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. 28, 2002
"The Good the Bad and the Ugly"… wasn't that a Clint Eastwood movie?
Well, this past weekend at Arizona, that could have described our competition. Actually, it was more like "The Good, the Not So Good, and the Alarming."
The "Alarming" - During our first three-minute touch warm-up on bars, Kristin Parker had an uncharacteristic wrap-around and fall on the high bar. She is injury free and fine now but didn't compete in the meet. It took everyone's breath away!
We went into our meet against Arizona with the decision to rest a few of our top six - Yvonne Tousek, Doni Thompson, and Malia Jones - on a few events. With Kristin Parker out from her bar fall, we dug even deeper into our reserves and competed everyone we had!
Once again, we found ourselves in one of those meets where we're not quite certain what our reserves will do in competition. We talked a lot about the fact that everyone on our team is our "A" team. Therefore, everyone is expected to compete with confidence and "Bruin Pride". Except for a few vaults that didn't get to their feet, (that part was the "Not So Good") we had a fun, exciting, and extremely rewarding meet.
Meet Highlight … "The Good": One of our sophomores, Jamie Williams, doesn't compete a lot for us. In fact, the times on which she had been called to compete last year, she got so wrapped up in not wanting to let her teammates down that she practically hyperventilated before even getting on the equipment. We asked Jamie if she wanted to compete this last weekend because she is from Arizona. She said that competing in front of all of her family, friends and old teammates would actually make her more nervous - so she asked if she could "respectfully decline."
With Parker out, Jamie had to come in on floor and compete a routine she hasn't hit once during workout without a spot on her tumbling. As she was in the corner waiting to salute the floor judge, I started to see that deer-in-the-headlight stare come on. Very honestly I told her that this floor routine she was about to do wasn't about proving herself to all of her family and friends from Arizona - it was about her UCLA teammates and especially Kristin Parker. She needed to go out and compete with confidence because Kristin felt horrible about not being able to compete.
Jamie nailed her first tumbling pass, a double pike, and said she was so excited when she landed because instead of seeing a mass of blue (the floor ex. mat in her face), she had done her first pass so well she landed straight up and down and saw a bunch of smiling faces (she wasn't used to that). She was all smiles after that and drilled the rest of her routine. All of us Bruins couldn't contain our excitement for her and sprinted on the floor mat to smother her with congratulatory hugs before she even had a chance to finish saluting the judge.
Jamie has been telling me for a few months now that she was going to "bust out" - I kept asking her when exactly she was planning on doing this. What a tremendous reward for her to be able to "bust out" when her teammates needed her most, and in front of a crowd filled with family and friends. It couldn't have been scripted better.
Another "Good": Valerie Velasco, one of our seniors, the one on our team who for the last three years has always been our "first alternate" on every event, competed in the all-around for us and ended up finishing second. It is so rewarding for the athletes when they, as alternates, come into the competition lineup and hit their routines. It helps them to feel that they're really able to help their team out when it matters most.
It's been a hard 15 days - five meets in 15 days. We're looking forward to two weeks of rest and regrouping for what we're calling the second half of our season.