They stared at the entranceway like teenagers waiting backstage to meet a rock star. He eased casually into the room unaware they were watching.

To 10-year-old Jeannine Shipman and 11-year-old Bobbi-Jo Earnest, he was an untouchable hero.

They scurried across the room to where he was standing.

"Can we have your autograph?" they asked between giggles as he took the programs from their outstretched hands.

At that moment, he became human.

"There's two sides to me," Brandy Wood said. "There's a gymnast and there's a person."

It was Wood the person that charmed the two girls as he signed his name. But it was Wood the gymnast that these young fans cheered for from the Rec Hall stands.

The gymnast in Wood comes alive during competitions. So far this season, he has been a consistent performer on the high bar, still rings and parallel bars. On Jan. 22, Wood earned a career-high score of 9.6 on the high bar in the Lions' victory over Temple.

But this season has been one of healing for Wood. After undergoing wrist surgery last summer, he is dutifully working back to competing in the all-around. However, Wood knew that his recovery would not come in time to qualify for the USA Winter Nationals.

"I'm just glad to be doing optionals now," he said. "Next year, I will definitely expect something."

It was this ambitious nature that Coach Randy Jepson noticed when he recruited Wood two years ago. "He is generally very aggressive when he competes, and that's a big attribute," he said of the sophomore. "A lot of guys pull back and are real tentative, but Brandy's never been that way. He's a go-getter."

Wood brings his ambitious flair to the White Building gymnasium where it becomes contagious. During an intense workout, all is silent except for the buzz of the lights -- and Wood. His energy breaks the tension and relaxes his teammates.

"He's had to yell at me a couple of times to keep me in line," roommate Mark Cooper said. Wood refuses to allow his teammates to give up on their routines, or on themselves. "You just can't do that," Cooper added.

Wood's charisma borders on the line between sanity and insanity in the eyes of his teammates. Freshman Tyson Bryant finds humor in Wood's spirit and energy.

"He's a crazy guy," Bryant said. "In the gym, he yells a lot just to fire people up."

Wood does suspect that his energetic flair is interpreted as lunacy by the other gymnasts.

"I think they think I'm a little crazy sometimes because I'm real loud and yelling all the time . . . I try not to make them think I'm too weird though," Wood said. "But outside the gym, I'm not really like that."

When outside the gym, the person in Wood emerges. It is this person that misses his family and friends, and longs for an Albequerque sunset through the frigid State College winters.

"I haven't seen a sunset since I've been here . . . When I was driving home from the gym, I used to watch the sun set," Wood said. "It was beautiful. You can see for miles up there and you can't see anything up here."

When at home, Wood draws on his knowledge of gymnastics to coach children. Working with kids is something Wood sees himself doing in the future because he wants to guide adolescents through the problems of growing up.

"I want to help kids," the human development and family studies major said. "Kids don't have any direction, so they get in trouble."

If he hadn't gotten involved with gymnastics, Wood speculated that he would have gotten into trouble himself. But he was able to turn his boredom in his small hometown of Los Lunas, N.M., into a passion to perform. He competes with a touch of an actor's stage presence. While most gymnasts wear a stoic mask of concentration, Wood's expression often displays an identifiable smile.

"I'm just enjoying myself so much," he said. "A lot of guys get too wrapped up in the pressure and concentration. If I get too serious, I screw up. I've got to keep things in perspective.

"After so many years, you've got it in your head," said the gymnast of more than 14 years. "Your body knows what to do, you've just got to make your mind tell your body to do it."

Keeping himself focused is a mental game that Wood has mastered -- as a gymnast and a person.