Weekly diary by Valorie Kondos Field, head coach for UCLA's women's gymnastics team.
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Note: With three NCAA titles in five years, UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field has positioned her Bruins as the premier program in collegiate gymnastics. Not only has she consistently recruited the top talent in the world, but she has produced the results. In the past six years alone, Kondos Field has led UCLA to three NCAA titles and one runner-up finish, five Regional titles and three Pac-10 championships.
Jan. 21, 2002
Athletics can be so much fun when you don't worry about the "win," but instead concentrate only on doing your best.
On Friday we competed at Cal State Fullerton. We decided to compete everyone on the events on which they were able to compete successfully. One reason we did this was to allow those athletes who train hard every day and don't have a chance to compete much, an opportunity to get out and perform for their team and for themselves and see where their competitive prowess stands. Another reason was because those same athletes need to accept the responsibility to their teammates to be prepared to come in and compete with confidence when called upon.
Friday's meet was extremely rewarding. Seeing our athletes who have struggled so hard to get their routines in competition shape compete with such Bruin Pride brought so much into perspective. It was obvious that even though Christy Erickson only scored a 9.6 on floor, her effort and commitment to her performance was no different than Jamie Dantzscher's, which scored a 10.0.
On Sunday, we had our home season opener against Arizona State. Once again, we all seemed to zero in on our performances rather than our scores. While there were a lot of great performances from our "guns"… it was Christy Erickson who provided the highlight of the meet again. She came in on floor for Malia Jones (who is still out with an ankle sprain) and hit her routine, once again, to the best of her ability.
While our team totals may seem a bit lower than last season, the competitive experience that all of our athletes are getting is invaluable to their self-confidence, to our team's commitment to their daily training, and to our understanding that we're all in this together.
Having a great time! See you on February 10th, Pauley Pavilion, 2:00pm. UCLA vs. Stanford!