Over the course of the past three and a half months, the members of the Harrisburg Gymnastics Team has proven that they are capable of setting goals and achieving them. The highlighting factors of this season have been the team’s striving ability to conquer challenges, persevere against injuries, and watch hard work pay off.
The team has achieved many goals this season compared to last; each member and coach plays an important role in these highlighting moments. Freshman Lauren Hruby stated, “My favorite part of gymnastics is my teammates and the fact that we are all so close.” Fellow teammate and freshman Grace Stroschein justifies that, saying, “My favorite part has to be my teammates and how we all support each other and cheer everyone on.” The demonstration of teamwork and inclusion is essential to a hard-working team. Coach Hovda explains, “I love coaching because gymnastics is a sport that you have to be in the gym everyday if you want to keep the skills you have. Every day I walk into the gym, I ask myself... ‘How big is my impact today?’”
One challenge has limited the team though: injuries. In high school competitive gymnastics, eachindividual routine factors into the team’s overall placing. If teammates are out, it is much more difficult to score higher, as a team. Hovda says, “Little injuries that have taken a significant amount of time to fix have been mentally tough for everyone. The others have continually had to step up and perhaps learn something they are very scared of doing to get their start value higher to step in and cover points that we will otherwise miss.” Despite the setbacks, the girls pushed themselves and each other to strive for greatness!
This season the Harrisburg Gymnastics Team has proven that their sport is challenging both mentally and physically; long hours in the gym have enticed the athletes to grow stronger for the benefit of the team. The greatest achievement this season was the girls’ highest score of 119.9. This is nearly ten points greater than their previous year’s highest score. The HHS Gymnastics Team thanks their fans for an incredible season full of support and the ability to represent their school. The team even finished with freshman Lauren Hruby and eighth grader Emma Maeschen attending the high school State Gymnastics competition. As for the future, the team will host next season’s ESD competition.