‘I want to do that’: Chicago kids try to make leap to Jesse White Tumblers as airborne auditions return

Over the holidays, Khaya Mjumbe broke his tailbone trying to learn how to do a back tuck from YouTube videos.

On Saturday morning, he was one of about 120 kids trying out for the Jesse White Tumblers at Tuley Park on the South Side.

Mjumbe, who was among dozens accepted to the team, said he is no stranger to flips, having earned his black belt in taekwondo in addition to the time he’s spent practicing on turf fields and at home.

Between the group’s most recent appearance on Good Morning America and the scholarship opportunities, he said he was hooked.

“I saw the stunt they did on Good Morning America and was like, ‘I want to do that,’” Mjumbe said. “The whole performance really stood out to me.”

The program, which has brought in nearly 20,000 children since it was founded by recently retired Secretary of State Jesse White in 1959, allowed children as young as 6 to try to make the team.

It was one of the first in-person recruitment events the group has done — performances aside — since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Daijuan Solomon brought his 14-year-old daughter Jauccaria to try out for the team. He said being a tumbler had once been a dream of his, but that his multi-sport athlete daughter had a better chance. 

“I always wanted to be a part of it but I couldn’t flip,” Solomon said. “She got the athletic gene.”

He said he planned to “make a big spectacle about it” when the two got home because of how proud he was. 

Several kids tumbling at Tuley Saturday morning had lengthy athletic backgrounds despite their young ages. 

Nicole Hampton, a lifelong South Sider, brought her son Kaleb Miller to try out because he’d been a part of a more local tumbling team — in addition to basketball, soccer and swimming teams — and wanted to move up.

“It’s a lot of running around as a parent but it’s worth it,” Hampton said. 

Miller said he was confident and excited going into the tryout, even doing a dance — one he said he made up — while Hampton signed papers.

“I just was like, ‘I’m gonna get this over with and I’m gonna make it,” Miller said.

Hampton said if he hadn’t made it, he probably would have been back in September, when another round of tryouts are expected, though details have yet to be announced.

Abby Agbabiaka, a Morgan Park resident, said she brought her two sons on a whim after her friend told her about the tryouts Saturday morning. Her 7-year-old son Jermaine Hardaway was accepted onto the team.

“It’s a way for them to burn energy without destroying my house,” Agbabiaka said laughing. “[But] it’s very exciting for him to be part of something that’s so Chicago.”

The soon to be retired White attended the tryouts, speaking with parents and kids before tryouts began and staying in the room to congratulate those who joined his team’s ranks.

The former state representative and secretary of state said he never could have imagined tryouts still happening for the group more than six decades after he founded it. 

“No, I wouldn’t have thought that,” White said between sips of coffee. “I’m grateful for what’s happened to me in my life. When you get it, you’ve gotta give it back.”