By Patricia Ortiz-Corona
Above: Team captains Mandy McPherron and Stephanie Rosas pose for a picture. Photo by: Patricia Ortiz-Corona
The Plymouth High School gymnastics team does a variety of things including cartwheels, flips, and other such activities.
With the start of a new season a new team emerges. The new team is ready to give it all they have got to be the best. This year the new gymnastics teams and their three captains, Juniors Maggie Morrow and Mandy McPherron for the varsity team and Junior Stephanie Rosas for junior varsity, are ready to start the season off with a bang. But before the team can begin to succeed in competitions and tournaments, they must first work hard to succeed in practices.
Practices consist of doing a variety of events that will be in a competition. Junior varsity captain Stephanie Rosas explains “we compete in beam, floor, vault, and bars”. The team does not begin with the immediately working on the events. The team begins practices by conditioning which usually involves running and some other workouts like working on arms and abs. Once the team completes conditioning the fun begins because it’s when they begin to practice for the events. When practicing for an event the girls must have a routine to do will on the events like beam, floor, bars, and vaults. According to Varsity Captain Mandy McPherron, “every girl has a separate routine but we do our own routine every time”. The girls practice for their routines for the events 6 days a week for three hours each day totalling the hours spend practicing to 18 hours a week. Those 18 hours are just for the beginning of the season as the hours will increase with the passing of time. Like many other sports frustration is high during practices. Sophomore Katie Galloway said that it is “frustrating when you try to get something for so long and it takes like 103 times ( to get the routine right).”
Finally, after hard practice, the moment of truth comes when the girls have to show what they have in a competition.
Competitions are what every team looks forward to. Every competition is different depending on the sport. Gymnastics competitions are different than what people think. Competitions start out with warm-ups.
“First, we get there and warm up together,” Galloway said. Once the warm-ups are done the real adrenaline begins. The adrenaline from competitions is not the only thing that begins to rise because the pressure begins to rise as well.
“There is a lot of pressure on you with everyone watching you,” McPherron said. With the pressure on the girls and the adrenaline rising there is only one thing left to do and that is to compete.
Once warm-ups have been completed the real competition begins. “You usually have certain people that are competing and different teams go to events,” explains sophomore Rachael Principe about competitions.
Each girl performs her own unique routine while the whole place is watching. The judges carefully watch as the girls perform their routine. The tension is high at this point and the whole place is dead quiet.
Principe said the portion from when the girls start their routine to the part were the judges are watching, is “really quiet unless it is floor and the judges watch everything you do”. The girls perform their routines with precision in order for the judges to hand them a good score.
The gymnastics team is no stranger to pressure and with the season just beginning the pressure will be high.