Gymnasts of ‘The Barn’ in Hendricks, Minn., do it again: They’re state champions

A farmer built a barn. His wife built a dynasty.

The gymnastics team that trains and competes inside a barn on the Johnson family farm in Hendricks, Minn., is state champion once again.

For the third year in a row, a co-op team between a Minnesota school (Hendricks) and a South Dakota school (Estelline) claimed the gymnastics title in South Dakota this past weekend, setting a Class 1A state meet record with a winning score of 145.933.

The Minnesota Star Tribune wrote about the Redhawks program and its unique home venue in a story published on Thanksgiving Day.

Fourth-generation farmer Gary Johnson built a barn on his farm in southwest Minnesota along the South Dakota border hoping to fulfill a dream: He always wanted to become a cowboy. He wanted a place to learn how to ride a horse.

He had a change of heart. Instead, he surprised his wife, Sherri, a gymnastics coach, by transforming the barn into a full-scale gymnastics center. Sherri trains and coaches gymnasts of all ages, along with serving as head coach of the Estelline/Hendricks co-op varsity team that formed in 2019.

The Redhawks are now three-peat state champions.