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 six 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 seven years alone, Kondos Field has led UCLA to three NCAA titles and one runner-up finish, six Regional titles and four Pac-10 championships.
January 20, 2003
Preparation, Hard Work, High Standards, Hard Work, Tenacity, and more Hard Work.
We train hard.
We compete with confidence.
We rest well.
It's a circle that, if given honest attention to by each individual, will breed success.
Friday, January 17th
Our meet at Cal State Fullerton is always a fun meet for us. We competed
some of our reserves, needing to rest some of our all-arounders who will be
competing a lot in the next three months. There were definite highlights
from everyone who competed, and some lowlights ... I won't go into how many
times we fell on floor. However, we pulled it out on the last event ...
beam ... hit 6 for 6 ... and NO, I did not change our line-up ... our set
line-up of Bruins got it done on beam to win the meet!
If any of you will recall our meet in Arizona last year, Jamie Williams had to come in on floor for us and ended up hitting the best floor routine of her life. After her routine I told her she had "busted out" and there was no going back, at which point she said, "That's right, Miss Val, there's no such thing as busting in." On Friday, she was in our beam line-up, competing a three-flipping series for the first time. I'm happy to report she has officially busted out on that event, not just staying on, but she scored a 9.85 out of a 9.9 start value.
It was also the debut of our other incredible freshman, Holly Murdock, who has been recovering from a knee injury she suffered this past summer. Holly competed a watered-down routine on beam and hit beautifully. It is so much fun to see her enjoying getting back into competition again. She is truly a tremendous competitor.
Sunday, January 19th
Sunday we had our home opener in Pauley Pavilion. The afternoon started
off with a tremendously successful tailgate organized by our team parents
and boosters. The afternoon continued with a great crowd, and our amazing
new "Voice of the Bruins", Master of Ceremonies, John Macready. Great,
great gymnastics - replete with some of the best routines our athletes have
performed, including a 10.0 on beam by freshman Kate Richardson, and two
10.0's from Jamie Dantzscher on floor and bars. Senior Onnie Willis won
the all-around. We scored our second-highest score in school history...
signed thousands of autographs ... enjoyed a wonderful social with family
and friends in our Hall of Fame press room. Had a great time!
This week we head to Oregon State and then right back home Feb. 2nd for a dual meet against Arkansas, whose head coach is past UCLA Bruin assistant coach, Mark Cook!
See you there! ~Miss V