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Gym Cat Recruits…Gym Kittens?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Arizona chapter.


Football players wear helmets, shoulder pads, tailbone pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, mouth guards, and cups, all to run around a flat surface and hit each other. Gymnasts wear just a leotard and a hair ribbon to flip through the air over a 4 inch wide beam, swing around bars that are almost 8 feet off the ground, run full speed at an immobile vault, and perform complicated tumbling routines over a springed floor. It really puts things in perspective; we see these giant 6’5, 200 pound football players and automatically assume they have got to be tougher than a 5 foot even, 110 pound gymnast. Completely incorrect. (No offense boys.)

            While football season is finally coming to a close, thanks goodness, so is the gymnastics recruiting season. Head gymnastics coach Bill Ryden has been scouring the West in search for the newest members of the UA gym cats and he’s finally found them. The recruits include Shelby Edwards, Lexi Mills, Jessie Sisler, and Christina Wood. All the girls have been Junior Olympics qualifiers which is not an easy feat. Gymnasts aren’t born with those rock hard bods, they literally live in the gym. Therefore, I’ll give them the responsibility of working out enough for all of us.

            Gymnastics is a grueling sport made up of four different events which require strength, speed, grace, and balance. The recruiting class covers a wide variety of skill each with their own strengths. Mills, of Texas, is a former regional and state beam champion. She also won first place on beam in the 2010 junior Olympics. Sisler on the other hand is a strong tumbler and her power attributes to her three state vault championships and her recent 2011 state floor championship.

            Wood on the other hand has the ability to be competitive in multiple events. At the 2011 state championships Wood took first one floor and vault and second on beam. Coach Ryden says “her best event by far is floor, but I can envision Christina making an impact on every event. She has some huge skills on each event, and her performances are always very solid.”

My strength is the ability to drink countless cups of coffee throughout a 24 hour period of time. Top that one gym cats. Seriously though, I don’t think these girls get enough credit. Gymnastics is a sport that is all about dedication that requires years of hard training to get to the level they are at. I for one am excited for the season to start, which will be in January in Cancun. (What a lame place to travel to…not.)

As much as I love basketball, the McKale Center plays host to another great sport that in my opinion isn’t given enough recognition. Also, to be honest I don’t understand why more guys don’t beat down the doors to McKale whenever there is a gymnastics meet. It’s a bunch of fit gymnasts running around in leotards, not to mention it’s during the off pool season. Boys are dumb.

Coach Ryden says of the newest gym cats “The amount of gymnastics that this class brings is very exciting to us, and we feel like this is a great class; they will have big shoes to fill of the girls who will be graduating this coming May, but I feel like these girls are all capable of it,” he said. “They all have incredible skill level-eye catching skills- and will bring a lot of fun and talent into the program.” In the meantime, gymnastics fans can keep up to date by reading the gym cat’s blogs on their homepage on the UA athletics site. Pretty soon it’s adios football season and hello gymcats. Bear Down! 

My name is Jessica Cooper and in the Fall I will be a Senior at the University of Arizona. I am majoring in journalism with a dual minor in history and judaic studies. My focus is in both print and online journalism. I have loved being a part of the Her Campus team for the last semester and am so excited to be the campus correspondant for the 2011-2012 year.