Weekly diary by Valorie Kondos Field, head coach for UCLA's women's gymnastics team.
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January 12, 2004
UCLA vs. Utah, Pauley Pavilion, January 10th - "The Best in the West". For the most part, our opening meet was extremely exciting and a lot of fun. It was great to see our fans really enjoy the meet and show such excitement and enthusiasm the entire night. In the past, we won two national championships (2001 and 2003) that started off with our first person up falling. I remember thinking at the time "O.K., this is going to be a long night." I got that same feeling when we started on vault and our first two competitors went down. Happily, after that it was one exciting moment after another.
Highlights of the meet:
Kristen Maloney - seeing Kristen come back and compete on three events after not having done gymnastics for two years was so incredibly impressive. Such a lesson in desire, perseverance and focus.
Lori Winn - I think it's fair to say Lori was emotionally stressed this last week. In fact, that's putting it mildly. She was literally petrified to compete. I am so impressed with the fact that she let her team and coaches help her through it in helping her enjoy the experience and consequently perform amazingly in her opening meet as a Bruin.
Aimee Walker - Aimee wasn't slated to compete because of inconsistency in the gym. However, ever since I recruited her, one of the things she has told me over and over is "I love to compete." When we needed someone to fill in on bars and floor I told Chris Waller, "Let's see if she really does love to compete." Oh my goodnesss, does Aimee LOVE to compete. She's one of those athletes who is actually calmer on the competition floor than in the gym. When she finished her floor routine, she threw kisses to the crowd and was waving both hands at them all around the arena. When I asked her if she knew that she got a standing ovation, she said, "No - I really can't see that far. I just wanted everyone to know how happy I am to be back competing."
Kisha Auld - I loved it when the announcer announced Kisha going up on exhibition vault, and that she was a "former level 8 state runner-up" and then she busts out a Tsukahara layout full that she just started learning in September and scores a 9.7 on it.
In thinking back over these highlights and the rest of the meet, the most vivid picture that stands out above everything else is the composure of our team. With all of the highlights, the firsts, the uncertainties that come with competing a lot of freshmen, plus having to substitute quite a bit, there was never any drama. There were no distractions. Everyone just went up and did their job. Wow - that just hit me. The fact that "Calm/Confidence" is always our goal, and that we got a firm step forward toward it our first meet out.
The comment I've heard most since our meet is how much fun it was to see so many new Bruins compete. We are a different team this year. It's going to take a bit longer than it has in the past to get consistent and figure out who our top competitors are. However, it is an exciting process.
~miss val