When Jocelyn Sasson chose to commit to Florida a couple of weeks ago, she decided to disclose the news to her teammates at Brandy Johnson’s by matching her passion for gymnastics with her love of baking. The evening before the reveal, she and her mother baked cupcakes and filled them with orange and blue buttercream icing. She took them to the gym the following morning, where she staged a unique color-coded cupcake college reveal. The cheers that followed were of pure joy. Brandy Johnson’s is only a two-hour drive from Gainesville—Sasson was committing home.
Sasson was especially keen to celebrate the news with her teammates at Brandy Johnson’s because the gym is quite new to her. She moved there only last year from Ascend, in Washington state, after her father retired from the U.S. Air Force. The reveal was her way of thanking them for welcoming her and making her feel at home from the start. “I have only been on this team for one season but I feel like I have been with them forever,” she said. “It was so special getting to share this moment with them.”
Leaving Ascend after being there for her entire level 10 career was painful for Sasson. Given her father’s profession, she’s used to moving around the country, but at Ascend she felt at home. “One of the most difficult moments of my career was moving last summer from Washington to Florida,” she recalled. “I had such an amazing bond with my coaches there, and I had two really successful seasons. I was worried about moving during the most important year of college recruiting and questioned whether I could still be as successful in a new gym.”
“I think I overcame that by just being me,” she added, reflecting on the past year. “I came to Brandy’s with an open mind and excitement to be a part of a new team with such amazing girls.”
Although Sasson has had an impressive level 10 career so far—winning national titles on bars, beam and in the all around, as well as appearing at the HOPES championships in 2021—she still struggles with confidence at times. She finds it hard to trust her own gymnastics journey and to not compare herself to others. Sometimes she doesn’t realize how far she’s come in the sport.
Winning the national all-around title in May 2022, for example, gave her a confidence boost and proved to her that she had much more talent and potential than she thought. “I sometimes struggle with self-doubt, so that moment proved I can do more than I believe,” she explained.
A similar moment of realization occurred one year later, when she found out she’d been named one of College Gym News’ five-star recruits in the class of 2025. “I was blown away,” she recalled. “I forget sometimes how far I have come and how much I’ve accomplished because it’s easy to focus on the things I don’t have that others do.”
As one of the best gymnasts in her class, Sasson started receiving phone calls on June 15th from the most distinguished schools in the country. While choosing a college is hard, Sasson found it just as difficult to decide which colleges to visit. To clear her mind, she explained, she picked schools “I could truly see myself at and pictured how I would fit into each of their programs. Because of this, I approached each visit with the mindset that this could be my future home.”
In the end, she chose to visit Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Utah. She loved every one of them and what they had to offer. Beyond the glitz and glamor of the official visits, however, she remained focused on what really mattered—whether or not they inspired a feeling of home. “On my visits, there were several things to consider, such as my personal connection and comfortability with the coaches, as well as envisioning myself living in that certain town during and after college. I wavered back and forth while analyzing the pros and cons of each program, but in the end I was looking for a feeling and emotion to bring clarity into my decision.”
Ultimately it was Florida that made her feel an extra thrill. “I knew that the University of Florida was my home,” she said. “I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of a school with one of the top gymnastics teams and amazing academics.”
She loved the combination of excellent level 10s and elites that the roster offers and bonded with the coaches from the first time she met them at Gator camp in 2022. “[Back then], I was unable to personally engage with them,” she said. “After receiving the chance to personally interact with them beginning on June 15, I knew instantly that they were a good fit for me. My family and I asked a lot of questions and were always impressed by their style and approach to their program.”
With a commitment to Florida and three successful level 10 seasons under her belt, Sasson wishes that young Jocelyn hadn’t spent so much time second-guessing her abilities as a gymnast. “[If I could speak to her,] I would tell her to not compare herself to others because everyone is on their own journey unique to them,” she said. “It is okay to keep your journey slow and steady and be sure to enjoy every single moment as it comes. … The journey is difficult, but it will be beyond worth it.”
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Article by Talitha Ilacqua
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