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.
Feb. 11, 2003
We are coming off an exhausting, yet exciting weekend.
We traveled to Stanford on Friday and had one of those meets where you don't know who's actually in your competition line-up until right before the meet starts. We kept trying to juggle our line-up to be able to put up two first string teams, one on Friday and one on Sunday at home, while keeping our main objective ... to keep everyone healthy.
On all fronts - we fared really well. The highlights of our Stanford meet were many. First, Jeanette Antolin earned her first 10.0 ever. She stuck a vault with tremendous amplitude and distance and an equally explosive smile that followed . Right after that, Trishna Patel blasted and nailed her vault, which brought many tears of joy from her teammates, who were thrilled that she was able to push past her vaulting attempt from the previous week. Then, we headed to beam, our last event, trailing Stanford by .35 and hit six for six. It was most exciting to see Christie Tedmon come in on beam for us in a pressured situation and nail her routine. (It's been a long year of rehab for her since she broke her toes the first meet of the season last year.)
The event was made even better by the support of some of our illustrious alumni, Donna Kemp (Gardner), Jill Andrews (Sprague), Caroline Lee and Scott Keswick. It was so great to see them again and to introduce them to our team. It's so important for our current team to know and appreciate their history.
On to Sunday's meet against Washington. Our goal was to not just hit our routines but to "put an exclamation point on the weekend." Our team and staff were pretty tired from a combination of things, but as the end of our team motto states, "No outs. No doubts. No excuses." We talked about it being up to each of us individually to create the excitement and enthusiasm for competing.
I have to say, competing in Pauley Pavilion is always exciting. The arena itself has hosted some of the most exciting events in the world, including the 1984 Olympic Games. However, without question, when Coach Wooden is in the stands, the air in Pauley gets a little more electrified. When our team ran out for the team introductions, some of the team members spotted Coach in the stands, and the buzz amongst the team started that "Coach is here again!"
We were able to compete a little more cleanly, stick a few more landings. As I asked of them before the meet ... the team put an exclamation point on their gymnastics! The result was tying the all-time national team record.
Once again, the meet was made complete by the support of some of our alumni, Coach Wooden, Coach Jim Bush, Mitch Gaylord, Mark and Chris Caso, and Joey Delowey were among the Bruin alum in the audience. It's such a great feeling having the alumni come back.
Most importantly - we were able to compete well, earn some high team scores and compete both meets without getting our team more physically banged up. It's all about staying healthy!
On to Arizona State this Sunday. Happy Valentine's Day to all, and we'll see you at our next home meet, February 23rd when the Arizona Wildcats come to town.
Until next week,
miss val