Feb. 5, 2007

- Here we go...the first month of the 2007 Panther Gymnastics Season is already over! Welcome back to our up close and personal looks at the season from an insiders perspective. Last year this feature was titled Dre's Diary; this year we have updated it to become Dre & Debbie! Dre (Andrea Arlotta), of course, is one of our senior gymnasts who shared her thoughts on our website throughout her junior year. But she is scheduled to graduate in April and we'll have to find a new Diary author. So, Deb (Head Coach Debbie Yohman) will share the duties this season and add the coaches' viewpoints. Feel free to send us your questions should you wish to hear about something in particular!

DRE'S DIARY
Hey everyone!

Well, the time has finally come and I hope you all are excited for a fun year because Pitt Gymnastics is ready to do some damage! We spent a lot of time this summer revamping our team standards and expectations and, I must say, it has paid off for us. Last year, in the 2005-06 gymnastics season, we started this process of revamping. We started attacking our lifting and conditioning workouts by maxing out in the weight room on our bench, squats, power cleans and clean and jerks. Conditioning was also targeted more towards gymnastics-related needs. At the end of last year, before summer, each returning gymnast was tested on their long jump, vertical jump, bench, squat, power clean, timed-mile and a series of three 200 yard sprints (with 48 seconds rest in between each). Everyone also had gymnastics requirements that they needed to fulfill by the time official practice started in August. If the lifting and conditioning requirements weren't met, people weren't allowed to be in the gym until they reached them. On top of this, we had a team intersquad about a month after practice started to see where people were on their skills and where they were supposed to be. From there, cuts were made and our team was selected

This year our team motto is ONE TEAM.ONE DREAM. In the fall, we spend some time before each practice talking about what that meant to each of us. We came up with some really good stuff. Debbie actually wrote them all down in her notebook, so maybe I can work on getting them in a diary for you all to see.

1-19-07 (Maryland, Michigan State and West Virginia)
This week we went up against some really good competition: Michigan State, West Virginia and Maryland. I think everyone was really excited to get the season started, and overall we looked like a strong, competitive team. Congrats to all the freshmen, too, for breaking into the whole college scene and doing so well! One of the most exciting parts of the meet for me (other than Victoria's floor routine ) was seeing how much the team has improved on vault. We have some really powerful girls in the lineup right now and instead of just doing vaults for a score, it seemed more like a vault squad that was putting on a show for the audience. Some of the really powerful vaults that you guys can look out for are going to be from Kirstin Dahlberg and Dani Bryan. Kirstin does a huge front handspring front pike, and Dani does an amazing yurchenko layout-half that I'm convinced will score a 10.0 if she sticks.

As for some of the areas that we need to work on, I would say our biggest focus is going to be on mentally fine-tuning things such as confidence and staying cool under pressure. When this comes, I think the rest will fall in place, especially on beam. Our depth on beam is ridiculous and everyone seems to be really consistent in practice. If we can get the confidence to attack beam like we do in our practices, that very well might be our best event. I'm excited to see how things work out. I have some really high expectations for this year. Our team unity is 100% stronger than it was last year and I think that this has helped us really live the ONE TEAM.ONE DREAM. motto. You can tell that everyone cares about each other and wants to help out in any way possible. If someone is having a bad day, the problem is never a lack of people trying to help. Everyone contributes, in some way, to reaching our team goals, and everyone brings something new to the table that no one else on the team can bring. To me, that's what ONE TEAM.ONE DREAM. is all about.

See you all on Saturday at 7 p.m. for the meet against New Hampshire and Air Force!

xoxo, Dre

DEB'S DIARY
This is Coach Debbie Yohman. I am in my 21st season here at Pitt. This one has been special so far. We have done a number of things that have been new for the team this past fall - I cannot believe it went so fast, and that it is February already. We have a large freshman class - seven newcomers who have brought a lot of talent and competitiveness to the gym as well as a lot of personality! It has been fun getting to know them and watching them gel as part of the group.

We began the fall with some heavy duty conditioning, but the team was up to the challenge and has felt good about our results. We participated in a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk the end of September (see our photo album) and some team building activities in the gym. After one particularly hard week of practice we took a breather and did some climbing on the Rock Wall next to our Training Center.

We have been working a lot with our Team Captains, as well as our Rising Leaders. The meetings have been helpful to coaches and athletes alike as we build the commitment to our program. "ONE TEAM, ONE DREAM!" We had several early pre-season intersquads or ranking meets to start working on one of our needs from last season - our competitiveness. And it's a pleasure to be able to say that along with the team becoming more competitive in the gym, we have definitely shown a more competitive demeanor on the meet floor. We also brought our Blue-Gold meet to the Fieldhouse. It was an entertaining event for our fans as we introduced our newest team members along with new & revised routines for returning gymnasts. Although it was a bit laid back as far as "competing" we did have officials there to evaluate sets, and we had two whole squads to showcase our depth on beam. It was great to get everyone out in front of the crowd.

We opened the season against a strong Michigan State team and EAGL opponents West Virginia and Maryland. Dre did the write up on this meet but I'd like to add my kudos and say that the team looks good, and we have the abilities to continue to get better with each weekly outing.

1-27-07 (Air Force and New Hampshire)
After a strong opening in front of a huge crowd last weekend we were looking forward to bringing it on against another EAGL foe and a new opponent to our schedule, Air Force. And true to our expectations and goals we improved on each event! Vault is awesome, and we'll progressively better with the landings and upgrades. Everyone hit for an improved outing on bars with Sammi DeBone adding a nice new combination and Kaitlin Harrison's clean set being rewarded with a career high. Beam was better, and we'll continue to challenge each other in the gym to forge a confident lineup with many contenders on any given day. Again, Sammi's new dismount combination really adds to her set, as does little Dree Konesky's dismount. Floor was superb and the team really performed well, a big crowd pleaser! Unfortunately Victoria was lost for the season to an Achilles injury and now ONE TEAM.ONE DREAM. takes on another meaning as everyone is asked to step up again to make up for her strong 10.0 vault and winning floor.

We head to Rutgers where we've had difficulty competing sometimes. But the gymnasts are focused, reinforced with our successes, and ready to continue.