SPARTAN SPORTS PREVIEW: GYMNASTICS | Bainbridge reloads and sets sights on state

Published 12:09 pm Saturday, December 6, 2014

It’s the start of another gymnastics season, and it’s come full circle for Bainbridge Coach Cindy Guy.

The Spartan squad hasn’t rebuilt, it’s reloaded, Guy said.

Not only are the Spartans welcoming back state-performers Juliana Hinckley, Sara Rice and Miller Shor — now seniors and team captions — but the team has a few legacy prospects, as well.

Turnout for the team was good this year, with a strong group of young and skilled gymnasts.

“We have a lot,” Coach Guy said. “We started with 30 and I think we’re down to 25. We had some good freshman and sophomores come in, and I have some returners. It’s about 50-50.”

Guy said she expects the three senior captains to provide much leadership for the team’s newcomers, and said she knows they are up to the job.

“They’re doing an excellent job. They’ve been there and they know what they have to do,” she said of the trio. “They’re displaying good leadership.”

“We always have the oldest kids training the youngest kids, We run practices the same, all the time, so it’s very set,” Guy said. “We’re very efficient in our use of our time in the gym, we don’t waste it standing around.”

Guy — who will guide the Spartans through the season once again with the able assistance of fellow coach Bryan Gourette — said she’s been surprised by the level of talent in the freshman ranks, which include some girls who have never been in one of Guys’ PE classes.

“Everybody looks good,” she said, and added that the team will rely on some of the freshmen this year, big time.

“I’m really excited. The freshman; they’re still kind of learning their routines, and fixing their club routine to high school. We have to tweak a few things,” she said.

“They’re going to help us score well,” Guy added.

“We’re a rare sport that freshmen are relied on so heavily. When Sarah Rice was a freshman, she was our anchor on beam and floor. It’s not very often that you have a freshman be your anchor. But she’s competitive and solid.”

That said, Miller will probably go second, Juliana probably third in the competition rotation.

Upperclassmen will be thrown in to take the first and second spots on some events, to get the nerves out, mostly, and the lineup will be hammered out during the season.

She’s liked what she has seen so far in the Spartans’ practice sessions, which began Nov. 10. The team opens the season Friday, Dec. 5 in a nonleague matchup against Shorewood/Shorecrest.

“They are super hard-working,” Guy said of her Spartans.

“They’re really motivated; they want to be in the gym. And who can not want to coach kids who want to be in the gym?” Guy asked.

The first day of practice was also flipping fantastic, to say the least.

“At the first day of practice, eight kids could do salto. It’s been a long time since we had … I counted. I was like, eight? Wow. So that’s a good start.”

Half that number the year before could do flips.

“Last year, we maybe had three or four,” she said.

The depth of the team this year also means the Spartans should have a lot of gymnasts who can fill in on bars.

And, add to the mix this year’s outstanding crop of new additions.

It’s a group that includes Emma Chee and a handful of other notables.

“She’s got a lot of skills,” she said of the freshman all-around gymnast.

Key Pearson, another all-arounder, is also a freshman. And a legacy prospect, as well. Her mother, Katie MacFarlane, was also on one of Guy’s Spartan teams back in the day.

“Her mother was on my gymnastics team when I first started,” Guy recalled.

“I had to stay coaching so I could have Katie’s daughter,” she laughed.

More daughters of former gymnasts from Guy’s coaching career — which spans 35 years — are expected next year.

Alathea Pippenger, daughter of the Spartans’ wrestling team, Dan Pippenger, is also on the squad.

Pippenger had also been on one of Guy’s teams.

“It’s kind of a small world,” she said.

Other young gymnasts expected to do well this year include Tsion Hotchkiss, a freshman, and Willa JonesIrwin, a sophomore.

Potential scorers include Sydney Dalessi (senior), Maddy Mikami (senior), Elizabeth Rolfes (sophomore) and Annika Vroom (senior).

The rest of the team lineup is Sarah Collins, Ellie DeVries, Helen Fritchman, Maria Flynn, Maya Green, Micaela Hogger, Claire Laughbon, Madison Loaza-Brotherton, Sarah Lucioni, Taylor Peterson, Emily Rogers, Mako Rutherford and Myah Vasquez.

The Spartans start the season with four home meets in a row.

Key meets include a visit by the Cougars in two weeks.

Bainbridge plays host to Holy Names on Dec. 19, and Guy recalled last year’s competition on Holy Names’ turf where the Spartans won “by a smidgee.”

“But they don’t seem to travel well, so that’s kind of good news for us,” she added.

The Spartans then end up the season with three meets in a row, including against Roosevelt, a team they’ve never competed against during Guy’s tenure.

Also new this year: Only schools with spring floors will host meets. Gymnasts won’t have to compete on wrestling mats — and rework their routines — at meets now.

Guy said it was good news for BHS, as the Spartans prefer tumbling lines over dance elements for good scores.

“Floor is our best event. And we’re having to make wrestling mat routines,” She explained. “But if you can’t tumble on wrestling mats, then you can’t use those values, so you had to make a dumb dance routine.”

Another big change: The changes in the Metro League. This year the Spartans won’t be competing against longtime foes such as North Kitsap, Sehome or Mercer Island.

Guy noted that she’s known some of those coaching colleagues for 30 years or more.

“I’m sad; they’re my friends,” she said.

Though their hasn’t been much dwelling on it, the Spartans want to earn a trip to Tacoma for the 3A state championships.

“Their goal is to go to state as a team — and we want to get a trophy. We didn’t even have to really talk about it, because everybody just knows that that’s what we want,” Guy laughed.

The Spartans started their season at home Friday, Dec. 5 against Shorewood/Shorecrest at Bainbridge High.