UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Melissa Astarita read notes of positive affirmations from her teammates on the team bus, hours before competing in her first meet for No. 27 Penn State against No. 5 Utah at the Jon M. Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on January 5, 2019.
Astarita, a freshman, and her teammates wrote a positive affirmation for each athlete on the team while riding to the arena and once they were finished writing the notes, they handed them out to one another.
When Astarita received the affirmations written about her, she read each one. She said the notes made her feel better and confident, knowing she had her teammates support.
However, even though she knew she had her teammates support, Astarita was still a little nervous.
Astarita found out that she would be in the lineup from talking with Penn State head coach Sarah Brown before a practice leading up to the meet versus Utah and had mixed feelings.
"At first I was really excited and then I was like 'Oh my God' I'm actually doing this and there was definitely nerves but knowing I had my team and the coaches supporting me definitely made it a lot easier," Astarita said.
When Astarita walked into the Huntsman Center, the seats were empty. Although there were no fans sitting in the stands yet, Astarita was shocked by how big the building was. Once the arena started filling up with fans and she began her warmup, Astarita said she felt like she was in a little bubble with her teammates and coaches, which helped her focus.
Brown walked over to Astarita during her warmup for vault after noticing her nerves and offered her words of encouragement.
"'Hey you're fine, you got this, this is where you shine, you're good' and I told her to enjoy the environment because I know that it was rare to compete in front of 13,000 people," Brown said on her quick words to her freshman.
Prior to the Utah meet and start of the 2019 season, Astarita trained throughout the fall during preseason to prepare for the season. From conditioning to lifts to other workouts, she worked to try to get into the lineup and although the training was "hard", it helped her get ready to do her routines.
What stood out to Brown from watching Astarita during the fall, was how powerful she was. From observing Astarita's power during preseason and her skill as a gymnast, Brown said she knew vault and floor would be the first two events Astarita made an impact on. However, Astarita showed Brown that she could do more during preseason.
"The thing that surprised me the most was that she really shows a ton of potential on bars and beam as well so I would hope throughout her career we would continue to add events to her repertoire," Brown said.
While Astarita prepared for the 2019 season, she also participated in various team activities.
This past Halloween, Astarita and her teammates competed in a Halloween themed Intrasquad meet where the upperclassmen dressed up as senior citizens and the underclassmen dressed up as babies. On December 17th, 2018 Astarita and the team visited Ms. Maines' fourth grade class at Bellefonte Elementary School where they talked with the students and answered their questions. Later that day, Astarita competed in the team's Blue-White Intrasquad meet at Rec Hall, before wrapping presents with teammates for Toys for Tots.
All of those activities both in and out of the gym helped prepare her for the start of the season that counts.
"I think that also made us feel closer, going in there and doing a nice team activity and it was nice to help out," Astarita said.
With her teammates and coaches looking on and about 13,000 fans in the Huntsman Center, Astarita collected a 9.725 on vault, which was matched by senior teammate Gianna LaGuardia and tied them for eighth. Astarita then tallied a 9.650 on her floor routine, which placed her in eighth.
Although Penn State came up short versus Utah, Astarita gained experience from competing in a tough environment that she can use moving forward.
"I feel like I did well in the first meet but I know I can still do better," Astarita said. "I was a little nervous so I just want to put it all out there a little more and go in a little calmer now."
The calm that Astarita wants to have going forward was something Brown noticed about her early on, and it's something she has appreciated.
"She hasn't been the most vocal on the team yet but that's very common for a freshman to kind of take it all in but her ability to compete two events in the very first meet I think shows what kind of competitor she is and she's meshed with this team," Brown said.
Astarita's competitiveness has also been evident in practice according to Brown, who said she has the capability of doing more difficult moves, whether that's adding an additional component to her vault or floor routine. But for now, Brown said she wants Astarita to get some consistency under her belt and become more comfortable in the arena.
"I really believe that having successful competitions week in and week out will build that confidence and so we've taken a little bit of the difficulty away and we're gonna allow her to have success with these routines and then as the season progresses we may be adding more difficult things," Brown said.
As the season continues for Astarita, she will use her experience, competitiveness and the encouragements of the team around her to continue to improve for the Nittany Lions.
