Sophomore Evan Heiter stood in the corner of the floor at the Maize and Blue Intrasquad in December, about to perform for the first time as a Wolverine. In a year at Michigan, he'd landed his first floor pass, a layout punch front double full, just once in practice.

Heiter's teammates on the Blue Team sat in chairs lining one side of the floor. They had watched as Heiter worked tirelessly on the routine in practice, bouncing up after every fall to try again.

If he landed that first pass, they were ready to explode.

Heiter's gymnastics epitaph seemed destined to be that he started late and ended early. While most gymnasts start when they're four to six years old, Heiter didn't begin until he was nine. And after competing from third to seventh grade, the youngster was burnt out.

"I couldn't dedicate enough time to still be the kind of gymnast that I wanted to be," Heiter said. "So I decided to walk away."

He walked away for six years, the years when most eventual collegiate gymnasts are honing their skills and drawing notice from NCAA coaches. Finally, before his senior year of high school, Heiter began competing again, hoping to continue with club gymnastics in college.

After high school, the Pinckney native enrolled at Western Michigan, where he trained two or three days a week at a club gym in Kalamazoo. There was no coach, but he kept in touch with his old club coach, Chris Chanavier, with weekly phone calls and monthly visits home.

Chanavier competed for Iowa when Michigan coach Kurt Golder headed the program. And during Heiter's semester at Western, he received a call from Golder: A spot might become available on the men's gymnastics team. In Nov. 2006, freshman Bruno Savard was cut from the team. The move wasn't popular with most of the gymnasts, but the coaches felt it was for the best.

And it opened the door for Heiter.

At Michigan, Heiter stepped into a new world, training three hours a day, six days a week with some of the top gymnasts in the country.

"Once I got here, it was basically a shock to my system," Heiter said. "My body has never hurt so much."

But his challenges weren't limited a grueling new workout regimen. His new teammates, though welcoming, were still smarting from the loss of Savard, who had become a close friend to many of them.

When the Wolverines found out Heiter was coming to replace their old teammate, they weren't exactly overjoyed. Fans of the TV show "Lost" on the team started calling him "Ethan," the name of the show's villain.

"We were like, 'Evan? Who is this Evan kid?' " junior Ralph Rosso said. "So we called him Ethan for a while, or at least we did behind his back."

Rosso laughed. "And then when we started to know him, we said it to his face."

Heiter's well-developed sense of humor and diligent work ethic soon endeared him to even his most resistant teammates. Today, no gymnast can talk about Heiter without grinning ear-to-ear.

"The only thing I knew was that no one could have replaced Bruno," junior Joe Catrambone said of his mindset before Heiter arrived. Now, the two are regular dinner buddies at the Union, one of Heiter's favorite hangouts.

His teasing and antics are legendary. Earlier in the year, he had the entire team in stitches with his exaggerated song-and-dance impression of Athens, Ga., native Jamie Thompson.

"He can actually change characters pretty drastically," Rosso said. "One moment he's serious, the next moment he's from the South and he's got an accent and he's talking about possum stew, impersonating Jamie."

He's found another kindred spirit in junior Scott Bregman.

After all, it's not every day you find another person with equal enthusiasm for gymnastics trivia and watching old World Championships tapes.

"Sometimes we'll be like, 'Let's watch the 1983 event finals tape,' " Bregman said. "And I pull it out and we watch it. He's just so much fun to hang out with. . He makes me laugh until I cry more than anyone."

NCAA rules stipulate that the team can travel just 15 gymnasts to each competition. So Heiter takes his act on the road, driving to any away meet within reasonable distance and often bringing along several of his non-traveling teammates.

Last season he went to Columbus, Minnesota and Penn State to cheer on his teammates. This year, he drove to Chicago with Bregman and freshmen Ben Baldus-Strauss and Devan Cote, cracking them up the whole way with his sing-alongs and zingers.

"He knows every song ever and every piece of pop culture," Baldus-Strauss said. "It's smart humor. He has so much knowledge about everyday things, he just stuns you."

For Heiter, it's just about being the best teammate he can possibly be.