March 14, 2005

LOGAN, Utah - Dear Aggie Fans,

I did not decide to continue my gymnastics career into college until the end of my sophomore year in high school. Like myself, my older brother had competed in gymnastics his entire life and was graduating from high school. Ever since he was little he wanted to compete for the University of Iowa. Then, about a month before he graduated, he decided he did not want to do the sport that he had loved so much anymore. That summer it seemed like everyone was asking him what university he was going to compete for the following year. That is when I realized, like his, gymnastics is my identity. Even though I have not competed for Utah State yet this year, coming to USU has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. When I came on my recruiting trip, I instantly knew this is where I wanted to be. I really liked the campus and the city of Logan, but most of all the team. They made me want to come to Utah State and during the forty-eight hours that I spent with them, I knew that I wanted to be an Aggie.

Last Thursday we competed at BYU. We have been concentrating on staying together as a team. During warm-ups we did not do a very good job with that and were a little shaky on each event, but with the help of the some motivational and encouraging words from our captains, we came out of the locker room an entirely different team. We started on bars, where we did very well, hitting six for six and setting our season high. Then we went to vault and floor where we experienced some very unexpected falls. We finished the meet off well with beam, our strongest event. Throughout the meet, we were constantly cheering for each other and pumping each other up. Our performance on beam gave us a total score of 195.1 which was good enough to move us up in the rankings. Great job ladies!!!

Sincerely, Ana Rickard

Dear Aggie Fans,

Wow, I can not believe this season is already almost over! This Monday night will already be our last home meet of the season. It seems as if we just started competing yesterday! Already seeing how fast this season has gone by makes me cringe at the thought of how fast my college experience is going to be! All the meets have been fun and we are all really pumped to be competing for the last time at home against Southern Utah. The only thing we can do is go out there and hit 24 for 24 and stay together as a team!

Speaking of the team, this group of girls makes up the best team I have ever been on! Everyone gets along so well. I have always had teammates in club, but club is so much different. It is mostly individual and you go out there and do it for yourself and then the team. In college it is all about the team. You do everything for the team and it really makes it that much better! You never really know what team is until you participate in a college team. I have so much fun with this team whether it is practicing, at meets or just hanging out!

Sincerely, Jaymie Goodsell

Dear Aggie Fans,

From our earliest team meetings, our fundamental goal as a team was to "expect more" of each other and ourselves for the 2004-2005 season. And the methods outlined to achieve this goal were to: 1. Be selfless. 2. Be prepared. 3. Perform high quality gymnastics. 4. Be disciplined. 5. Act like it.

Every day in the gym, and on the floor of competition, I witness many examples to fit each one of these criteria for success. As a team we have been unified under the same goals, and because of this team cohesion, we are currently ranked among the top-25 collegiate gymnastics teams in the nation. While this is a great achievement, we will not be content. We will continue to "scratch and claw" our way to the top of the list and the height of our accomplishments.

Coming into the program as a walk-on freshman, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from college gymnastics. I always told myself, and others, that the reason I wanted to continue my gymnastics career in college was because of the excitement that comes from competing for a team and not merely myself. Naively, I had no idea what "team togetherness" even meant until I came to USU to start training in the summer. Immediately it became evident to me how lucky I was to be working with a team that not only had a tremendous amount of talent, but even more importantly, a tremendous amount of heart and love for the sport of gymnastics.

It is hard for me to put into words the amount of respect I have for each and every member of this Aggie gymnastics team and coaching staff. Katie Rutherford provided us with a quote that pretty much sums up what my new-found philosophy towards gymnastics: "I play for the love of the game. For the pride and honor, for the blood, sweat and tears it takes to make the team, to earn the spot, to win the game. I play because I can, I play because I know my life would be empty without the sport I play...I'm an athlete. I'm a girl. I'm a champion, not because my team always wins, but because when we don't, we learn from our mistakes. We try to fix them, and most of all because we have FUN."

Thank you Aggie gymnasts, coaches and fans for showing me how much "fun" gymnastics can be.

Sincerely, Kelly Patterson