Browse > Home / Sports / Gymnastics to face Center Grove next

Gymnastics to face Center Grove next

February 7, 2008

By: Lily Zhao <lzhao@hilite.org>

This year has been one of the most unique years in the history of the gymnastics team. But despite this being Head Coach Jerry Brickley’s last year coaching, and having only four athletes and underclassmen as captains, Danielle Goeman, gymnastics captain and sophomore, said she has fought through the adversity.

“It’s been a fun year and (the team) has had such a great year,” Goeman said. “We’ll really miss Coach Brickley next year, but we’re going to fight through it like we did this year.”

Despite these obstacles, the gymnastics team currently has a 3-2 record with its only losses at Perry Meridian and Lawrence Central. An upcoming meet for the team is the one against Center Grove on Tuesday. Brickley said he’s proud of his girls, especially because of the issues that the team has had to face.

“Obviously, (the coaching staff) had no real high expectations this year,” Brickley said. “Last year we had a team on its way to State. With this group, we’re just continuing to learn new things.”

According to Goeman, the team’s upcoming meet against Center Grove should be a tough and close one. Although Goeman said that she expected Center Grove to win a tight meet, she said that she would continue to strive to get better and try to beat them. In the past, Brickley said, the team here and the Center Grove team have broken even.

In order to get ready for their next meet and others, Brickley said that although this is his last year, he is not treating it any differently. He said that he is coaching the same way and acting like it is only his first year coaching. Although he said that he would love the team to have loads of fun, this young group of gymnasts still has to improve. Most of the girls, he said, are still extremely green.

“There’s a lot that we need to improve on towards getting to the conference meet. We’ll have a lot of new stuff in and we just need to worry about our execution,” Brickley said.

Furthermore, along with getting the girls ready for future meets, Brickley said he hopes to recruit some new students onto the team next year. He said that he wants to leave behind a good foundation for the current athletes and the new ones. He said that while the football and basketball teams here have wings of students waiting to join, only a select few try out for gymnastics. Many people here, Brickley said, just misunderstand the sport.

“(Adversity with gymnastics) is something that I’ve dealt with for 35 years,” he said. “It’s an inheritance prejudice. Here, basketball is king, but we’re hoping to get the word out about gymnastics.”

While the team does not get as much publicity, Goeman said that a couple of freshman girls have approached another team captain, sophomore Kirsten Yamasaki, and have asked to join next year. Goeman said that she hopes to have many new teammates to compete with next year.

“We’re all friends on the team. We can go to each other for anything, but if we get some more girls next year, it’ll make it so much better,” Goeman said.

Brickley said that he agrees. The friendship that he sees on the team is overwhelming and said that he hopes it continues next year. “We’re a very tight team,” Brickley said. “I’m really going to miss them next year.”

Updated by John Zhong · Filed Under Sports 

Comments

Got something to say?






November 2008
M T W T F S S
« Oct    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930