Patience is a virtue. Dara Stewart knows that, but often times the Hoover, Ala., native has a hard time putting it to work in her life. So when fans see her swinging gracefully through her uneven bars routine, they don't realize that not only is she working hard to make her routine look effortless but she is fighting against the urge to throw it into high gear and gun it through her routine.

"I've had to learn patience," Stewart said. "And it hasn't always been easy. But I know that if I try and power through my routine, I'm going to land on my face."

So she's learned to harness her natural temperament, to swing smoothly through her routine. The result has been rewarding to say the least. Stewart has earned three All-American honors on the uneven bars and is widely regarded as one of the nation's best. Such success was not what she expected though.

"I knew if I worked hard enough," Stewart said of her initial Crimson Tide expectations. "I could get in the lineup. But I never expected to be an All-American from my freshman year."

Sarah Patterson knew that Stewart had potential, but she wasn't sure how far it would take her. The coach is the first to admit that her pupil's progress was fast and dramatic.

"I remember people who saw Dara practicing at the beginning of the summer before her freshman year, when she first came down to start training," Patterson said. "And when those people saw her again in the fall of her freshman year, they didn't think it was the same person."

Her progress didn't abate. Each year she has improved, going from good to great.

"Dara's career can be summed up by her bars dismounts," Patterson said. "She went from doing a double tuck dismount on bars with form deductions as a freshman to doing a double lay out off bars. Now as a senior she has the capability to compete a double layout with a full twist. Her career is summed up by those three skills. She has gone from a run-of-the-mill dismount to one of the elite in college gymnastics."

There was no magic trick associated with Stewart's transformation. No smoke and mirrors routine. There was talent there to be sure, and with a great deal of effort on her part and that of the coaches, it was developed, but in the final analysis her success comes from deep inside.

"She has done it with talent," Patterson said. "But more than talent she has done it with determination and wanting to be successful. You cannot teach desire, and she definitely has desire."

And when this season is done, and Stewart hangs up her grips and steps away from the gym, the Scholastic All-American will turn that determination and desire in a new direction.

Chiropractic medicine is her profession of choice, but medicine will have to be patient, Stewart isn't quite ready.

"My body is telling me that it's getting close to time," the Alabamian said. "But my heart is saying not yet."