New year, new members, but same hope

With gymnastics being “10% inspiration, 90% perspiration,” it definitely is one of the toughest sports–flipping along a beam four inches wide and four feet of the ground is no piece of cake. This season, many athletes from other sports are turning over to gymnastics, forming a complete Varsity-elite, Varsity, and J.V. team.

“This year, the new additions to our team makes us feel like a complete team,” said Senior Nicole Furuta, “instead of the small team which we’ve had for many years.”

Even though there are many new gymnasts, the outlook for the season looks strong.  The team hopes to keep their strong seven-year record of holding the Varsity-Elite All-Around title at MVALs. Last year the team defeated rival, Mission San Jose High School at MVALs as a team and grabbed the All-Around title, so the gymnasts are hoping to defeat them once again.

“Our team this year is looking very strong and I know it is definitely going to be successful season. All of our Varsity-Elite team members show the potential to place in the Top 5 for the individual all-around.” said Senior captain Priyanka Shah. “We are stepping it up a notch this year too by increasing the difficulty levels of a lot of our skills. We are training new skills like back-flip-back-flip series on beam, Tsukahara’s on vault, release skills bars, and full-twisting back-flips on floor.”

The team’s first meet is coming up on October 7th, so all the athletes are practicing and training their skills and routines to perfection.  All the athletes show great potential and have mastered many difficult skills early in the season.  Hopefully, the team’s hard work and dedication will pay off making them the MVALs All Around champions for the eighth year in a row.