Friday, January 16, 1998
Bruins limber up in preparation for challenging season
W.GYMNASTICS New members try to find their place among veterans
from national championship team
By Christie DeBeau
Daily Bruin Contributor
As the defending 1997 NCAA Champions, one might expect this
season’s UCLA women’s gymnastics team members to be under a lot of
pressure as they prepare to compete in their first home meet this
Sunday at 2 p.m. The Bruins will be competing against Denver, the
University of California at Santa Barbara and Arizona State
University.
However, UCLA is entering the new season with a fun-loving
attitude, even when facing ASU, who placed second behind UCLA in
the Nationals last year.
"With your home crowd and ASU coming, who are going to be out
for blood, you want to go out and be respectable," head coach
Valorie Kondos said. "You want to do a good job and feel good about
what you are doing."
The Bruins’ first meet of the season last week in Georgia
started the team off with a score of 194.025, which surpassed their
last score of a 191 in the 1997 season. Could this be an early
indication of another great season for UCLA?
"This score does not mean that this year’s team are much better
athletes," Kondos said. "It just means a new season, and they are
in a different mind frame. I don’t think that has to do with
winning the national championship, but they have gotten into a
groove, especially the juniors and seniors where collegiate
gymnastics is a lot of fun and they do this sport because they love
it.
"They do not really look for the win and they do not look at who
they are competing against. It’s, ‘let’s go out and do the best
gymnastics we can and lets have fun doing it.’"
While there are many returning members from the championship
team, each member plays a vital role in the team’s success, and in
the upcoming year, the gymnasts face the challenge of finding their
own important niche on the team.
"The team realizes this year, even though a lot of them are
returning from the national championship team, they are a different
team," Kondos admitted. "One person can change the chemistry and
make-up of the team. So right now they are working towards really
gelling and finding their new role for this season. They have the
same philosophy but there is a different chemistry."
At the meet this Sunday, Coach Kondos will allow all the members
to compete before setting an order of competition for the
gymnasts.
"These first three meets, our plans are to compete everyone,"
Kondos said. "So we are not putting (in) our "A" team, although
everyone will be competing. We are giving a lot of other athletes a
chance to compete and hopefully we can still go out and do a good
job and do what we need to do to come out as victors, but that is
not our main goal to win.
"Our main goal is to go out and put as many kids out on the
floor as we can and give them a chance to see competition."
The first few meets of a new season are important for the
Bruins, for this is when the team builds its foundation for the
year. Every member depends on each other for strength and
assistance during competition.
"There is definitely a team solidarity and I think that we will
really gel halfway through season," Kondos said. "When we start
getting into the groove and get the same people up. They will have
the same order and will know what athletes they will follow, you
just get into a rhythm.
"It starts working like a machine out on the competition floor.
The same people pull the boards, the same people push the mats in,
the same people fix the bars and they know their spot. Right now we
are just juggling all those positions. This is to give every
athlete a chance and to find out who is the strongest in those
positions. Because the person that is setting your board, or
pulling your mat, is as important as the person that is up on the
event. They make you feel calm."
The spectators at this Sunday’s meet can definitely look forward
to new routines and faces from the UCLA women’s gymnastics
team.
Daily Bruin File Photo
In her second year with the Bruins, Lena Degteva is one of the
top gymnasts on the team.