never allowed him to reach some of his goals in the gymnastics world. 

Yet, his entire experience as an Illini — good and bad — prepared him for the next step in his life. Light will graduate with a bachelor's degree in kinesiology in May and plans to take the MCAT in a few months with the hope to attend medical school in the fall of 2021. 

As he gets ready to end his time at Illinois, Light couldn't help but express how grateful he is.

"The most special part for me is every corner I looked or every place I went to, there was a friendly face and a relationship that I could develop," Light said. "That really meant a lot to me. I could talk about my coaches and how much of role models and mentors they've been to me. I am so appreciative of all the times they had my back and helped me out in difficult scenarios. 

"Then, of course, I look at my teammates — my best friends and brothers on the team — and even my athletic trainer was somebody who I relied on so much going through these four years with so many injuries that got in the way and really made it difficult for me. It almost seemed like no matter what situation I was in or no matter what I was looking to achieve, I always had somebody — or a lot of people — that had my back and that I could go to about really anything. That was so important."