Winter Sports Preview: G.C. Marshall

Unsurprisingly, gymnastics is all about balance. For that matter, there’s even an event with balance in the title. But for the George C. Marshall High School gymnastics team, a balance of a different kind will likely decide the fate of their 2004-05 season.

A talented mix of savvy veterans and eager newcomers makes up this season’s Statesmen roster and two meets so far this year predict that there could be good things on the horizon for the team.

Just last Monday Marshall bested their district rival Madison, and came within five points of topping Langley, a program that has dominated the sport in previous years.

“I’ve seen a lot of improvement among the younger girls already,” senior Erica Perez, a two-year veteran of the team, who had experience through GMS Gymnastics in Falls Church, which has since closed down.

In particular, Head Coach Carrie Reynolds was just thrilled with the team’s performance on one apparatus. “In our first meet we only had one or two falls on the balance beam, which up until this point it seemed like everyone was falling off,” Reynolds says.

Limiting mistakes will be a key for a youthful squad that features about 15 underclassmen. Perez and fellow senior Jennifer Courtner will attempt to lend some veteran leadership to the relatively young team, along with returning sophomore gymnasts Laura Katz and Sarit Cliffer, both of whom take part in private gymnastics clubs. Juniors Deema Zein and Judy Vo will also return to offer some experience.

So far Reynolds has been pleased with her returning gymnasts. She says that their performances in the first two meets this year are already equal to or better their performances in the final meets of last year.

Part of the reason for the youth of the team can be attributed to the fact that Marshall’s gymnastics team was only recently reborn when Reynolds accepted the position of head coach three years ago. When Reynolds started the team she was faced with a thin roster.

“We had kind of a small team when it started, it was about 10 of us, a few cheerleaders and a few people who hadn’t done it before,” says Perez who was among the pioneers. “It was fun.” The team has come a long way since then, with the roster size expanding every season. This year’s squad now features nearly twenty girls, many of whom had no background in gymnastics prior to joining the team.

“It’s a challenge [having girls with no experience],” says Reynolds, who began in gymnastics at age four when her mom signed her up and continued through high school. “Some of them have had experience when they were much younger, but not recently. Only Laura and Sarit are currently doing gymnastics through a private club. It’s challenging, for some of them you really start with some very basic skills and try to work up.”

Two of those gymnasts with no experience are Lisa Vo and Katie Schmuff who got recruited by Lisa’s sister Judy. “Learning the routines is kind of hard,” Schmuff says. “Putting it together and then actually performing it is pretty nerve wracking.” For their part, the new girls are shaping up well according to Perez and Reynolds. For the most part, Reynolds goes slow with the newbies, accommodating them with the occasional extra crash pad or starting them on a lower balance beam in order to build confidence.

“We have the competition beam, but we also have a beam that’s a couple inches off the floor and kind of a mid-sized beam,” Reynolds says. “So we start of doing a lot of things on the floor on a line and work their way up. Sometimes when they’re on the full beam we’ll pile up extra crash pads underneath so they don’t feel like they’re so far off the ground. It’s really just progression, looking at they’re able to do and repetition until they’re really comfortable with the skills.”

Vo and Schmuff don’t seem to have many inhibitions about getting up on the beam.

“You have a choice, but I think it’s a good way to practice to use the competition beam,” The strong performances so far bode well for the team, though Reynolds wasn’t sure if all of Langley’s gymnasts competed at the last meet and is hesitant to say whether or not that showing will be indicative of the rest of this season. She could get a better feel Jan. 6 when the Statesmen square off against Langley again, in addition to Mt. Vernon and another strong squad from McLean. That meet highlights a schedule that will culminate in the district championships.

“We placed pretty well last year in districts,” Perez says. “Langley had a few really good girls but they graduated. This year Woodson and McLean are probably going to be pretty good.”

In order to perform well during the season and in district championships, the Statesmen will need to field a full six gymnasts to compete on all four apparatuses (floor exercise, uneven bars, balance beam and the vault), something they have not been able to do to date. But regardless of the team’s performance this season, Reynolds believes that the true success lies in the continued development of the program.

“The girls that I’ve had for three years have definitely shown improvement,” Reynolds says. “This year I have a lot of freshmen who have no experience or limited experience. I’m hoping that they’ll stick with the sport for the next several years and we’ll see improvements there. I think our biggest accomplishment has been to increase the number of people participating.”