Carly Risom
Reporter
Between the size of the team, the fact that practices are held off campus and a lack of youth feeder programs, it’s no wonder that New Canaan High School gymnastics is unknown by most students. What is most unknown, however, is how much effort the gymnasts exert on a daily basis.
Senior captain Ellen Hoover attributes her team’s minimal pop ularity to the fact that there are few opportunities for young girls to get involved. “I think gymnastics is so unknown because different sports have programs for middle school and even elementary school, but the gymnastics team doesn’t really have that,” she said. “Therefore, a lot of people don’t really know that we have a team.”
The team’s size is also a major contributor to the minimal amount of participation. “In general, our team is really small to begin with, compared to the hockey team or the basketball team, senior captain Ashley Kong said. “We only have eight girls this season, and only about five or six are competing. I feel that if more people participated or even heard about it, it would easily be more popular.”
Head Coach Anne Tomaselli feels that the girls’ hard work should be acknowledged more. “The whole team and the kids deserve to be able to be recognized by their peers, most definitely,” she said.
Although the girls feel close as a team, they participate on a n individual basis, “My favorite part is that it’s really individual; you have to push yourself,” senior captain Victoria Gerardi said. “Also, whenever you get a new skill, it feels like a really big accomplishment, because it’s one step closer to getting that higher score.”
According to Victoria, gymnastics facilitates connections between members of other high school gymnastics teams in the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference, (FCIAC). “I feel like we’re closer to the members on other teams,” she said. “We get to know Darien sometimes, or Wilton. We’ll know the girls by names, and we can say hi to them if we see them.”
Assistant Coach Michelle Tomaselli said the feeling she got right before starting a routine was her favorite part of gymnastics back in high school. remembers why she fell in love with the sport back in high school, “It’s a feeling you’ll never feel in any other aspect of life,” she said. “Just sitting there waiting for the judge to be ready for you to go; it’s nerve-wracking but you’re also getting really hyped up to do your best routine.”
But in order to complete their routines, the gymnasts face a grueling practice schedule. “In December, we will practice five to six days a week, and we practice probably four or five days over the Christmas break,” Ms. Tomaselli said. “During our meet season, we will have one to two meets a week with practices every other day. We also hold practices on Saturdays, which makes it a six-day schedule.”
With tough practices, the girls also experience numerous injuries, due to the rigor of the sport. “All the conditioning is super strenuous,” freshman Sara Brindisi said. “Also, when you hurt yourself it’s really hard to get back in quickly.”
In addition, all home practices are held at Saxe, which creates numerous conflicts. Coach Anne Tomaselli said it contributes to why the team has so little recognition. “One of the main downfalls of having practices at Saxe is that the team is not practicing at the high school, so it doesn’t give the opportunity for all the other athletes that are down in that area to really realize that we have have a team,” she said.
Besides the more obvious disadvantage, Saxe practices also present issues that hinder skill development, as the facility is missing fundamental equipment, “At Saxe, we don’t have a spring floor, as well as an official vault,” Ellen said.
Even though the majority of the gymnastics practices are held at Saxe, the girls have the opportunity to utilize the Wilton High School gym each week. Despite the 20 minute drive, this allows them to practice using the spring floor and vault, two pieces of equipment necessary in order to prepare for competitions. “At Saxe it’s so much closer for us, but the disadvantage is that we have to set-up our equipment, where as if we go to Wilton, it’s already all set up for us,” Ashley said.
The gymnasts will be participating in their FCIAC competition at Westhill High School on Saturday, February 9th. This will be followed by the Ro Carlucci Invitational, also at Westhill, on February 16th.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCUw0I6FCTE
