Girls high school gymnastics in Colorado faces a difficult routine each season.
Challenges include facilities, handling expensive equipment, dealing with club teams and the fact that athletes for most teams come from here and there.
This season, there are 34 teams competing in Class 4A and 5A, and several teams go outside the school to practice. Participation figures for Colorado have remained stable with 545 gymnasts in 2015-16, 543 in 2014-15 and 481 in 2013-14.
Ponderosa is the lone Douglas County school with an in-house practice facility, which doubles as the wrestling room in the space located above and behind the west bleachers. However, if there is a pep assembly in the gym, the gymnastics equipment has to be taken down and set up again.
Thornton has one of the state's biggest gyms and the gymnastics equipment can remain separated for daily physical education classes.
Pomona has a permanent practice area located higher than the gym where meets are held. It takes hard work from athletes and coaches to move and set up the equipment, plus the Panthers lose two days of practice every time a home meet is scheduled because of the relocation.
And there are risks moving equipment with an estimated startup cost of $20,000, according to Athletic Business, an online and print publication that covers the sports industry. Facilities, equipment and a shortage of coaches that require safety certification is a reason budget-strapped school districts shy away from adding gymnastics programs. Most teams are co-op, drawing athletes from multiple schools in the district.
Finally, it is often hard for teams to convince athletes to compete as a high school gymnast and not on a club team, where they may get more attention from college recruiters.
I would have liked to offer an account on this season's top gymnastics teams and individuals but schedules are hard to find and results of meets can't be found, so that's another bad routine that gymnastics coaches face --; but one that can easily be fixed.
Pitching from the stretch
Wheat Ridge's Brandy Trengove looks as if she might have lost her direction and went to the softball pitching circle instead of the mound on the baseball field.
The senior left-hander starts in the stretch or set position, lifts her right leg and appears ready to throw a split-finger fastball or maybe attempt a pickoff move toward first base.
Somehow, she drops her arm and delivers an underhand softball pitch.
"She's unique," Wheat Ridge coach Jamie Heflin said. "She was having trouble pushing off and the pitching coach said let's try this. It gave her about four miles an hour more speed. Sometimes, we'll switch it up and throw a conventional pitch.
"Really in the science of pitching, it goes against all physical genetics."
Trengove is 9-5 this season with two saves.
Heisman Watch
UCLA went all out to limit the big play by Stanford junior running back Christian McCaffrey.
McCaffrey, a Valor Christian graduate, was the AP Player of the Year and the Heisman Trophy runner-up last season, but was limited to 138 yards rushing and 165 all-purpose yards in the Cardinals' 22-13 win over UCLA on Sept. 24.
Louisville sophomore quarterback is the early Heisman front-runner as he has thrown for 1,301 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed 510 yards and 12 touchdowns in three games. This season, McCaffrey has 635 all-purpose yards for an average of 211.6 per game in three contests.
Airing it out
Faith Christian used a statistically impressive passing attack to notch its first win of the season on Sept. 23 with a 34-7 triumph over Brush.
The Eagles passed for 349 yards, averaging 29.1 yards per completion.
from Lakewood Sentinel - Latest Stories http://lakewoodsentinel.com/stories/Gymnastics-teams-face-a-balancing-act,236228
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