Sometimes good things come in small packages, especially for our Girls Varsity Gymnastics.

Despite the small number of athletes on the gymnastics team and nearly falling victim to the budget cuts, the girls are still going strong. Unlike some of the larger teams in the school, gymnastics is a very close-knit team and all the girls are great friends, both in and out of school.

“We love having a small team,” said senior captain Nina Sanzi. “It makes practices much more fun.”

With only eleven girls on the team, the competitions are much more stressful because each person has more responsibility during their routine. Having a smaller team also makes the competitions harder to win, but they stick with it and try their best to compete each time.

“We know our team is definitely not the best, which is a con of having a small team, but that doesn’t stop us from trying our hardest,” said Sanzi.

The team had originally planned on having three days worth of tryouts, however, they extended it to one week because they wanted more people to tryout for the team. The team’s tryouts went well and as planned, especially because they already knew almost everyone who would have the opportunity to compete on the small team.

The gymnasts have many goals, both personally and as a team, including placing at Districts and Regionals. They all believe that they are improving tremendously from last year, and they hope that their season this year will be a more successful one.

“We all are working hard to get better at our routines from last year,” said sophomore Mo Scanlon, “and new members are working hard to start building their routines.”

The girls work hard nearly every day perfecting their routines and enduring long practices.

“We have to have very long practices because setting up and breaking down the equipment takes 30-45 minutes in itself,” said Sanzi.

They all have great support for each other in their improvements, and team bonding is the key to their small group.

Last year, the team came dangerously close to being cut from high school sports. With the help and support of parents and athletes from other schools, however, the gymnasts’ passion remained in high schools throughout the county. Many of the talented gymnasts would have been heartbroken to hear that they couldn’t do what they love.

“I didn’t want gymnastics to get cut because as a freshman last year, I loved doing it,” said sophomore Tasy Novopachennaia, “and I wanted to keep participating each year of high school.”