Going into the holiday break, I am really feeling good about how we look this year. Of course, everyone is tired and dragging a bit now during finals. They all work so hard in school and have set a high bar for their expectations in the classroom. I have always been very proud of them for their academic achievment. We like to recognize those achievements as much as the athletic ones! Our last practice before the break is tomorrow (Wed.) then we will come back on the 27th to begin final preparations for Jan 11th against West Virginia Univ. and Arkansas. I have personal ties to both programs. I graduated from WVU and was coached by Linda Burdette, who is still the head coach there. On the other hand Dave Kuczera, the assistant coach at Arkansas, was my first assistant coach and Lauren Mirkovich, their administrative assistant, is one of my alumns! It is a small world! Either that or I have been doing this for a long time. Well maybe both...
We will come back and train for four days have a day off and train three more days then have another full blown intersquad in the gym. That will happen on Fri. Jan 4th in the Donald R. Shepherd Training Facility. We have invited all boosters and alumni to come to watch. After that we have a few more days of practice then we start the season!
I am very anxious to see how we come out of the gate this year. It is going to be a fun season!!! Come join us!!! We are selling season tickets this year and you will have an opportunity to get a reserved seat. The season ticket is only $25 which is a great deal. So get one and tell all of your friends to get one also!!!
I wish everyone a very happy holiday season and a wonderful new year!!!
Go Blue!
Bev
Hello again Michigan gymnastics fans. In just a few days we will be making our season debut at Crisler Arena for our annual intrasquad/exhibition meet. This year we are trying to make things a little more fun. We are going to have celebrity judges who will be deciding who scores!! The plan is to have two teams as usual and alternate performers like a regular meet. With this one though, we will have our judges watch one routine from each team and decide which team will get the point. So no real scores will be given, we are just going to have fun with it. Most are ready and will be doing full routines. It is exciting to see all of our injured athletes from last year back in action. They may be a tiny bit limited in some places but we are going to show you how well they are coming along at this point. So in some cases, they may do a routine and just leave out a skill that they may not be ready to do yet. I just get so excited when I see how well they are doing that I wanted you all to be able to get a preview as well!! There is no reason to push anyone to go beyond what is really safe at this point. It is still over a month away from our first real meet and we are not going to take any chances. If we stay healthy this year, I really think that we will go far!
I hope that you will all come out on Friday night Dec 7th at 7:30pm to Crisler Arena to meet the team and cheer us on. The entire team will be signing autographs after the meet up on the concourse so don't miss out. The posters, media guides, calendars, and schedule cards are hot off the press so they will all be there on Friday night.
I am very pleased with our progress at this point in the year. We are looking like we will have more depth in every event and be able to rest people more often during the season. Rest is good and it also allows more opportunity to see a wider variety of people in the line ups. We have to be on top of our game when we get to April and NCAA time in order to achieve our goals. Every event in my opinion is looking really strong. Floor tumbling is going to be much improved this year but in some cases we will be giving a little safety spot just to make sure no one takes a short landing this early.
Don't forget to mark your calendars this year for the Big Ten Championship that we are hosting on March 29th. It is at Crisler and will begin at 2:00pm this year. We moved it up from 6:00pm for a number of reasons but we are hoping that this will be a better time of day for most people and the meet will be over in time to go have a nice dinner.
I also want to let people know that we will be selling season tickets this year!!! Yea!! A $25 season ticket will get you a reserved seat in the prime area for all meets and also give you first priority at purchasing Big Ten tickets!! I believe that there is a reduced cost for children and seniors of $15. A $20 general admission season ticket may be purchased with no seat reserved. Please tell all of your friends to make sure they get theirs! Where can you find a better deal?
Well I hope to see you all on Friday! I think you will be impressed. I'd love to hear your feedback after the meet! We will also be doing Q&A sessions during the 3 min touch warm ups. So come prepared with your questions for any of the coaches or the team!! Go Blue! See you Friday.
Bev
Hello again! I have been so caught up in the excitement of things this fall that I haven't been keeping up with my briefings. Well that will change now. I have so much to share with all of you. Last year, I told you how much I enjoyed working with my team and what a great fall we had. The injuries that we had were tough to take both emotionally and competitively, but I was so proud of the efforts of this group of young women and what they were still able to accomplish!
That being said, I am so happy to report that all of the athletes that we had injured and out of line ups last year are back and doing GREAT! With them back and the addition of our new freshman, WOW! Of course we have a long way to go and we do still have to STAY healthy, but the potential I see in this team is amazing and exciting!
I'll take you through by class! First, and I say this with the utmost respect! The "grandmother" of the team ;-) Lindsey Bruck! Yes, if you have not heard, she is back and is she ever! Lindsey refused to finish her career on the sideline with an injury. She has come back to have the season she deserves to finish her career. She is in great shape. She feels good, and she is quickly returning to competition form. I have a great feeling about her this year.
In our senior class, Nellie Kippley had an incredible year last year and is looking to repeat and even improve on that. She has retired from uneven bars in this last year because she has a shoulder problem that really gets irritated, and we want her to concentrate on the other three events so that she can be 100% for them. She and Lindsey have been rock solid leaders of this team and they are again raising the bar for this team! Katie Lieberman is looking good and has been working on strengthening the leg that she had surgery on so that she can get into both the floor and the vault line-ups this year. She has got some big tumbling, and she wants very badly to be able to show it off this season. Megan Moore rounds out the senior class. Megan I think has improved more during her four year career here than just about any other athlete I have had in my 18 years. She has added a double layout dismount in her bar routine. She looks so good on beam and even though she will most likely never compete on vault, she has come a very very long way. She works harder than anyone and will graduate with around a 3.9 GPA in Engineering! Wow!
Juniors carried us through last season and have not shown any signs of slowing down. Becky Bernard and Huneth Lor have been the work horses and the rock solid foundation of our success! They both have the potential to grab All-Around spots but the competition will be much greater this year. We are hoping that if we stay healthy and have the kind of depth that it appears that we will have that we will be able to rotate athletes in and out of spots more and therefore rest and not have to push anyone to go out every single week and compete in the All-Around! Tatjana Thuener-Rego will have her work cut out for her this year as well with the strength and depth that we are looking at. Her health and ability to train consistently will be a determining factor in what she accomplishes this year. She fought some back problems throughout last year, so we need to keep a close eye on that.
Sophomores! This is the area we were hardest hit last year with injuries. Sarah Curtis went down in warm-ups before our 3rd meet last year with a torn Achilles tendon. Well you would never know it by looking at her now. She is in great shape! She is looking incredible and ready to get in there after sitting and watching most of last year. She has got a big Yurchenko Layout full on vault. Her bars are beautiful and she has some unique things in it. Beam - I love to watch because she preforms every routine she does in practice! We have two options for flight series for her. She can do a BHS layout in her sleep, but she is becoming very consistent with her BHS Onodi. That is one of my favorite skills and to do it in her series is very cool. She has some big tumbling floor potential but we will not take chances until we know that her Achilles is ready to handle it. Kelsey Knutson is still on the mend from a PCL surgery she had in early June. She is doing really well and is ahead of schedule. She should be fully healed and released to train at 100% by Christmas. Beam and Bars are her strong events and we are excited to get her back to 100%. Jaclyn Kramer really stepped in and did a great job last year for us on beam and floor. She has had a wrist problem lingering but man you should see the tumbling she can do from one arm! Maureen Moody has really stepped it up this year! She is so far ahead of where she was last year at this time. It's great to see. She is such a beautiful athlete to watch, and I fully expect her to compete beam for us this year. (You hear me Mo?) She will also continue to compete vault and bars and we are hoping that floor will also be there. Jordan Sexton was another of our casualties last season. She had to have ankle reconstruction after our first meet. Again, she is back and looking super. Her beam is awesome! Her aggressive style is exciting to watch. She also looks really good on bars and floor, so I look for her to see lots of action this year.
Last, but certainly not least, are the new freshies. What a group! Kylee Botterman will be a fan favorite on floor for sure! GymFantry: get your dancing shoes on! She tumbles light out and her routine...Well I'll let you see for yourself! She is the real deal all around. I have the feeling she is going to LOVE to compete! Kari Pearce is one of our own from right here in Ann Arbor. She trained at Twistars gymnastics in Lansing. What a worker she is. She is going to really help us in vault and she is really solid on all four events. Trish Wilson is the last of our fearsome threesome. She is still recovering from the effects of having mono this fall, but when she gets all of her strength back she is going to be a stud. She is the whole package. Big vault, awesome bars with beautiful lines, strong beam, and ends her floor routine with a triple full! Yeah, that's all I'll say about that.
So that pretty much gives you the lowdown on the team at this point. Talent is one thing and yes you have to have it to win. But it is not just talent that makes a team great. This team has a commitment to reach our ultimate potential. To be dedicated both in and out of the gym. Most importantly to have FUN and ENJOY the journey. I can't wait! I am ready to get started. Let's Go!
Bev