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Finally a public announcement can be made. Many of you know I have close ties with the BGSU Gymnastics program and I am proud to be the first to post this. Dan Connelly advance the gymnastics program to a higher level than the previous coach. And Kerrie Beach will do the same. This is an exciting time for BGSU gymnastics and I encourage each and every one of you to get on board.

http://bgsufalcons.cstv.com/sports/w-gy ... 07aab.html

The gymnastics team has 5 home meets this year out of 13 total meets. I hope the student body and other fans can really get behind the team this year and pack Eppler for the 4 events there and have a very strong presense in Anderson for senior night against Kentucky. This team has a huge amount of potencial and with the backing of Falcon fans could be a great start of a successful run for many years to come. Let's fill Eppler to its capacity and then some!!!

FYI ... Always go to the official website for meet details just in case changes are made during the season.

Sat Jan 12th 7:00pm Eppler
Sat Jan 19th 7:00pm Eppler

Sat Feb 16th 7:00pm Eppler

Fri Mar 14th 7:00pm Eppler
Sat Mar 22nd 7:00pm Anderson Arena

Fond memories of covering gymnastics ... do they still compete in Eppler?

They sure do still compete in Eppler! Maybe 1 meet a year is in Anderson. This year the Kentucky meet at the end of the year will be in Anderson.

If we pack the place to capacity maybe they'll have to consider more meets in Anderson?? Let's try and find out.....

I am doubtful we will see a permanent move to Anderson Arena until the convocation center is built. However, the previous Athletic Director looked into purchasing a complete set of equipment to have for meets at Anderson Arena so we would not need to rent. That gets quite expensive. The floor its self is right around $20,000.00. I would like to see them out of Eppler as soon as possible. The powers that be don't want them there and are quite rude about making their opinions known. I think if we are building a convocation center it should either include practice space for basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics like Northern Illinois; or volleyball and gymnastics should move into Anderson Arena upon completion of the new facility. In any event, GO TO THE MEETS! If you find it boring, and you won't, just throw things at transfer2bgsu. He will be the guy with the microphone...

Journey:

Gymnastics meets were a joy to watch, for sure!

I enjoyed all 7 years I was involved and still make it back at least once a season. I think I will make it to more this year though.

That's what we like to hear "It's the Journey..."!!! It's going top be a FUN year....

It's the Journey... wrote:If you find it boring, and you won't, just throw things at transfer2bgsu. He will be the guy with the microphone...

Don't mess with the guy who has the microphone. You may not like what he says about you! 8)

And please - COME OUT AND SUPPORT THESE LADIES!

For the sake of information, would one of you folks write up a synopsis about the team and post it? Include interviews and even what occurs at meets.

I think that may get more people interested in the program. In fact, this might be a good idea for all of the "non-revenue" sports (e.g. cross country/track).

I don't know that much about the smaller sports programs, but I would like to.

2007/2008 Gymnastics Team is made up of 8 freshman, 5 sophomores, 3 Juniors (1 transfer), 5 seniors though one senior has to bow out due to injuries.

This team is obviously loaded with young talent. However, the senior leadership is strong a will be able to make a very positive impact on the younger athletes. One sophomore is coming off of ACL reconstruction surgery and another from ankle surgery and both will be looking to rebound from those situations to have a positive impact for the team.

The coaching staff is made up of Kerrie Beach and Shannon Welker. Kerrie has been with the program for several years with this being the first as Head Coach. As assistant Coach Shannon joins the staff this year with solid credencials and a lot of energy. I'm sure they both want this season to really put the team on a path for sustained positive growth and I really believe they will accomplish that goal.

If you haven't been to a college gymnastics meet, you really are missing a unique experience. This is nothing like the Olympics with its' prim and proper fans and everything being about the individual. The sport of gymnastics turns into a team sport once the college level is reached and the fans tend to be a much more outgoing and vocal (always keep it respectful). The gymnasts respond to that noise from both the stands and their teammates on the floor. This build momentum as the meet progresses even if things don't always go as planned.

The events are normally run such that multiple events are going on at once (two at a time for a dual meet). This reduces the time it takes to hold a meet and makes the atmosphere a little more electric and dynamic. As the home team Floor Exercise is normally the last event they compete on with the Beam the last event for the visiting team. Beam can make or break many of the competitions for teams. This certainly adds a little more stress for the visiting team and a lot of fun for the home team on Floor. Spectators really get into the floor routines!

Most cannot appreciate what these student athletes accomplish in this sport. It's a tough sport with high risk that takes extreme dedication to stay with it. I've played baseball, run track, played soccer and did a little gymnastics. Trust me, this is a tough sport.

This year the team has 5 home meets out of 12 meets total. Their first two meets are at home and it would be wonderful if we could all send them off on their 3 week road trip with two large crowds to begin the season. It might help the young freshman get their feet wet.

Anything I missed that people want to know????

falcongymfans:

Details!

Who are some of the ladies to watch and in what particular event? Any particulary cool music for floor exercises - i.e. I remember that Mary Pat Farr used to use a medley from Asia (a favorite band of our esteemed Webmaster) and Julie Bender favored Glen Miller.

Where to sit? Is it OK to cheer during a routine or should you wait until the end?

Wow! Great questions, but only a few answers. I'll take the easy one's first.

In Eppler there are no perfect seats, but no bad seats either. I prefer to sit where i can see everything fairly well where some like to position themselves by the Beam. The stands right in front of floor are very popular because you have a good view of the Floor and Bars and Beam isn't bad. Vault can be seen from there but it's not the best view.

In general cheer for your team all you want. Of course if your teams gymnast is on the Beam (or any other event) it would be VERY bad form to yell out their name or do anything that might distract them. But once they're done with the routine yell all you want even if the other team is still on an event. The Athletes love to hear the noise from the stands before and after they perfrom.

The team is so young and I'm not close enough to know the ones to watch this year ... at least not yet. Jacquelyn Bernhardt & Jholeen Ponce are the team captains and they are definately two athletes to watch. Jax on Vault and Floor and Jho on Bars, Beam and Vault. Ashlee deLeeuw got into 3 events last year and can pull of a nice bar routine. The retruning Juniors are solid in Katie Follett and Jenna Wirtanen. Last year the sophomores were led by Morgan Balzer and Amber Brewer until Amber blew her ACL and had reconstructive ACL replacement. Let's see if Amber can pull off the comeback Let's not forget about Megan Chronister who was MAC specialist of the week last year and Rachel Gourley who put in some very nice floor routines if I recall correctly. Rachel just had ankle surgery and may be slowed early on. Sophomore Queenita Gamble looked good on the beam last year. With 8 incoming freshman it will be hard to guess what the lineup will be. The coaches will put a lineup together that can together get the best overall team score. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out in January.

The team is new and I'm not a member of it so knowing the music is not in my brain. When I hear it I might be able to tell who it belongs to if they competed in Floor last year, but like I said, there may be many new ones on Floor this year.

Any other questions out there I can maybe help with just let me know.

By the way, I've never really made this a public site, but if anyone wants to see some action shots you'll find them at:

http://www.falcongymfans.com

As you will see the number of pictures is overwelming and it is something I mainly to for the team and their families. But if it increases interest in the team I'm willing to share

falcongymfans wrote:Wow! Great questions, but only a few answers. I'll take the easy one's first.

In Eppler there are no perfect seats, but no bad seats either. I prefer to sit where i can see everything fairly well where some like to position themselves by the Beam. The stands right in front of floor are very popular because you have a good view of the Floor and Bars and Beam isn't bad. Vault can be seen from there but it's not the best view.

In general cheer for your team all you want. Of course if your teams gymnast is on the Beam (or any other event) it would be VERY bad form to yell out their name or do anything that might distract them. But once they're done with the routine yell all you want even if the other team is still on an event. The Athletes love to hear the noise from the stands before and after they perfrom.

The team is so young and I'm not close enough to know the ones to watch this year ... at least not yet. Jacquelyn Bernhardt & Jholeen Ponce are the team captains and they are definately two athletes to watch. Jax on Vault and Floor and Jho on Bars, Beam and Vault. Ashlee deLeeuw got into 3 events last year and can pull of a nice bar routine. The retruning Juniors are solid in Katie Follett and Jenna Wirtanen. Last year the sophomores were led by Morgan Balzer and Amber Brewer until Amber blew her ACL and had reconstructive ACL replacement. Let's see if Amber can pull off the comeback Let's not forget about Megan Chronister who was MAC specialist of the week last year and Rachel Gourley who put in some very nice floor routines if I recall correctly. Rachel just had ankle surgery and may be slowed early on. Sophomore Queenita Gamble looked good on the beam last year. With 8 incoming freshman it will be hard to guess what the lineup will be. The coaches will put a lineup together that can together get the best overall team score. It will be very interesting to see how it plays out in January.

The team is new and I'm not a member of it so knowing the music is not in my brain. When I hear it I might be able to tell who it belongs to if they competed in Floor last year, but like I said, there may be many new ones on Floor this year.

Any other questions out there I can maybe help with just let me know.

By the way, I've never really made this a public site, but if anyone wants to see some action shots you'll find them at:

http://www.falcongymfans.com

As you will see the number of pictures is overwelming and it is something I mainly to for the team and their families. But if it increases interest in the team I'm willing to share

THAT'S the stuff I'm talking about. THANK YOU!

Those are some EXCELLENT photos, falcongymfan. I was looking at some of them trying to picture the layout.

This is Eppler Center, right? I used to play floor hockey in there and can't believe it's big enough for a meet AND stands.