"From the Vault" is a column by Penn State women's gymnastics head coach Steve Shephard. Shephard is in his 18th season leading the Nittany Lion squad.
March 29, 2010
Another Big Ten Championship is in the books. I am very proud of my team, and the heart, and fight they showed during the championship. Obviously we are all disappointed to finish behind Michigan AGAIN!!! However, you have to hand it to the Michigan team. They rocked beam on the last rotation when the pressure was on, and they deserved to win. My hope is that my team will use this as motivation to be even better at Regionals. We need to rock beam, stick vaults, hit all our handstands, stick dismounts, and show off on floor with great tumbling, if we want to be among the top programs in the country. We all know what it takes, and we are all willing to do what it takes in practice, to prepare ourselves for the toughest competition of the year. That would be regionals!!! It will be an intense experience, and we will try to prepare our team for that level of intensity. I know that when we focus on the process then the outcome will take care of itself. That is what our strategy will be. We need to focus on the things we have control over, and not get distracted by the external variables that can get in the way. Everyone on the team is capable of posting a 9.8 plus routine, and if we can build some momentum the scores will reflect that positive momentum.
On a different subject; one thing that continually disappoints me within the collegiate community is the snarkiness of some of the fans. Specifically, what disappoints me the most is the disrespect, and rudeness on the college gym discussion board. Every one of these athletes gives their heart and soul to their respective programs. They are tremendous role models, and the quality of their character is incredible. I have been blessed to work with some of the most hard working, motivated tough individuals that I have ever met in this great sport. Shame on you, who have nothing but snarky comments, and criticism of these tremendous athletes. Especially, those of you who are adults and should know better. Hiding behind the fact that they are public figures, and therefore fair game, is no excuse. The world has become far too crude, and the crassness of the rhetoric is appalling. Before you start throwing verbal bombs, you should take a look in the mirror!! I think all of us need to take a step back, and respect the quality of the individual participants in this sport, and start supporting the entire gymnastics community!!!
March 1, 2010
Our meet against Ohio State was a disaster!! Whitney hyper extended her knee on her bar dismount, on our first event, and we never recovered mentally. Her injury rattled everyone to the core!! Whit is such a huge part of our team, and seeing her go down deeply affected everyone on the team. As awful as it was to have Whitney get hurt, and for the team to fall apart the way we did, we could turn this into a tremendous growth experience for the team. We can use this adversity to bring out the best in everyone, enabling them to achieve even more than anyone thought possible. This meet, and the adversity we faced, could be the turning point for this team. Sometimes, it takes adversity to bring out the best in people. It is my hope that this team will respond to this adversity by becoming more mentally tough. If we can use this experience to help us get tough, we will be more ready to handle the pressure of the post season, and we can still achieve the high goals that we have set as a team. I know Whitney will be telling the team that we can still do it without her, and she will be working super hard to come back as well. If anyone can beat the odds it is her!!! I truly believe that we can still achieve our goals in spite of Whitney's injury. Depth has been one of the things that have defined this team. That depth will play a critical role now. Everyone needs to step up, and seize the opportunity to contribute to the team. We can also use Whit as a catalyst to help motivate the rest of the team to dig down deep, and compete for her, and the others on the team who are hurt, and unable to contribute scores. This can be a uniting force that could help lift the team to an even higher level. I truly believe that this adversity can be a positive force for the growth, and development of this team. We are still a 197 plus team, and it is about time that we showed the rest of the country what we are capable of. This weekend we have Michigan, Maryland, and Bridgeport at home. I think you will see some determined Nittany Lions. I predict some greatness showing up at Rec Hall!!!
Feb. 15, 2010
Paradox: • S: (n) paradox ((logic) a statement that contradicts itself) "`I always lie' is a paradox because if it is true it must be false"
There is a paradox at work this year on our team. We have very high goals, and expectations this year. These goals are based on outcome, such as winning Big Tens, and competing for a National Championship. These goals are beginning to look very realistic for this team. This is the best team we have ever had at Penn State in terms of natural talent, and level of difficulty, and the sheer quality of our gymnastics. The team is truly starting to believe that we can compete with the best in the country. Herein lays the paradox. While I am so thankful that they are starting to believe in themselves, I also want them not to focus too much on the outcome goals. I worry that when they start thinking about beating another team, or thinking about the outcome, that it will serve as a distraction, and thereby prevent them from doing their best.
I know that if we can focus on the process, the outcome will take care of itself. I know that if we focus on the things that we have control over, it will result in the outcome we desire so much. I know that the very thing that we embrace as a team in terms of an outcome goal can be the very thing that will get in our way, and prevent us from reaching that goal. I want them to be confident, and not even consider the other team. They are irrelevant to us. We have no control over the other team. We have no ability to affect what the other team does. The only thing we have control over is our own attitude, emotions, and our gymnastics. If we can manage to be in control of our thoughts, and emotions; and we compete up to the level we are capable of, when the consequences are huge, that is how we are going to achieve our goals. Therefore, it is a paradox. On the one hand we need to believe that we can win the Big Ten Championship, and a National Championship, and on the other hand the way we are going to do that is by not focusing on the outcome. Therefore, I think it is so important for our team to focus on mastery type goals, and thinking about individual performance, and maximizing individual potential. I will try to encourage them not to think too much about outcome, but focus instead on mastering their routines individually. We need to believe but we also have to be willing to focus on individual mastery of our routines mentally, and physically. We need to compete with total confidence when we reach the decisive moment. We will have a couple of great opportunities to test ourselves as a team before the post season. Each one of our meets is vitally important from this point forward. One of our great opportunities will be competing at Utah in front of 15,000 hostile fans. That will be a decisive moment for us. Can we block out the distraction of that awesome venue and be able to control our anxiety in order to perform our best? That is a question that will be answered soon. I look forward to that challenge and I hope the team embraces that challenge as well.
Jan. 18, 2010
We competed at the University of Denver this past weekend. The team showed some improvement in certain spots, but we still did not put together a total team effort. We had four falls, and three routines that were below par. We counted a fall on beam, and gave away significant tenths on bars, beam and floor. Vaulting was our one bright spot as a team. We are not ready to panic or get too worked up over what are obvious nervous mistakes. The team is capable of doing a much better job and we are hoping to hit our stride this next weekend.
We had the same rotation as last weekend. Bars, beam, floor, vault, was the order of competition. Rosie started the team off on bars and hit her routine this time for a 9.675. She was a bit short on some handstands and her shoot out of her Tkatchev was short and didn't have enough swing. It was an improvement from last time but she can still do a lot better. She is capable of 9.8 plus. Next up was Whitney, who uncharacteristically missed her Tkatchev. I can't even remember the last time Whit missed a Tkatchev. It was a fluke and she is going to redeem herself next meet!! Brandi followed Whitney and she showed some improvement from last time. She was still a bit short on handstands and can do better, but she scored significantly better with a 9.75. Sharaya was next and she hit a beautiful routine with a stuck dismount for a 9.825. Next was Brockway who struggled with her giant 1.5 pirouette. She went over and had to cover up and ended up bending her knees a bit on her giant and was just a bit loose. She fought hard however, and still managed to salvage a 9.625. She is obviously capable of doing better and will do it this next weekend. Our anchor again was Natalie Ettl, who performed almost flawlessly for a 9.825. She is doing a great job as the anchor and showing much needed consistency on bars.
We went to beam after taking a deep breath, and trying to get calmed down. The team has been doing great in practice and warm ups went really well. We were confident heading into beam. Casey started us off by staying on for a 9.625. She is capable of doing much better and has lots of room to push her score up. She fought hard, but was a bit unsteady and gave a few tenths away that she normally doesn't do. Next up was Daryl Konsevick. She also stayed on, but gave a bunch away on little checks. She scored a 9.6 but is capable of much better. Sharaya was next, and she fell on her series. She has been doing a great job in practice, and had added in her layout layout series for this meet. She just looked a bit unsure of herself and tentative when she competed. She might have had a bit of extra nerves since she was back home, and had a huge following cheering for her. She might have put a bit of extra pressure on herself. She will do better next meet! Allie Southard was our one bright spot on beam. She performed a beautiful routine tying for first place in the meet with a 9.775!! She demonstrated tremendous leadership. Next up was Whitney and she stayed on but had some trouble with her kickover front that she normally does extremely well. She also had a bit of a deduction on her dismount which she has been showing big improvement on. She scored a 9.575, and is normally a 9.8 plus so next weekend she will show her true colors! Brandi was our anchor again, and she fell on her kickover front. I know we are way better than the 47.8 we scored. Beam is going to be one of our best events when we put it together.
On floor Daryl started us off again just like last weekend. She had some trouble with her second pass and landed with her chest really low on her rudi. She also took a big step back after her last pass because she opened her front too early. She only scored a 9.575 and last week she scored a 9.875 so we know what she is capable of. Casey was next and she showed tremendous improvement from last week. This week she scored a 9.8 almost a full point improvement!! She is starting to feel more confident with her tumbling and it showed. Next up was Sharaya, who was a last minute substitution for Maddie who was struggling in warm ups. Maddie is a beautiful floor worker who scored a 9.825 last week. She is going to be working hard this week to be ready to go this weekend. Sharaya was not fully prepared to compete on floor, but she was ready as a back up and we were planning on having her do exhibition, but when Maddie started having trouble with her first pass I decided to put Sharaya in instead. She made her double Arabian first pass but sat down on her last pass which is a two and a half twist. She just ran out of gas and needs to do more full floor routines to be ready. When she gets ready she is going to be dazzling on floor!! Next up was Allie, who had a solid routine with the exception of going out of bounds on her first pass. She also had a form issue on her last pass, but she has been working super hard, and is making great strides on floor. She scored a 9.65, but we all know that she is going to be way better than that score, when she puts it all together. Whitney went next and we had switched her passes around to make her routine more manageable for her. In her first meet she did the whip double pike last pass and fell. This meet she did the whip double pike second pass and made it with a step forward. Her full in was great, and her last pass was a solid rudi. When she gets rid of the deduction on her double pike she will be scoring above 9.8!! Brandi was our anchor again, and she didn't disappoint! She won floor with a 9.9. It was gorgeous and she could have scored even higher!
We ended the meet on vault. Casey started us off with a solid 9.725. I felt it could have scored even higher, but it was a solid effort from her. Next up was Danielle Hover, she had a small hop forward on her pike front half and scored a respectable 9.7. When she does the vault we have been seeing in practice it will score even higher. Rosie followed Dani, and took a small step back on her Yurchenko half, for a 9.75. Whitney performed a very strong Yurchenko full, and scored a 9.8. Sharaya went next and took a small hop and scored a solid 9.775. Brandi anchored vault and did a beautiful Yurchenko 1.5 with a solid landing for a 9.9 winning vault!
All in all we took a step forward, but we need to continue to improve. This team has tremendous upside potential, and we will be working hard to realize that potential.
Our trip home was a 20 hour ordeal!! We left the hotel for the Denver airport at 4:50am, and didn't get home until 11:00pm. We made it from Denver to Philly no problem. Then we had a maintenance delay out of Philly, and we finally got on the plane bound for State College. We got all the way to the final approach into State College when the pilot had to abort the landing, due to a combination of a maintenance issue again, and the visibility was not great. So he pulled up abruptly, and we headed back to the Philly airport. We waited for another aircraft and we finally got home at 11:00pm. However as I told the team, things could be worse. We survived, and we are looking forward to a great week of practice.
Jan. 9, 2010
We had our first meet last night, and I'm sitting on the bus heading home. I wanted to write down my thoughts while they are fresh in mind. We are a very talented team this year, and we are capable of great success. This meet was not indicative of what we are capable of. It was simply the beginning of a long process of enlightenment, and growth. The major ingredients are there, we just need to continue to build confidence, and build momentum through the end of the season; culminating in the National Championship.
Our team started the competition on Bars. Rosie was up first and had hit everything in warm ups. I was expecting a solid performance from her. Unexpectedly however, she missed her Shoposhnikova. I know she was a bit nervous since it was her first competition since her injury last year. I'm confident she can do it, and she will do better next time. Next up was Sharaya, and she hit, but was a bit short on her handstands. She didn't have enough swing on her mount, because we moved her board too close. That won't happen again! She did make her dismount however, which is brand new for her. Next up was Whit, who hit a very solid routine. She only scored a 9.675 which I felt was low. The judges said they deducted for amplitude on her Tkatchev, and for her handstands being short. I thought her Tkatchev was huge! She did four kip cast handstands in her routine, and that is killing her. We have a new routine with one less kip cast, and she is working hard to get that routine ready. Next was Brandi, who hit, but the judges killed her for her handstands also. She can do better, and she will. She only scored a 9.575, and she is capable of 9.8 plus. Next was Brockway. She hit, and scored a 9.8. Our anchor was Natalie who performed the "Ray" for the first time at PSU. The "Ray" is named after Elise Ray, and it is a toe on, reverse hecht. She performed it brilliantly and I felt her 9.8 was a bit low in comparison to some of the other routines that I saw. Maddie did exhibition on bars, and did great. Whenever you are the first team out of the gate the scores tend to be a bit conservative, which is exactly what happened.
Our next event was Beam. Casey went first, and did Ok, but had some wobbles that cost her. She ended up with a 9.6 which should be a 9.8 plus. Next was Daryl. It was her first time in the beam line up and she did OK but can do way better. She scored a 9.675 and is capable of 9.8 plus. Next was Sharaya, and I could tell she was a bit tight. She was a bit shaky in warm ups, and I think it shook her confidence a bit. She had a pretty big bobble on her front aerial, and scored a 9.6. She is great on beam, and is capable of way better. Next was Allie, and she missed her series, and only scored a 9.225. Whitney was up next, and knew she had to hit or we were counting a fall. I think the pressure got to her a bit, and she fell on her series. She will do better next time. Brandi was our anchor, and she hit great, and won beam with a 9.85.
We moved on to floor with some lost momentum knowing we were counting a fall. We needed to regain our momentum on floor!!! We started great with Daryl hitting for a 9.875. I think it was a personal best for her. Next was Maddie and she did great as well for a personal best score of 9.825. Next was Casey, and she seemed to lack that swagger, and confidence that she usually has. She put her hands down on her double pike and balked her last pass. Not her best showing. She is going to be working hard this week to make sure that doesn't ever happen again. Next was Whitney, and I had total confidence in her. She looked great on her piked full in first pass, but then her rudi second pass looked a bit off, and she rushed her last pass and put her hands down. Now we were counting a fall on floor too. I hate that!!! Floor should be an event that you don't need to worry about falling. Brandi brought us back with a great routine for a 9.9 winning floor. We definitely will be working hard this week to make sure we reach our potential on floor.
Our last event was vault, and we started with Rosie. She just started doing her vault on the hard surface last week. So, she hasn't had the type of preparation necessary. However, she stayed on her feet, and posted a respectable 9.65. She is capable of way better, and she will be able to reach her potential soon. Casey performed next, and she did a decent vault for a 9.7. Danielle went next, and she put her hands down on her pike front half. She has been doing some great ones in practice, and she needs to do what she has been doing in practice, in the next meet. Sharaya was next, and she did a great vault with a small hop back for a 9.825. Next was Whitney and she stuck hers for a 9.825. The judges claimed her rotation was "slow" and deducted her for that. I never heard of that deduction before????. Brandi was last, and she did a great vault for a 9.9!! Maddie did an exhibition with her layout half Yurchenko, and it was the best one I have seen her do, so far at PSU. She is on the right track.
The first meet is always a bit nerve raking. This one was no exception. I told the team that "no race has ever been won on the first turn, but many have been lost" Enzo Ferrari. (Car racing example, meaning that if you go too hard into the first turn, and crash you lose, however if you get through the first turn successfully, there is a lot of racing left to do.) Lots of the question marks have been erased. We learned a lot about each of them, and they have a sense of direction, and new goals to work toward. The team knows what they need to do. They are fighting for spots in the line up, and we are getting healthier. That is a good thing for our team. We look forward to competing at Denver next week!!
For the Glory!!
Jan. 6, 2010
Happy New Year!!!
The team has been training hard during pre season, preparing both physically and mentally for the competition season. Now the reward for all that hard work is upon us. We leave tomorrow for our first competition of the 2010 season. The team is ready, and excited to get started competing.
We are relatively healthy at this point. Heather McElwee sprained her ankle a couple of weeks ago, and it is still not healed fully. Alexandra Brockway also sprained her ankle, and is getting better but still not quite 100%. She will be able to do Bars, but is not yet ready for beam and vault. Sharaya broke her fifth metatarsal 7 weeks ago, and has been training full for about two weeks now. She will be competing, but is not quite ready for floor yet. Stine is still nursing a stress fracture in her shin and is able to train bars fully but not yet ready on vault and floor. Unfortunately injuries are always a part of all sports.
On vault we are planning to have a full line up of 10.0 start value vaults for our first meet. However, we are little thin on Vault. We will need everyone to really step it up to increase our depth. Brandi and Whitney are looking great, and Sharaya is looking good as well. Complimenting our Yurchenko vaults, we have Danielle Hover with her pike front half. She has gained consistency and should be able to contribute to our team score on vault. Brandi is still doing her Y 1.5 twist and is looking particularly strong!! Rosie is also ready to go on vault with her Yurchenko half. It is great to have her back in the vault line up contributing. Casey will also be contributing with her Yurchenko full. She is looking ready to go as well!
On bars, we have 11 quality performers to choose from for the line up. It has not been an easy decision to decide who gets the honor of representing our team on this event. Daryl has upgraded her dismount to a double layout. Sharaya has also learned a double layout dismount. Natalie is doing her "Ray" now and that is an upgrade from last year. She is looking great!! All of them have been training hard, and we should have a strong showing on this event. As of right now we will use Brandi, Alex B, Whitney, Natalie, Rosie, and Sharaya. However, no one's spot is etched in stone, and when the team is fighting for spots it makes all of us better.
Beam is going to be very strong again this year. We return everyone from last year, and we add Maddie and Sharaya into the mix. Again, it will be a tough decision deciding on the beam line up as well. Fighting for spots in the line up makes our team stronger!! Brandi is looking better than ever on beam. So does Whitney. Sharaya is the JO national champ on beam, and so is Daryl. Obviously it will be tough to make the line up with all these quality performers to choose from.
The team has been working very hard on Floor to get ready to compete. It is always the most difficult event to prepare for, because of the endurance factor. We have been doing a ton of floor endurance, and it is really starting to pay off. Brandi will be our anchor again on floor. She is looking better than ever, and is really setting the standard for the rest of the team on this event. Whitney is also looking better than ever. She is doing whip immediate double pike last pass now. She will also mount with a piked full in again this year. Casey is doing a whip immediate double full last pass this year which is a new pass for her. Allie is ready to compete, and has done a great job preparing herself for competition. She will do the same passes as last year. Sharaya is looking good on floor, but has only been training for two weeks after having six weeks off from tumbling. She doesn't quite have the endurance yet, to do what she is capable of. When she gets ready, she will add a lot to our floor line up. Daryl is looking good and will be in the line up on floor. She will do the same routine as last year. She has been very consistent. Maddie has also been very focused on getting ready to compete. She will be in the line up. When Rosie and Sharaya are back up to full speed on floor, it will add some much needed depth.
Oct. 13, 2009
I thought I would update everyone on the 2010 version of Penn State Women's Gymnastics. We have been working hard since the beginning of school. We start out the year with an emphasis on conditioning. That has been our primary focus for the past month. We are in the weight room Monday mornings for a circuit at 7:00am. We do around fifteen stations, and go for a minute at each station, and we go around three times. It is a total body workout, and it is pretty tough. I do it with the team, and I was really sore at first!!! On Tuesday, we do a plyometric circuit after practice. Wednesday morning at 7:00am, we come into the gym to do a conditioning circuit. It is mainly core exercises, and some upper body exercises. We are off Wednesday afternoon from gymnastics training. Thursday morning at 7:00am we do spinning class. It is pretty intense. Friday morning we have individual lifts in the weight room. On Saturday we do a short gymnastics practice, with an emphasis on priority skills, then conditioning. All of this hard work is paying off. The team is really getting in great shape, and they have worked hard with passion and enthusiasm. Now, as we enter October, our emphasis is slightly leaning toward more gymnastics, and away slightly from the conditioning. However, we are still conditioning hard!!
In the gym, the team is training hard. On vaulting they are doing their competitive vaults into the foam with a mat, or on the resi pit with a soft mat on top. We have also been vaulting up high onto stacked mats doing layouts and some twisting.
On Bars we are doing routines without dismounts. We are alternating with skills days, and continuing to try to upgrade dismounts. Dani is training double layout. Whit is doing a double front now, and it is killer!! Daryl is training double layout, and is very close to getting it good. Sharaya is training double layout, and is ready to take it out of the belt. Everyone else is keeping the same dismount as last year.
On beam they are alternating between routines, and skill work. They are also working to identify their cues for each element. They have had to make a few changes because of the new rules. No more combos with straddle Jumps. They had to learn some new stuff. They are also learning new dismounts. Brandi is trying to upgrade to cartwheel gainer, double full. Maddie, and Sharaya, are learning gainer fulls, and Mel is upgrading to a roundoff double full.
On floor we are tumbling into the pit with mats and onto the resi pit. They are also working endurance routines. Jess will be done with their music for the new routines this week. Then over the next two weeks she will be choreographing the new routines. I'm looking forward to seeing the new routines!!
We had our class of 2010 commits' on their official visit in September. We are having our class of 2011 recruits in for unofficial visit this weekend. We have five recruits coming, and it is homecoming!! We play Minnesota in football. It should be great!!!
Our new motto for this year is "for the glory". It comes from the lyrics of our alma mater. It also describes part of our mission, which is to bring glory to PSU and to all those who ever wore the blue and white uniform of Penn State University. We are going to make this year a great year!!
April 7, 2009
What an amazing meet that was!!! Regionals is always a meat grinder, and this year it was no exception.
We started on bars, and we made a couple of mistakes. Both Whit and Stine were not themselves, and they struggled with their routines. We ended up counting Stine's 9.575, and our event total was a 48.8. On our next rotation, we went to beam. Casey started us off with a solid routine. Next was Mel, and she fought her way through to a 9.625. Next up was Whit, and she had a perfect routine going until her dismount. She landed a bit short and had to stumble backwards to stay on her feet. It cost her however, and she only scored a 9.475. Our event total was a 48.525, and we were in fourth place after 2 rotations.
The team went back to the locker room and put all of their mistakes behind them. Our total focus was to rock floor and vault. When they came back out of the locker room to go to floor, they had total confidence that they could hit. Nebraska was on bars, and NC State was on beam. Both of them were ahead of us, but the beam proved too much for NC State, as they had three falls, and counted a couple of low scores. They took themselves out of the meet at that point. Nebraska was also feeling the pressure, and their first kid up fell, and then they had another fall later in their line up, so they were counting a fall on bars. We had surpassed Nebraska with our floor against their bars. All of our floor routines were about as good as we could have expected. We scored a 49.225 and tied UGA on floor.
We were .025 in the lead as we headed to vault, and Nebraska was headed to beam. We were all feeling pretty confident at this point, since we knew our vault could beat their beam. Our fans were going crazy!! First up on vault was Allie, and she scored a 9.7. Next was Brockway, who drilled her landing!!! She presented to the judges with a huge grin, knowing that she performed her vault as well as she could have hoped for. Right before she went, she told me she was not going to worry about the landing; she was going to focus more on her preflight, and her form. Ironic how that works; when you focus on the process, usually the outcome is a pleasant bonus. Next came Dani, and she was also very good. She scored a 9.85. Next up was Casey. She also drilled her landing and scored a 9.875, her best score of the year! Whitney also stuck her vault, and scored a 9.875. Brandi had a great vault also, but the judges found something they didn't like, and only gave her a 9.825. I felt that score was low in comparison to what they were giving others. However, there was no basis for an inquiry, so we had to just accept the low score. As we were going crazy on vault, and our fans were cheering like maniacs, Nebraska was faltering on beam. None of them fell, but they were not sharp. They only managed a 48.925 on beam, (which wasn't enough to catch us), so we were in first place with one rotation left. UNC went to bars, and they were the only team within striking distance of us, so we watched as they also crumbled under the pressure of this incredible competition.
This meet was a microcosm of what we have been trying to teach the team all year. The only variables we have control over are: our attitude, our effort, our thoughts, and beliefs, and our performance. We can't control what the judges give us, or how good the competition is. Those things are all out of our control. We can't worry about the things we can't control. All we can do is dedicate ourselves to pursuing excellence in all the areas we do have control, and let the outcome take care of itself. Of course we want to win, but ultimately the winning will take care of itself, if we do our part to the best of our ability.
Now, we are headed to the NCAA Championship!!!! We will focus on dedicating ourselves to excellence in all the things we can control, and let the outcome take care of itself. This is an incredible opportunity. I hope we can all take a step back, and cherish this opportunity. We have an opportunity to peak at the NCAA Championships. We can hit 24 for 24 and be rock stars! If we do that, the outcome could be a pleasant bonus.
I also wanted to thank Kristen Vanderbush, Gwen Nese, and Karen Shuckman for continuing to be the wind beneath our wings. They organized quite a nice cheering section for us. I also want to thank the parents of the team for being such great fans, and supporters of their daughters' efforts. On to Lincoln with renewed vigor and enthusiasm!! We have the tremendous honor of representing Penn State, and all those who came before us. We will make you all proud of us!!!
March 23, 2009
This past weekend was a very emotional one. We competed at the Big Ten Championships, and we entered the meet as the top ranked team. We finished in third place, which was a disappointment. However, the team fought hard, and basically we hit. We had our second highest score of the year, and we moved up to 12th place in the rankings. Our crowd was so great at the meet!! They were loud and proud, and helped our team tremendously.
We started the meet on vault and Casey Rohrbaugh did the best vault of her career!! She didn't stick it, but it was HUGE!! Whit's vault was beautiful as well, and she stuck it cold. Dani performed her best vault of the year also. Alex and Allie both performed good vaults as well. Brandi's vault was great! I felt like she had the best vault of the meet. It is a shame that a Yurchenko 1.5 is the same start value as a Yurchenko half. Clearly a Y 1.5 is way harder, which is why you don't see that many of them performed. Anyway, enough sour grapes.
On bars we stayed on, but we were not as sharp as we were against Alabama and Ohio State a couple of weeks ago. It was great to have Nat back in the bar lineup!! She did the best routine she has done all year. She had not landed a dismount for three weeks, because of her knee, so it was a bit of a gamble for her to land. It looked like she floated down, and landed so soft with a great stick!! It was awesome, and a great way to start our bars rotation. Everyone else was OK just a couple of short handstands and some minor problems but OK. Michigan followed us on bars and they were great. They scored a 49.425 and were really sharp.
I knew we had our work cut out for us on beam, and floor, if we were going to stay with them. We went to beam with good momentum and confidence. First up was Casey and she rocked a routine. I thought her 9.75 was a bit low since she was very solid. Next was Mel. She wobbled a couple of times, for a 9.6. Next was Whit. She fell on a straddle jump. AAAGGGHHHH! She missed her foot and slipped off the beam. It was a shock. She handled it so well however, and acted like it never happened when she went out to talk to Allie before her routine. Allie rocked her set, and Brandi and Alex both stayed on but were not quite as sharp as I have seen them perform. We ended up counting Mel's 9.6 which cost us. We rallied on floor and everyone was performing great, and the scores were good. We scored our season best with a 49.425. Again I felt like Brandi should have won the meet outright instead of tying. She clearly had the most difficulty and executed it flawlessly. Her last pass was better than everyone's first pass!!!
This experience was great for our team as a preparation for Regionals. We intend to compete to the best of our abilities. Everyone on the team is dedicated to maxing out their potential and performing flawlessly. We are going to focus on the process, and let the outcome take care of itself. Hit 24 for 24 and walk away with no regrets!! Onward and Upward!!
March 15, 2009
That makes three great weekends in a row for us!!! First we had the major victory over Ohio State and Alabama, then we went into Morgantown, West Virginia, and performed well, then we went on the road again to Maryland and came away with an inspiring performance. The crowd was electric in the Comcast Center Pavilion. It is a small venue but WOW!!! Was it loud!!! It hurt my ears, and gave me a headache, but it seems the athletes thrived on that energy. I must thank Kristen Vanderbush for getting the word out, and having a Penn State cheering section for our team. There were some rousing cheers of "We Are!!!" The team performed brilliantly against Arizona, Maryland, and Yale. We hit 27 for 27 (including exhibitions) and again, the Penn State Faithful were out in force at Maryland. They were loud, and they were proud, and the team did not disappoint. I was so proud of all of them. This is the confidence we need to take into the post-season. We have a great opportunity in front of us, and I truly believe in this team.
A couple of highlights this weekend were: Dani Hover, Pike front half on vault, 9.825. Bencsko on vault, 9.9. Allie Southard on vault with a STUCK landing, 9.85. On bars we had some highlights as well. They include, Casey Rohrbaugh with a HIT set, 9.775.Whitney and Brockway with matching 9.875, winning the event. Beam was a good event for us in spite of the score. We earned every tenth!! Casey was solid as usual, and Brandi was solid as usual, Allie hit a nice routine, they all hit, but had small balance errors, and steps on dismounts. 7 for 7 on beam!! Way to go beam team!!!! On floor, which was where we started the meet, we had some highlights as well. Daryl stepped up her game, and posted a 9.8 for the first time this season. Whit was great, and earned every tenth of her 9.775! Brandi was her normal stellar self, with a huge double lay, and her last pass was better than most everyone else's first pass. She won with a 9.9.
We are heading into Big Tens with confidence, and I hope the team claims the composure they have earned through successful performance, as their own.
March 4, 2009
First, I need to apologize for not writing for a long time. Sorry! No excuses. I will write more regularly from now on.
We had a magical weekend this past weekend!!! We had a huge alumni reunion and we had a great meet. We beat Alabama, and Ohio State, and we scored our season high 196.65.
I also want to explain how the magic happened with a little background information. At the end of each year I recognize team members with what we call our tradition awards. We present these tradition awards at our end of the year banquet. I am very discriminating with these awards, and I don't necessarily award them unless the person being honored, lived up to the legacy established by the person the award is named after. I have hurt some people with this policy because I don't always feel they have lived up to the legacy. Last year, I had been particularly stingy with these awards. I thought to myself, "these guys don't even know who half these people are!!! They are just a name and a picture in the media guide." It was at that moment that I decided I needed to teach the current team a bit of a history lesson. Penn State Women's Gymnastics started in 1965 with a varsity team. We boast more history, and tradition than any other program in the nation. We are the last team other than Utah, Georgia, Alabama, and UCLA to have won a National championship in women's gymnastics. I decided at that moment, at our awards banquet that we needed to use that tradition and history to move our program forward. I wanted to plan an alumni function in order to re-connect the current team with all of the past greats that have worn the blue and white.
As fate would have it, one of our National Champions had recently moved back to Happy Valley. Her name is Karen Schuckman, and she was National Champion in 1974, and 1975. I called her, and asked if she would be interested in helping us put together an alumni reunion at our March 1st meet against Ohio State and Alabama. She agreed, and we started the ball rolling toward a magical weekend.
Nate Althouse, Gwen Kauffman-Nese, Jessica Bastardi, Karen Schuckman, and I met throughout the fall to plan this weekend. All of us worked very hard and dedicated a tremendous amount of time, and efforts to making this all happen. We had an open house at the gym on Saturday, and then we all went to the men's meet against Ohio State (which we won!!) After the meet, we had a dinner at the Nittany Lion Inn, and a presentation from a number of Alumni. The turnout we had was amazing!! We had 137 people at our dinner!!! Judi Markell-Avener brought her massive scrap books and they were on display. Karen had put together a slide show with all the old photos from the Library archives and from what I had saved. Gwen had put together all the old team photos and collected names and addresses. The next afternoon on Sunday we competed against Ohio State, and Alabama. After the meet we brought all the Alums onto the floor, and Ann Carr presented the Ann Carr award to Brandi Personett who set a personal best in the All Around with a 39.6.
My heartfelt thanks goes out to Karen, Gwen, Nate, and Jess for making the whole thing great. I also want to thank all the alumnae who traveled from all over the United States to be here for this event. I love all of you and hope to see you again soon.
October 8, 2008
This year has started off with a new approach. We began a testing program to evaluate the fitness level of our team, and to see where we are in terms of skill at the beginning of preseason. The testing program was designed to determine strength, anaerobic endurance, and gymnastic skill. We began the fitness testing the first week of practice. The gymnastics testing was done on Sept 22. The team has responded very well, and we are really looking strong right now. We are doing full bar routines without a dismount, and working dismounts separately. We are vaulting on competition height mats on a soft surface, we are doing full beam routines with timers for dismounts, and we are tumbling on competition height mats in the pit. Jessica Bastardi is choreographing all the new routines and we have been working on floor endurance. The team is motivated and working very hard toward our goals of winning our first Big Ten Championship and qualifying for the NCAA championship. The junior class has been demonstrating good leadership and the team has elected Rosie Smith and Allie Southard as their captains.
An event-by-event breakdown will demonstrate that this team is on a serious mission. On vault we have pretty good depth. Brandi Personett is doing her Y 1.5 very well. Alexandra Brockway is doing her full very well. Rosie Smith is working Y half, and a full. She does the half very well, and we are playing with a full to see if we may want to do that instead of the half. Casey Rohrbaugh is getting more consistent with her Y full. We are trying to get her more amplitude so she can maintain her layout shape throughout the vault. Teenie (Kristina Beck) is doing her full well and she is also working on increasing her amplitude. Whitney Bencsko has a great vault and is doing very well on this event. Allie Southard has done her Y half this week for the first time since her back injury. Heather McElwee is working pike half, her main issue is her form and she is working hard trying to clean it up. Dani (Danielle Hover) has done some very good pike fronts but has had to re-learn her half since she was nursing a bum shoulder all summer. Alex Stine may be a surprise on vault. She is working a full twisting layout Tsuk and has the ability to pull it off!!
On bars we are counting on our returning personnel including Alex B., Brandi and Rosie. Lindsey Montross is coming back from her knee surgery very well. She still needs to increase her strength in order to be able to take a landing. She is doing her pike Jaeger in the belt right now, and it is super consistent and huge!! She is also doing her Pak salto cast half pirouette sole circle catch high, to her blind change. As soon as she is allowed to land I think she will be ready to compete. Natalie Ettl, our freshman walk-on is looking great on bars. She is currently doing toe on shoot handstand full pirouette to a shoot half handstand on the low bar right into a sole circle catch high bar. She is also doing her toe reverse hecht, and her double layout in the belt. She has had problems with her knee and has had a number of surgeries to repair it. Right now she is in the training room everyday to get it strong enough to take a landing from bars. When she is allowed to land she will be ready to help on bars. Whitney is doing a great job on bars. She does a huge hecht and a huge Geinger. She does a beautiful shoot handstand and dismounts with a giant full double tuck flyaway. She will help us on bars. Our returning athletes are all ready to go. Brandi is doing full routines consistently, and Alex is looking very good. Rosie has improved her Shaposh and her form on her hecht. Her dismount is still the weakest part of her routine but she is very motivated to make it better. Dani is still coming back from her shoulder problem this summer and is playing catch up, but has a good chance of making the line up her as well. Daryl Konsevick is able to get through her routine, which includes a blind to a Jaeger and a beautiful Pak salto. She is working double layout in the belt and has been doing them very well. We plan on taking it out of the belt next week. If she becomes more consistent she could be a huge contributor on bars for us. Casey is able to do her Shushanova, kip cast, half pirouette, shoot half handstand, immediate sole circle to high bar. Her success on developing a consistent dismount will determine whether she makes the line up. Teenie is working hard getting in routine shape and will do the same routine as last year.
Beam is coming along nicely. We have everyone from last year's line up returning, with the exception of Lindsay Borkan. Whitney, Daryl, and Alex Stine are all capable of helping us on beam. These new athletes, combined with our experienced athletes, could make beam our best event this year. They are all working very hard, and basically doing full routines. The only things missing right now are dismounts, and Jess has the girls training hard to improve our dismounts.
Floor is also going to be strong for us. We lost Aslynn Satterfield from last year's line up, but we have gained Whitney, Daryl, and Alex S. We also have gained Allie, who is coming back from her back injury with a vengeance. She is doing her double Arabian and has learned a front double twist and has been really working hard making up for lost time. Whitney is going to compete a piked full in first pass, a rudi immediate layout second pass, and finish with a double pike. Floor is one of her best events. Brandi is still training her layout full in. She tried to do it at NCAAs last year but bounced out of bounds. This year she could actually compete it, and she would be the only athlete in the NCAA to do it!!! Casey will do the same passes as last year but is getting new choreography this year, so I think she will be a big help on floor. Rosie is looking great on floor and with her experience she should be a consistent force on floor. Alex B is also working hard on floor trying to perfect her double front that she mounted with last year. Her power and technique have improved, and this could be a great event for her if she gets her tumbling consistent.
This year's team is a team on a mission! Coming up short at Big Tens and regionals last year has lit a fire under these girls, and they are on fire making sure they don't come up short again this year. This is going to be our year!!
April 16, 2008
What can I say? Again this year we missed qualifying to the NCAA championships by less than a tenth. Again, Denver sneaks past us to qualify by less than a tenth. Obviously our team was devastated. Again, small mistakes cost us. We didn't count a fall, but we made a few little mistakes that meant the difference between qualifying and not qualifying. It is demoralizing to come so close two years in a row. It has lit a fire in the belly of this team however!! We have to learn from this experience and use what we learn to make us better. I truly believe that this disappointment will be the catalyst to propel this team to new heights. We had a team meeting on Monday following the meet and I think everyone on the team is a changed person because of this experience. This team came a long way this year. We had a young team that struggled with some issues that held us back. I believe those issues will be gone next year. I also believe that the freshmen coming in next year will be immediately educated as to this team's mission and the commitment they all expect from each other. We are going to make some changes for next year. We are moving in a positive direction in spite of this bitter disappointment.
Brandi qualified as an individual in the all around, so we will have representation for our program at the NCAA. After feeling very down about not going with her team, Brandi has come around, and is focused on representing Penn State to the best of her ability.
April 1, 2008
"This I believe"
This was the title of a column back during the depression on CBS radio, and now NPR does it on a weekly basis. I have heard it a few times, and really enjoyed the concept of random people expressing their personal beliefs, and philosophies. I liked it so much I wanted to write my own, so here it is.
This I believe,
I have been involved in athletics practically my whole life. I walked into a gymnastics gym in 1968, and I have spent almost everyday of my life inside a gym. During that time, I have learned a great deal about the character traits sports can teach the participants. I have also learned about the traits sport reveals about our character.
First, I believe that the process is more important than the outcome. Even after you win the most important competition you can think of, your next immediate thought after relishing the victory, is what do I do next? You begin in your mind preparing for what lies ahead. Next season... Tomorrow... Next time... This is the reality of sport and of life. The journey goes on, the outcome is only temporary. You never arrive at your final destination. I believe in life-long learning, and always challenging yourself with something new that you may never have tried before. A new day brings a new challenge.
I believe in the pursuit of excellence. You never achieve perfection as a human being. You can only strive for excellence on that journey through life. Those who are dedicated to excellence have a different mindset than those who are too focused on the outcome. By focusing on excellence instead of the perfect outcome, you free yourself to enjoy the challenge and embrace the uncertainty of competition. You allow yourself to perceive mistakes and setbacks as tools to learn from. By focusing on excellence you have no fear of failure, because excellence is a process, not an outcome. The motivation becomes a joyful pursuit to maximize individual potential. It is not dependent on any external measuring stick of success or winning, it is defined by your own individual growth.
I believe in having a positive attitude. This means always trying to look for the best in people, and in situations. This doesn't mean having an unrealistic view of the world through rose colored glasses. Having a positive attitude means taking what life gives us and turning it to our advantage. Life doesn't always go the way we hope it would. People sometimes disappoint us, and they can be very deceitful, cruel and evil. Having a positive attitude about people allows us help them in a positive way in spite of their own shortcomings. I believe that people will behave the way you expect them to behave. If you expect them to be weak or negative, they will behave that way. And the reverse is true, that if you expect them to be strong and positive, over time they will become strong and positive. Sometimes life gives us tremendous adversity, hardship and pain. These hardships can crush even the strongest of individuals unless they are able to turn it to their advantage. There is purpose even in the worst case scenario. The key is to find a meaningful purpose as to why bad things happen and use that purpose to make us stronger. If you have a positive attitude as your basic nature, you can survive anything. I believe that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to those events. I choose to react in a positive way and I look for positive solutions to every situation, and I look for the best in people even when they may disappoint me. I consider it one of life's highest callings to help people reach their maximum potential by expecting them to reach that goal.
I believe in the joy of ultimate effort. Some people call it hard work or a strong work ethic. I prefer to call it the joy of ultimate effort. I believe that there is dignity in applying yourself physically to a task, with your ultimate effort. Not a good effort but your ultimate effort. The payoff is tremendous when you know you have put everything you have into the task. There are no regrets once you know that you have given the ultimate effort. I remember the first Marathon I ran. I didn't win the race, but I felt such a tremendous feeling of personal satisfaction and joyful pride, because I gave it my ultimate effort, and when I finished, I cried tears of joy.
I believe that athletic participation is a microcosm of real life. Success and secure adjustment as an athlete leads to success, and well adjustment as an adult in the real world. Of course, winning and the worldly definition of success is important, and we are judged based on how well we did in the won/ loss column. However, there is more to it than that. There are certain gifted individuals who are at the far end of the normal distribution of athletic ability. There is a certain genetic component to reaching the pinnacle of any sport. There is something to the old adage that "if you want to become a champion you must pick your parents wisely." There are a few very select individuals who have what it takes to reach the pinnacle of the sport they choose. This fact does not diminish what all those others who are not as "gifted" can get out of the athletic experience. Reaching your individual personal potential is the ultimate measuring stick that defines success. As my Dad used to say, "Not everyone can be a rocket scientist, or a millionaire, or NFL star, but whatever you choose to do with your life, do it to the best of your ability." That is my definition of success. As I tell my gymnasts, "Don't evaluate your performance based on the score you get, that score is really just one judge's opinion. Base your evaluation on this question ... "Did you do better than you normally do in practice, about the same, or was it worse?"
There are many more things I believe, but these are the main ideas that make my job as a coach so meaningful to me.
February 20, 2008
At this time of year I find my thoughts always traveling back to Feb. 28th 1974. My good friend and teammate at SIU-C Gary Morava died from a gymnastics accident. We were warming up before practice on the mini tramp, and he was doing 2 and 3/4th fronts. He did two of them perfectly, and when he tried one more, he hit the tramp wrong and landed on the top of his head severing his spinal chord. It took me a long time to overcome the grief and shock of watching my idol, and best friend hurt himself so tragically. It has been 34 years this Feb 28th since the day he died. It still feels like yesterday to me, and I still think about him at this time of year. He was one of the best gymnasts in the country at the time of his death, and a character that everyone loved. He had a passion for life that I have not seen in very many other people. He loved gymnastics and approached practice with a playful enthusiasm that was infectious. He worked hard but he had a great time doing it.
I wanted to take this time to remind everyone who reads this how precious life is, and how quickly it can be taken away. Take the time today to hug your friends, kiss your Mom and Dad, and tell your teammates how much you care about them. Call your brother or sister and tell them you love them. Embrace life and all of the ups and downs associated with our day to day struggles. Keep the sport of gymnastics in its proper perspective. It is supposed to be fun, and enhance the quality of your life! It is supposed to teach you life lessons that you can use as you go through the trials and tribulations that we all face. I dedicated my gymnastics career to Gary's memory after he died in 1974. In his memory I hope you all have a great day and live life to the fullest as Gary did.
January 28, 2008
After three meets into the season, a great deal has been discovered about this year's team. The first thing I have been pleased to discover is that we are right in the hunt for a spot at NCAA's. I believe this team has the ability to earn a spot at the National Championship. Obviously it won't be easy, but I think it is within our grasp if we manage the team correctly.
Right now, we are dealing with some injuries that have taken a toll on our ability to reach our scoring potential. None of these recent injuries are season-ending, but they have really put a strain on our team and have required our backups to really step into the forefront and deliver.
Borkan is still recovering from surgery on her shoulder. She is starting to do beam routines and has made progress toward a full recovery. Rosie Smith had a scary crash on vault against Arkansas and has hurt her hand and her ankle as a result of that fall. Both Lindsey Montross and Teenie Beck are suffering from pulled groin muscles. They are doing everything they can to try to get back to full speed, but training has been a challenge. Melissa Klein hurt her foot in the Michigan meet and still has not trained since then. We are hoping to get her back soon, but we don't want to push too hard and risk prolonging her injury. Danielle Hover is nursing a similar problem with her foot, but it is not as serious as Mel's injury and we hope she bounces right back. Casey Rohrbaugh has a pulled an abdominal muscle and that has slowed her down in her training. We are planning on changing her floor passes to try to boost her score. The way we have her tumbling arranged, it is just not working so we are exploring other options that may help her maximize her scoring ability. Alex hurt her ankle in the Michigan meet and is still not fully recovered. She was a real trooper in Arkansas when we needed her on floor and vault. She had not trained the week before and she came through well. She is still struggling with her two salto pass and only scored a 9.2 because she left it out during her floor routine. She has the ability to be a top scorer on floor for us and we are going to get her up to speed this week. Brandi is nursing a hurt knee but we are hopeful that she will continue to be able to train and that it will go away soon. I know we are not the only team dealing with injuries and that it is a huge part of a team's success at this level. No excuses, just the facts. We will continue to fight the good fight and we will persevere. It is just really frustrating to know how much better we can be when we get healthy.
The Arkansas meet was a battle!! We had to fight for every tenth during that meet and even though we lost, the team grew as a result of the experience. This adversity is making us stronger and we will be better from it. We have WVU at home this weekend and we will do everything in our power to be ready for them.
January 13, 2008
Last night we had our first meet. During warmups Rosie Smith went down with a hyper-extended knee. We kept her out of the lineup because of it, and the back-ups had to come through. We have preached over and over to them about the importance of the back-up role. They need to be ready if called on and they were called on!
We started on floor where we were very good for our first meet. We competed two full ins, (one piked, one tucked), and a double layout, for first passes. Casey started with a 2.5 twist, punch front, and had no landing deductions until her last pass. She ended with a 3.0 full twist; that was her only deduction on landing. When she straightens it out she is capable of 9.9. Brandi was the highlight of the floor line up with a 9.9 score and a performance to match that score!! Alex was called on as the back up on floor. She did a great job. That girl demands your attention when she is doing her floor routine!! Mel and T did great also. Mel said afterward that was the first time competing her piked full in that she felt ready to go. It was huge and she had a real nice landing as well. We missed Rosie on floor since she has been tearin' it up in the gym. Aslynn had a great routine also and we ended up scoring a 49.025 which we were happy with.
We took that momentum into vault. Travis is the go-to coach for vault and the girls didn't disappoint him. Mel went in as our back up, and competed a watered down Y layout since her half is not quite ready, and we didn't think we needed to take any chances. She did great. The rest of the vault line up performed very well for our first time on the hard surface. Rosie handled her injury with courage and deflected the attention off of her and back onto the team. Brandi competed her Y 1.5 and landed it fairly well. She did great for her first time on the hard and choosing not to water down but go for it!! Our main deductions on vault must have been dynamics and form because our landings were pretty decent with two stuck landings.
Next we rotated to bars. Danielle Hover had to go in for Rosie. She handled it well considering that she didn't make anything in warm ups and was very nervous. We took out her sole circle catch high since we wanted to keep it simple for her so she could hit. I was very proud of how she handled herself other than her warm up AAAAGGGHHH! Alex won bars with a pretty routine with a sweet pak salto and a giant 1.5 pirouette to immediate Tkatchev. It rocked!!! T had a bit of trouble with her dismount and stumbled forward. She didn't do her full out dismount since it is not consistent enough in practice. She is capable of putting up a big score here and as she develops she will do it. Brandi changed her routine around from last year and is doing a giant full to a Geinger and then a giant half to a shoot hand. It is much simpler for her and more bonus. Now that's great coaching. Thanks to Travis for thinking of that change. Casey did a good routine for herself. She will upgrade her dismount to include a giant full before her double. She was clean and stuck her dismount so that was fun to have her in there after not making the line up all last year. Montross did a good job. She did blind pike yeager to a pak salto, half pirouette to a sole circle catch high, then ended with a blind to a double front dismount. It was very nice and she will be able to stick her landing.
Next was beam. Jess has done a great job getting these athletes to believe in themselves. They were ready, and Heather Mac had to go in for Rosie. She hit with a solid performance. She is capable of doing even better and she is motivated to do it. Both Brandi and Alex fell. Casey had a major wobble and our best performances came form our freshmen! Way to go Froshies!!
All In all it was a positive start to our much anticipated beginning. We have work to do, and we need to raise our standards in practice. The kids are motivated, and we can't wait for Michigan this weekend. Hope to see you in Rec Hall. For those of you who have the Big Ten Network you will be able to watch the meet on a tape delay basis. The date of that broadcast will be on our web site. When we are not on TV we will be webcasting our home meets over the web site.
October 22, 2007
This past weekend the team volunteered to help at the Steps to Safety run for the Women's Resource Center. The run was a fundraiser to help with the center. The center provides many services for women who are in abusive relationships, or who have suffered sexual trauma or rape. Our team actually has some ties to the center. Dana Cuomo a 2003 grad works at the center, and my wife Debbie is on the board of directors. We thought this was a very worthy cause and did our part in helping at the fundraiser. The entire Women's Lacrosse team ran in the race as well as some of the golf team. There were a total of over 300 runners. The resource center raised some money and it was a great day for a run. The weather was gorgeous, about 75 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. I would like our team to do as much as possible getting out in the community to help with causes such as this. There are numerous opportunities in our community and we are planning on doing more of this.
The team continues to progress well into the preseason. We are currently doing bar routines without dismounts, and working separate skills that need additional work. We are getting more consistent and able to get through routines. Casey Rohrbaugh is learning a double front dismount and is progressing well. She is ready to take it onto a harder surface. She has also re-learned a Shushonova on Bars (full twisting reverse Hecht) (AKA "Burrito roll"). The last person we had competing that skill was Jada Hiltebrand back in 1992. Casey is doing it really well and will help out our bar line-up. Dani is learning a double layout dismount and is starting to get it. Heather Mac is looking good and is cleaning up her form. I have been making her do her blind changes with her big toes tied together with pre-wrap. It is helping her keep her legs together.
On beam the girls are doing full routines without dismounts yet. They are looking good and continue to increase their consistency. Mel is working a flic lay lay series and is gaining more confidence on it. They are doing lots of numbers and will be strong on beam.
Vaulting is going well also. We have Brandi doing Y1.5 onto the resi with an 8in mat over it. Rosie continues to do her Y 1/2 , Casey is doing a Y1/1. Alex is doing a Y1/1 and Aslynn is doing her Y1/2, Teenie is doing a Y1/1 and working her Y1.5 into the pit with mats. Mel is trying to learn a pike front ½ , and Dani is trying to learn a pike. Dani is very powerful but struggles with piking early. If we can teach her to finish her handspring before she starts to flip it will be great. We had a setback two weeks ago when Lindsey Montross landed wrong on a Y1/1 and hurt her knee. She sprained her medial collateral ligament and is out of action for a few weeks.
Floor is going well also. The girls are doing routines with layouts for their first two passes and then doing their last pass. They are also working their other passes in the pit and some of them on the competitive surface. Brandi will open with either a double layout or a pike full in. Aslynn will do either a double layout or a tuck full in. Teenie will do a double Arabian, a 1.5 punch front full and a double pike last pass. Casey is trying to switch up the order of her passes with a triple full second pass and end with a double pike. She will continue to do her 2.5 punch front first pass. Mel will open with a pike full in and double pike last pass. Rosie is recovering well from Mono that she had during the summer. Her strength is getting better and she is increasing her fitness so she can train harder. Alex is working hard working on her technique for her double backs. Heather Mac is getting her skills back after not tumbling all summer due to a high ankle sprain. Endurance is looking good as they continue to train hard.
Lindsay Borkan had surgery on her shoulder to repair a torn labrum. She is progressing well and conditioning very hard in the gym everyday.
We will have our first inter-squad on Nov. 10th in the practice gym with as much difficulty as we can perform safely.
September 21, 2007
Hello from "Happy Valley". I love fall and the excitement of a new year, and a new challenge. The team has been training since August 27th. We are using our 8 hours per week of conditioning and working out in the gym voluntarily. The new freshmen include Kristina Beck, Heather McElwee, Melissa Klein, Meghan Shanfelter, and Danielle Hover.
Our schedule is M, W, F strength at 7:00am. M, & F are in the weight room, and Wed. in the gymnastics gym. Tuesday afternoon we do a plyo circuit, and Thursday at 7:00am we do a spinning class. I do the spinning class with them, and I tell the instructor that her goal is to make it so hard that I can't keep up. So I have been working very hard trying to keep up with these youngsters! I enjoy the hard work, and sweating with my team. I tell them that they better not get outworked by a 51 year old!!!
Voluntary workouts have been good in the gym, stressing major elements, and identifying what will be in their routines. We have also had a number of goal setting meetings, and have talked a lot about team building, and team unity. The team is bonding together, and they are having fun working out and getting to know each other.
We are all looking forward to the Football game this weekend against Michigan. We better bring our "A" game to the Wolverines. It is such a great rivalry between our two schools!! Not just football but gymnastics as well!! They beat us last year at the Big Ten championships by .1 and the team is going to do everything in their power not to let that happen again. It is a huge motivating force for our team.
We saw many of our Alums on the Notre Dame weekend and it was great to see all of them again. Amie O is working in NYC as a media buyer, and living with Gena Shingle. Gena is auditioning for acting parts and is working with the Hoboken Theater. They have an apartment in Hoboken NJ. Michelle Ilg is working in NJ. Corissa Pirkl is working for Target in their marketing department, and living at home on Long Island. Lisa Clark is working as a para legal and trying to save enough for her own place. Steph Sullivan is going to Hershey Medical School, and is very busy preparing to save the world from disease and poverty. Meredith Hoover is doing Teach for America in Philly, and will get her masters after she is done with the program. Jen Orlando is still here in State College working for the "Spikes" minor league baseball team as a marketing director. Ashley Mehrer is living in Chattanooga Tenn. And wasn't able to make it back yet. She is working as an actuary for Unum Insurance. We are so proud of how well they are all doing!!
Read below for posts from previous seasons!
April 6, 2007
Well another Big Ten Championship has gone by. WOW is all I can say!! What a meet. It was a great learning experience for our team. The crowd was awesome with over 3,000 in attendance. The official count was 2,729 but I know more people came in that were unaccounted for. The meet came down to a tenth of a point. We were so close but again finished second to Michigan. It was heartbreaking to come so close and come away with a second place finish again! I have to hand it to Michigan however, they did the job and we were a bit off in places. We didn¡¯t count a fall but when it is that close every person on the team is looking at themselves in the mirror and thinking about that one tenth!! We will use as a source of motivation to do what we need to do to have a great regional meet and qualify for the NCAA¡¯s! The team is primed and ready to go.
We had a major blow at the Big Ten¡¯s when we lost Amie Olaes to a torn ACL. She landed her bar dismount perfectly and her knee just couldn¡¯t take the impact. She still stuck the landing and scored a 9.85. What a hero!!
Right now our focus is to keep the team sharp and not lose focus on our goals. I¡¯m giving them the weekend off for Easter to give them an opportunity to spend some family time and a much needed rest. All is well in Happy Valley and we can¡¯t wait to have a great meet in Denver.
March 21, 2007
Our trip to Arizona went very well. It is a long journey for us to get all the way out to Tucson, but we managed to have a smooth time getting there. We flew into Phoenix and drove from there. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Tucson from Phoenix. As we were driving into Tucson I noticed a Navy Fighter jet flying low. It had the markings of the Blue Angels on the wings. When we got to the hotel it turns out that the Blue Angels were staying in our hotel, and putting on a show that weekend. We got a chance to meet some of the pilots and had a chat with them in the hotel. I got to watch the show from my balcony. It was very impressive. They have all served in combat and are true American heroes!!
The meet went very well for us in spite of the fact that we sounded like we should be in a TB ward with all the illness that the team was suffering from. We started on floor and were a bit off with our landings. We still managed to score well, but we had lots of room for improvement. Vault went well, but our warm up vaults were better than our competitive vaults. Both Rosie and Aslynn stuck in warm ups. I joked with the judge that I wanted to count their warm up vaults instead! Rosie¡¯s vault in warm ups could¡¯ve gotten a 10.0 It was awesome. Brandi successfully competed her Y1.5 again! When she finally sticks it, it will score big!! Bars went very well for us, but we still didn¡¯t stick every dismount, but our execution is getting better. Katie Perret was stellar! She set a new school record for us with a 9.975. I joked with the judge ¡°can¡¯t you find it in your heart to give her that .05 back?¡± The one judge flashed a 10.0 then changed it to a 9.95. It was a great routine. I don¡¯t think the judges fully appreciate how hard it is to do the ¡°Perret¡± aka a Khorkina from an Invert. Katie is really starting to get some flight on it now. We ended on beam and Arizona was right on our heels. The score was 147.575 to 147.225 going into the final rotation. We knew we had to be good on beam and we were!! Everyone stayed on and not only that but there were very few bobbles or lack of sureness. The final score was 196.825 to 196.65. Both teams had good meets!! This weekend we end our regular season at home, then we host the Big Ten Championship on March 31st. See you in Rec Hall!!!
March 6, 2007
The trip to Maryland was not what we had hoped for. Although we came away with a win we still made some mistakes that cost us in our team score. We started on bars with Lindsay Borkan. She hit a nice routine and one judge gave her a 9.8 and the other gave her a 9.5. These types of discrepancies are very frustrating for us as coaches. The judging continues to be very subjective in spite of our best efforts to increase the accountability and the objective measures to increase consistency. We also found out that the judges are still taking distribution deductions in spite of the fact that we tried to standardize this open ended deduction with our ¡°up to the level¡± composition guidelines. Consequently even though a gymnast may be ¡°up to the level¡± by the NCAA standards, an athlete can still receive a composition deduction for a routine going downhill if the difficulty is not distributed evenly throughout the exercise. We ran into this on floor when one of our athletes did a front full front layout combination for her last pass after doing two double backs, one tucked, and one piked. The potential is there for a judge to give an athlete a flat .1 deduction for not being up to the level, and another up to .2 for not distributing her difficulty through out the exercise. This problem will be magnified at the championship meets when the judges are looking for ways to separate the athletes based on composition and difficulty. We have changed some of our floor routines to cover ourselves from this deduction. Brandi will now end with her double pike, and Rosie will end with a double tuck. The rest of our line up already finish with double backs, so we should be OK. I wonder how many other teams will be surprised by these deductions at Regionals?!!!
Back to the meet against Maryland. Lindsay ended up with a 9.6, which put pressure on the other kids to really hit. Both Alex, and Montross had mistakes. Montross dragged her legs on her glide after her Pak salto, and Alex missed a cast hand pirouette. Everyone else hit but we need to stick dismounts and get those all important handstands!!
We performed well on vault with Allie Southard competing in the line up for the first time. She scored a 9.825 with a nice vault. I replaced Katie P. since she had a rough warm up and seemed to be out of sorts with her vault. It¡¯s nice to have the kind of depth that allows us to have someone else step in with a nice score.
Floor went very well except Allie Southard¡¯s double Arabian. She landed in a deep squat which cost her. Fortunately we didn¡¯t have to count her score. Brandi and Rosie both handled doing double back last pass very well. On beam we ran into some trouble as well. Borkan started us off with a hit set. Casey followed with a nice solid routine, for a respectable 9.85. Allie Southard fell on her series, followed by Katie P who hit a nice routine for a 9.9. Next up was Brandi who fell on her series. She still scored a 9.4, but we had to count it. Steph ended the rotation with a very solid 9.9. Again the mistakes cost us being able to max out our score which is very frustrating.
I gave the girls the rest of the weekend off to try to get caught up with their schoolwork since we will be missing Thursday, and Friday when we travel to LSU. We will train M, T, W, and this week focusing on the mental side of things to get the team to hit when it counts!!
The picture is of Alayna, a young fan who came to see us and she wanted her picture taken with the team. Alayna is a budding gymnast and I think her mom wanted to help motivate her to continue in the sport. She was very cute and loved having her photo taken with the team.
Alayna, a young fan, with the team.
Feb. 20, 2007
This weekend¡¯s win against Michigan was a milestone for our team. Our focus, however, continues to be the maximization of our team¡¯s potential and the development of quality routines that have no deductions. We still gave away four tenths on bar dismounts, and four tenths on vault landings and about four tenths in beam wobbles. I have been telling the team all along that I believe we are a legitimate mid-196 team. When you have 10.0 start value and you perform with finesse, and no execution deductions, you can¡¯t be denied a score, unless the judges are biased against you. Since we have no control over the judges, and their preconceived ideas of what constitutes good gymnastics, all we can do is perform our routines to the best of our ability. I have always preached to the team not to judge their performance based on what they have scored, or whether you win or lose, but base your evaluation against what you normally do in practice. If your routine was better than what you do in practice, then celebrate, regardless of what the judges gives you. If, on the other hand, you perform at a lower level than what you do in practice, then we go back to the gym and try to figure out how to get the athlete to do it like they do it in practice. It is that simple, but also a challenge to get everyone to do that!! Our focus has always been on the process, not the outcome. If you are focused on the process the result is usually a routine that you can be proud of. Let the outcome take care of itself. Ultimately, the only thing you have control over is your performance. That is our focus going into our next couple of meets. Perform up to the level that each athlete is capable of!! Good things will happen if we can do that!!
Feb. 5, 2007
This weekend went better than the last couple. We headed to West Virginia to take on Kent State, GW, WVU, and Wilson College. We traveled down by bus the morning of the meet. This was a new itinerary for us, since we normally go the night before, stay in a hotel, and then compete the next day. We wanted to try this since it is such a short drive (3 Hrs) and the team didn¡¯t have to miss class on Friday. The team seemed to handle this well, and it didn¡¯t seem to affect us in any negative way.
The past week in practice was really good. The team was ready, and fired up to redeem ourselves after having sub-par meets at home. I guess the change of venue was good for the team. We competed in Olympic order, and our vaulters did OK. Alex was our only stuck vault, and we had one fall. Brandi warmed up her 1.5 Y but didn¡¯t make any, so we decided to just do a full. She blasted a great one and could¡¯ve easily made her 1.5.
On bars we were fairly solid, with a few minor flaws. Our anchor Katie Perret missed her Higgins on her first try and had to jump down. She started over and made everything the second try but had to settle for a 9.2. Our top bars scorer was Alex Brockway. She did a near perfect set and stuck her dismount for a 9.85. I had to have a chat with the meet ref after that to make sure the scores didn¡¯t escalate. I told her that if there were any 9.9s they better be superior to Alex¡¯s routine. Alex ended up winning bars and the scores stayed in line.
Beam was solid for us. We finally scored a 49+ and didn¡¯t count a fall. Both Alex and Katie P were a bit off. They had a couple of big bobbles and both of them scored 9.6 and 9.675 respectively. Steph Sullivan came up with a great routine as our anchor. She scored a 9.925. Brandi P. was solid for a 9.85, and both Borkan and Casey R. scored 9.8 and 9.825 respectively.
Floor proved to be a bit of an issue again. Ash started us off with a solid set although she was a bit of axis on her jumps at one point and had a bit of a stumble. She scored 9.775. Borkan did a nice routine and scored a 9.825. She has been such a trooper working through her pain. Alex tried her new tumbling for the first time this meet. We took out her 2.5 twist for her second pass since it was a knee injury waiting to happen. She never made it all the way around on the twist and tweaked her knee once already on that pass. We are working on a double front first pass but it is not ready yet so we are going with a double tuck first pass and a double pike second pass. She had a bit of trouble landing her second pass and took a big stumble forward. She still managed to get a 9.6. Rosie Smith did great on her first two passes, but then bailed out on her front full front layout combo, and watered it down to a tuck front. She still scored a 9.85 and was our top scorer on floor. She has improved her presentation a great deal, but we still need more smiling from her!! Casey Rohrbaugh fell on her 2.5 punch front and only got a 9.25. Brandi went OOB on her double pike second pass and only scored a 9.7.
All in all it was a better performance, but we are still not reaching our potential. As I told the team after the meet, ¡°Well, I guess we¡¯re not peaking yet." This may be a good thing to still have some work to do, but I really want to see improvement on floor and vault. I also want to challenge this group to be more mentally, and physically tough. We need to see some fire from this group!!!! They are talented, but they need to get tough!!
Jan. 30, 2007
Our last couple of meets have been very frustrating for us. All of us know that our performance has not been up to the level we are capable of. We have counted falls and made uncharacteristic errors. This team has resolved to do whatever is necessary to be ready to compete at the level we need to be. This team has all 10.0 start values on every event. We meet all the requirements for being ¡°up to the level¡±. The thing we need to focus on is presentation, execution, and amplitude. I tell the team all the time, in the words of my mentor Bill Meade, ¡°it¡¯s not what you do; it¡¯s how you do it¡±!!! (Bill would also throw in a few choice colorful words to get his point across). I truly believe that when we polish things up, and hit 24/24, we can be a force to be reckoned with. It has been a challenge for us as a coaching staff to pick the line up. We have looked foolish in every meet so far when our exhibition athletes outscore those we chose to be in the line up. Once we solidify line up spots, and come up with the right combination of athletes who can do the job, we can be very good. I think we are capable of starting with a 9.8 and building from there. Our freshmen are continuing to make the adjustment to the increased expectations that they are feeling as Division I athletes. We will continue to work hard, and push each other to perform up to the level we are capable of. We have West Virginia this weekend and we are looking to make a statement!!!
Jan. 8, 2007
Our first meet was down in Arkansas against Florida, Nebraska, LSU, Denver, and Arkansas, at the Super Six Challenge. It was a very exciting way to start the year off with a very competitive field, and national TV coverage by ESPN2. The meet will be televised on Jan 14th at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The team performed well, for our first meet. There were some mistakes by the freshmen, but overall they did a nice job. We started on a bye which was nice since we didn't have to "warm up" the judges. Our first event was Floor. We started out with Casey Rohrbaugh. She was a bit sloppy but stayed on her feet for a 9.575. Her last pass is a triple full and she was a bit shy of completing the twist and took a step forward. Next up was Alex Brockway. She mounted with a double pike and had a nice landing. Her second pass is a 2 1/2 twist. She is a bit sloppy on it, but made the landing OK. She ends with a frt. Full punch pike and made that nicely. She scored a 9.725. Next was Brandi Personett. She mounted with a nice piked full in, and nailed her double pike second pass. She ended with a frt. full, frt layout, and it was performed well. She earned a 9.825. Next was Lindsey Montross. We had watered her down to start with a double pike instead of her double Arabian. She did it well, and made her 2&1/2 punch front for her second pass, but fell and went out of bounds on her double tuck last pass. She got a 9.0. Next was Corissa Pirkl. She was doing great until she "boinked" her landing on her second pass, a double pike, and stepped out of bounds. That mistake cost us since she only scored a 9.525. Last up was Ashley Mehrer. She hit her routine and scored a 9.65. I thought she was underscored a bit, but what can you do?
Our next event was Vault. We started with Ashley Mehrer who competed her pike front half for the first time. She scored a 9.5. Her chest was a bit low on her landing but I was just happy she stayed on her feet for the first time competing that vault. Next was Casey Rohrbaugh. She performed a layout Y 1/1. It was pretty good considering this was her first time on the hard competitive surface, and she had a terrible warm up only making one to her feet. She managed a 9.675. Alex was next with a Y 1/1 layout. It was a nice vault with a small hop on her landing. She had good amplitude and decent body position in the air. She scored a 9.725. Rosie Smith was our top score on vault with a 9.775. She did a layout Y 1/1 and had good amplitude, but her main deduction was probably her leg form at the end of her twist. Corissa Pirkl took a small step on her layout Y, and scored a 9.75. Brandi Personett performed a layout Y1/1. She had landed hard in warm ups, so her landing in the meet was pretty painful, and she took a big step to the side. She scored a 9.65. We can do much better on vault and we will now that we have our first meet under our belts. It is always a shocker to land vaults in a meet since we don't train on the hard surface during preseason.
Next we went to bars. We hit 6/6 on bars but still had some little mistakes. It was great to see Amie Olaes hit a routine on bars for the first time competing in a long time. She scored a 9.8. She has made a great comeback from a great deal of adversity so far in her Penn State career. Borkan started us off with a solid routine for a 9.725. It was nice to see her do so well! Brandi Personett hit her routine for a 9.8. She has been working very hard to make the line up and she was a solid performer for the team. Lindsey Montross did well. The only problem was her Pak salto was a bit far from the low bar, and she hit her heels on her glide but fought hard to finish. She scored a 9.775. Alex was cruising along until the last giant full going into her dismount when she missed her hand a bit a broke form with her legs. She still salvaged a 9.8 out of it and can do even better next time. Our anchor was Corissa Pirkl. She did a great job nailing everything and scoring a 9.875!!
We had to finish the meet on beam. First up was Corissa Pirkl. She performed a flawless routine, scoring a 9.725. I thought that score was a bit low for her, but I think they hit her on amplitude. She had no wobbles and looked great up there. Next to compete was Ashley Mehrer. She was a bit tentative and had a few unsure skills, but she stayed on and went 9.65. Next up was Brandi P. She did a great job, scoring 9.8. Not bad for her first college meet! Casey Rohrbaugh went next, and fell on her kick over front. Now it was up to Borkan, and Steph to save the day. So far we weren't counting a fall and the pressure was on!! Borkan hit very well and ended up with a 9.75. Now it was up to Steph to be a leader and be a hitter. She was doing great until she stumbled a bit on her leap pass. She made her series and her front aerial very well but the bobble cost her. She scored a 9.725.
All in all it was a good meet. We have lots of room for improvement especially on vault and floor. We will work hard this week to gain more confidence and correct the mistakes. We will also have Katie Perret back in the line up so we are hoping that will be a help. We have Arkansas at home this Saturday night. I hope to see a lot of fans come out to support the team. Go Lions!!!!
Nov. 27, 2006
We had our first intersquad on Friday 11-17-06. We call it "Turk-O-Weenie" because we traditionally have it between Thanksgiving and Halloween. We have skits and it is something the team really looks forward to. They usually go all out and try to out-do the coaches, but I think the coaches pulled out all the stops this year. Jess, Jamie and I did a spoof of the Spartan Cheerleader Saturday Night live skit. We dressed up in cheerleader outfits and did our own rendition of the Spartan cheerleaders. It was quite humorous. I'm willing to make a complete idiot out of myself for a good laugh anytime. Jess was sooo funny as well with her spunky imitation!!
The team performed very well during the serious part of the actual gymnastics. We divided the team into two squads and did full routines with some modifications on floor and vault landing on soft surfaces, but other than that they did full routines.
Jess and I "judged" the girls and our top performers were as follows:
Vault:
Brandi Personett- 9.85
Aslynn Satterfield- 9.75
Rosie Smith- 9.75
Katie Perret- 9.7
Alex Brockway 9.7
Bars:
Corissa Pirkl 9.85
Katie Perret- 9.8
Alex Brockway 9.75
Lindsay Borkan 9.75
Lindsey Montross 9.7
Beam:
Brandi Personett-9.85
Casey Rohrbaugh- 9.75
Corissa Pirkl- 9.8
Ashley Mehrer- 9.7
Lindsay Borkan- 9.65
Floor:
Aslynn Satterfield- 9.8
Ashley Mehrer- 9.8
Lindsay Borkan- 9.75
Brandi Personett- 9.7
Alex Brockway-9.7
All in all they performed well. We hit 36/44 routines, and are making good progress toward being ready for our first meet. We still have some work to do with our tumbling to get onto the hard surface, and that will be one of our major goals over the next four weeks of practice. We are keeping the girls here until Dec. 21st. Then we return for practice Dec. 27th. This next phase of practice is a critical phase and we will try to be smart in what we expect from the girls as they finish the semester. Right now we feel very good about the future of this team!!
Nov. 1, 2006
We are in full swing with our preseason practices. The team has been working very hard. We have had one week of official practice and the team is looking good. On vault we are doing timers up high, layouts on the resi pit with a mat, and competitive vaults in the foam pit with a mat up to floor level. Here is the rundown:
Vault:
Corissa Pirkl, tucked Y 540, and layout Y 180
Ashley Mehrer, Piked front, and piked front 180
Lindsay Borkan, Layout Y 180
Alexandra Brockway, Layout Y 360
Allie Southard, Layout Y 180
Lindsey Montross, Layout Y 360
Katie Perret, Layout Y 360
Brandi Personett, Layout Y 360, Layout Y 540
Casey Rohrbaugh, Layout Y 360
Aslynn Satterfield, Layout Y 180, Layout Y 540
Rosie Smith, Layout Y 180, Layout Y 360, Layout Y 540
Bars:
Corissa Pirkl, Blind, healy, frt. Giant, half pirouette to Geinger. Shoot half to handstand, Double lay dismount
Lindsay Borkan, Half pirouette Shoot half handstand, Lohman to high bar. Inside Geinger, kip cast, giant, 360 double tuck
Alex Brockway, Giant 540 to Tkatchev, Pak salto, half pirouette on low bar, Giant 360 double pike.
Lindsey Montross, Stalder 180 to Jaeger, Pak slato, half pirouette, sole circle shoot to high bar, blind , healy double front
Amie Olaes, Straddle over mount, uprise, Takatchev, straddle back. Sole circle shoot to high bar, Giant 360 two giants double lay.
Katie Perret, Straddle over mount, Higgins Invert to the¡Ã«Perret¡Ã« ( Khorkina from El grip) Starddle back, sole circle shoot to high bar, Two giants, double lay.
Brandi Personett, Giant 540 to shoot half handstand, sole circle shoot to high bar, Giant 360, Geinger, Two giants double lay
Casey Rohrbaugh, Blind to piked Jaeger, kip cast, giant to shoot half handstand, sole circle shoot to high bar. Two giants, 360 double tuck.
Allie Southard, Giant 360 Tkatchev, Straddle back, kip cast giant, double Arabian dismount
Stephanie Sullivan, Kip cast 180 pirouette on high bar, Giant 360 to Tkatchev, straddle back, Uprise giant 180, layout front 540 dismount
Rosie Smith, Toe shoot handstand on low bar to Shaposhnikova, kip cast, Tkatchev,kip cast to shoot half, kip cast, giant 360, double tuck.
Beam:
Steph Sullivan: Silivas mount; flip-flop to layout step out; switch side leap; cat leap to front aerial; full turn; switch leap to straddle jump; beat jump to ring double stag jump turn; gainer layout 1/1 to side dismount
Corissa Pirkl: jump to straddle handstand mount; flip-flop to layout step out; straddle jump to straddle jump to tuck; jump 1/1; switch leap to back tuck; full turn; wolf jump 1/1; cartwheel gainer layout 1/1 to side dismount
Katie Perret: jump ? turn to shoulder stand; front aerial to wolf jump; flip-flop to layout step out; straddle jump to straddle jump to beat jump; rear stag ring jump; full turn; round-off double full dismount
Ashley Mehrer: front tuck to wolf jump mount; flip-flop layout step out; switch leap to flip-flop swing down; kick-over front to beat jump; switch leap to beat jump; full turn; gainer layout 1/1 to side dismount
Lindsay Borkan: jump to sit mount; round-off to 2 foot layout; straddle jump to straddle jump to tuck jump 1 1/4; front tuck to beat jump or front tuck w/1/2 turn; full turnl round-off 1 ? or round-off double tuck dismount
Brandi Personett: jump turning split to sit mount; gainer layout; flip-flop to flip-flop 1 arm to layout step out; full turn; switch leap to popa; flip-flop 1 ? dismount
Casey Rohrbaugh: straddle over mount; flip-flop 2 foot to layout step out; full turn; switch leap to straddle jump to beat jump; kick over front to wolf jump; round-off double full or round-off double back dismount
Alex Brockway: jump on mount; flip-flop to layout step out; standing front tuck to wolf jump; split jump 1/1; switch leap to tuck jump 1/1; front aerial to beat jump; round-off double full dismount
Rosie Smith: straddle sit mount; flip-flop to layout step out; front tuck to wolf jump; switch leap to pike jump; full turn; tuck jump to wolf jump 1/1; front handspring to front layout dismount
Allie Southard: handstand to roll mount; flip-flop to layout step out to layout step out; switch leap to tuck jump 1/1; split jump 1/1; full turn; round-off double full dismount
Lindsey Montross: straddle over mount; flip-flop to layout step out; switch leap to wolf jump 1/1; front tuck to beat jump; switch leap to straddle jump; gainer layout 1/1 to side dismount
Floor:
Brandi Personett: Double layout, double pike, Front full, front layout
Corissa Pirkl: Double Arabian, whip double tuck, whip half front double
Lindsay Borkan: Whip double layout, whip half rudi, Double pike
Ashley Mehrer: Double layout, Front layout , front full, front layout, Brani immediate back layout 540
Alex Brockway: Double pike, layout 900, front full front layout
Lindsey Montross: Double Arabian, Layout 900 punch front, Double tuck
Katie Perret: Front 720, Layout 1260, back 900
Amie Olaes: Double pike, whip half front rudi, double tuck
Casey Rohrbaugh: Tuck full in, Rudi immediate layout, Back layout 1260
Aslynn Satterfield: Double layout, Rudi immediate layout, Full in
Allie Southard: Double Arabian, Back layout 900, Front full front layout
Steph Sullivan: Double pike, Front layout front full, Double full
Rosie Smith: Double pike, Front handspring double tuck, Front full front layout
Oct. 16, 2006
This past weekend we had several alumni back in town for the Michigan football game. Although the outcome of the game was disappointing, the time spent with the Alumni was very fun. The alums who came back here: Nikki Smith (class of 2000), who is now teaching school near Frederick, Md. She is married and coaching gymnastics at the local club in Frederick. Maria Taylor (class of 2001) just got married this summer and is living in Atlanta, Ga. Gemma Cuff (class of 2001) came all the way from England and she is recently married as well, and is a physician in Loughborough, England. Leslie Bair is married and living near Baltimore and working at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Sarah Dipasquale is living in Pittsburgh and working for a major food company. She was a food science major, and also still puts together our floor music. Katie Rowland is living in the Washington, D.C., area and is working at a law office. Jen Orlando and Meredith Hoover are both living here in Happy Valley. Jen is working at a local bank and Meredith is working here at Penn state. Michelle Ilg is studying for her financial advising test ¨C I believe she called it her series 7 test? She is living in Jersey and is single. Kate Stopper also came back and is living in West Chester, Pa. Kate is going to grad school for her masters in secondary education counseling. Kate is working with the housing office at West Chester and is getting her schooling paid for. She was on the cast of the movie ¡°Stick It¡± this past summer but is also studying to make sure she has a steady gig.
We had a nice time tailgating before the football game. Jess and I put together a nice spread for everyone. My wife Debbie made some great chili and everyone got plenty to eat. All in all it was a great weekend. It is so nice to see the former team members all doing so well!
The current team is also doing well. My next report will be a breakdown of what all the girls are working on.
With Penn State Pride,
Steve
Sept. 25, 2006
It is hard to believe that September is almost over!! It is such an exciting time of the year when the fresh faces of the new team members arrive on campus. We have six new athletes on the team, and eight returning. We have had individual and team meetings so far, and everyone is on board with the goals of the program. We want to win the Big Ten Championship at home. We want to qualify for a berth in the Super Six at the end of the year. We all realize these are high goals but the entire team is committed to doing everything in our power to make them a reality. We have a very talented group this year, and I believe we could surprise some people. The question marks at this point are, "who can we count on when the meet is on the line?" "Who can handle the big time pressure that we are going to face on the way to reaching our goals??" "Who is going to step up and do everything in their power both in and out of the gym to make our dreams a reality?" and "How much of a factor will injuries play this year?"
The girls have been conditioning hard and doing drills and skills in the gym up to this point. We have been doing strength Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and doing some form of cardio on Tuesday and Thursday. It has been challenging but so far everyone is fired up to push each other.
We have posted some new photos in our Gallery, and we now have last year's highlight video on our home page.
Stay tuned for more updates!
With "Penn State Pride,"
Steve
? Click here to read the 2005-2006 "From The Vault" with Steve Shephard!!
? Click here to read the 2004-2005 "From The Vault" with Steve Shephard!!