After a season of flips, twists and vaults, the girl’s gymnastics team landed in high spirits at the end of their 2-5 season. The team worked together to create unity and pride, propelling them to a strong finish.
“I’m pretty proud of how we’ve done,” junior Kim Kramers said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but we managed and we did actually pretty well.”
Despite some competitive losses, the general feeling on the team is one of pride in their performance, according to head coach Elle Campbell.
“The team absolutely could have done better,” Campbell said, “[But] I’m really proud of how the girls have done this season—they’ve all made leaps, they’ve all made progress, and that’s a really nice thing to see.”
One of the difficulties the team faced was that the team got smaller throughout the season, though as senior captain Tristyn Fish explained, this didn’t deter them.
“Considering we started out with 25 girls and now we’re down to 12 and we’re still getting high scores, I feel like we’re doing pretty well,” Fish said.
The team’s focus on perfecting their skills was part of the reason for the team’s success, Campbell said.
“We focused a lot more on consistency than on achieving new skills,” Campbell said. “That’s actually really helped with our team dynamic a lot.”
While this season was an improvement over last year’s, sophomore Carmen Gonzalez said that she has even bigger hopes for next year.
“I know that we did better this year than we did last year,” Gonzalez said, “and I think that we can improve even more.”
The team’s improvement from last year was attributed not only to their focus on refinement, but also to the team’s overall outlook.
“I think we all had more positive attitude this season than we did last season,” Gonzalez said.
In addition to their positivity, Fish said that the team’s work ethic was also important in pushing the team forward.
“Everybody on the team works really hard and they all enjoy being there,” Fish said. “Everybody’s friends, so it makes practice and going to meets a lot easier.”
This passion for gymnastics is shared by the whole team, despite differences in experience levels, which Kramers said adds to the quality of the team.
“I really love the variety, the different levels people are, and how well we work together to help improve each other,” Kramers said.
The team’s focus on working together and focusing on consistency is what Campbell said will help them become even better in the coming year.
“Next year, we’re going to see a big shift in our win to loss ratio,” Campbell said. “I really think that we’re going to be more successful against some of the more competitive teams.”
As the team looks ahead, the overall goal is to reach out and expand so they can continue their successful seasons.
As a whole, the team hoped that by growing their team and reaching out, they can continue their successful seasons.
“If you want to try out for the team next year, definitely do it,” Gonzalez said. “Even if you’ve never done gymnastics, do it anyway.”
