UM Gym.com

Hello to all of our Michigan gymnastics fans and friends,

It is finally here!  Our brand new UMGYM.com website!!  I would like to give a huge thank you to our booster club president Amy Hietala and Anjel Vahratian!  They were the ones who got this done and spent many hours working with Amy’s brother who built the new site for us!!  It is fantastic!!  I hope you all like it and find it easier to navigate.

Wow!  I can’t believe yet another season is upon us!  We have had a super fall and training is going extremely well!  We have added 3 new awesome freshman this year.  Natalie Beilstein, Brittnee Martinez, and Katie Zurales.  Natalie is from my old home town of Butler, PA.  She has certainly been a wonderful surprise this fall.  Her vaulting and tumbling is amazing and her bars and beam has improved a tremendous amount since she has been on campus.  I know you will all be amazed at the skill level she has and how impressive she is.  Brittnee came to us from Colorado Springs and was a national uneven bars champion and finished 4th in the All‑Around in 2009.  She should make a significant contribution to our program this season.  Last but not least Katie Zurales is from Illinois and sat out her senior year due to a hip problem.  She has been doing well and was almost ready to go in three events when she came down with mono.  So right now I’m afraid she is sitting out and trying to get well.  When she is healthy and ready to go she will be a super addition to our line‑ups and give us a big boost! She is a great athlete in the All‑Around and we hope she has a speedy recovery!!

The remainder of the team is looking awesome!!  Sarah and Kylee will be that one two punch in the All‑Around again and they will have strong line‑ups the rest of the way through.  Kelsey should be doing beam and hopefully bars this season.  Jackie will be in our floor and beam line ups out of the gate with shots at both bars and vault down the road.  Jordan Sexton is looking awesome on floor and beam and her bars is just about ready to go and looks awesome!  Kari Pearce sprained an ankle and is just now coming back to the point where she can train again on vault and tumbling which are her strengths.  We hope to have her back in line ups sometime in January.  Trish Wilson has been looking awesome on vault, bars, and beam.  She will be a key for us in those events this year!  Taylor Zondervan is getting close to being ready on floor exercise again this year.  She stepped in last year on floor with a clutch performance and lead us to a victory over Penn State in the last routine of the meet!  Every athlete plays a roll on this team and every person working together is what makes this team great!!  It has been a real pleasure working with these athletes this fall and I am really optimistic about what we can do this year!

Unlike last year when we had to start slow and build all season because of injuries etc… This year we hope to come out of the gate and show what we are made of.  These ladies are determined and they have worked as hard or harder than any team I have ever had in 21 years!  They are a great bunch of young women and with a little luck staying clear of illness and injury I look forward to great things for this group this season!!!

I hope to see everyone at our intrasquad Sat Dec 12th at 7pm.  It is going to be a blast!  We have John Bacon, Jamie Morris, Sam Webb, and Ira Winthrop as our “celebrity” judges.  They are going to need some help from the audience to pick the best performances of the evening so please come out to Crisler Arena and help cheer us on and meet the 2010 women’s gymnastics team!!

Go Blue!!

Bev