Looking back at the Blue/Gold vs. Pittsburgh and then to what lies ahead

By Craig Ballard

Assistant coach

Looking back at Friday night's Blue-Gold Exhibition vs. Pittsburgh, we had a rough start on vault for what we had and who was in the lineup. But then to come back from that and do as well as we did in the other three events was outstanding.

We saw some bright spots from our newcomers that we were looking for. Skyelee Lamano, a freshman from Utah, put that bar routine together. We tweaked some things a week before the meet on Friday, and she stepped up and did a very nice job.

Rebecca Osmer, being a transfer, came in and hit a bar routine that will be big for us. Olivia Trout did exactly what we asked of her. We are excited about what she can do. And then Jaymi Baxter came in and made every routine. That was nice to see new people stepping in.

Now as we see Marie Case and Whitnee Johnson coming back at 100 percent, we should be okay. After this break, we could be very close to 100 percent as a team. Whitnee’s injury could take a little bit longer to be back doing the all-around, but if we can get her back on vault I will feel very confident about our vault team.

Friday night was as bad as we vaulted since I’ve been here. I think some of it was a little bit due to the crash early with Jordan Hardison, and some of it was the turnover in the lineup. That’s the most turnover we’ve had in the vault, so we have some new people learning new vaults and freshmen trying to step in. I think we also got pretty excited. We came right out of the gate and you saw a few people go very hard, then try to calm themselves down and end up calming themselves down a little too much. Finding that equilibrium on the event is something we have to work on, but we’ll get it fixed by the time we go to Southeast Missouri in January.

With the crash, I think Jordan got just a little excited. She really wanted to do a good job and she made a little mistake on her vault. But she is going to be fine. Whenever she is 100 percent, she will be back in the lineup. We are expecting big things from her.

It is finals week now. We’ll open the gym up in the afternoons for whoever wants to show up. We kind of use it as a little study break because our student-athletes are pretty good academically. This gives them a chance to get away from studying for a little bit. They can come in and stretch and do some basic stuff. We are back full swing with practice on Dec. 27, and then ready to go Southeast Missouri on Jan. 12.

Getting Ready for Tonight's Blue/Gold with Pittsburgh

By Brice Biggin

Head Coach

We are obviously anxious as coaches to see where we are tonight during our Blue & Gold meet with Pittsburgh at the M.A.C. Center.

We have a couple of injuries on the team that are holding us back from where we think we will be later in the year. Considering that, it will be important to see some kids step up and be able to contribute to fill in for a couple of our athletes who are down right now.

A few of our main kids are going to miss a few events, and potentially they will be out for the first three-to-five weeks of the competitive season. So again, we’ll need to find some more kids tonight who can show they are ready to compete at this level.

We are excited to see how far several of our student-athletes have come since last season. Nicole Radon came here as a walk-on, and she is a really a super nice kid out of Buffalo who has steadily progressed through her two years here and now into junior season. She competed a little bit on floor the last two years and became more and more consistent. She is expected to be a staple on floor this year. 

Nicole has also competed on beam for us, and we are seeing her gain a lot more confidence there. The confidence-factor is a huge issue, especially when you are talking about beam. Nicole continues to grow into a very confident competitor to where we are looking to see if she can handle the pressure of competing in multiple events for us this season. She has also come a long way on vault, so she could potentially be in on three events for us.

Nicolle Eastman is a sophomore who had a great freshman season. Coming into the second year, you always wonder if someone will go through that dreaded sophomore slump. For us to be at our best, Nicolle has to have another good, solid year.

Sometimes kids just put so much pressure on themselves after they have a great first year. We need to get to them and make sure they understand that it is okay to struggle a little bit here and there. But when you let it build up to the point where it is affecting you, obviously that’s not a good situation. They need to understand that, yes, you had a good freshman year, but you are still human and you are going to make mistakes. I’ve talked to Nicolle a little bit already about not being her own worst enemy. Sometimes athletes are so driven that if they don’t do something perfect, they get on themselves much harder than we would ever get on them. Instead of being your worst enemy, you have to be your own best friend.

The good thing is Nicolle is a pretty steady and determined young lady, so I’m hoping she won't have to deal with that issue.

Amiah Mims is someone we are looking to make a big turnaround this year. When you talk about sophomore slumps, she went through one last year. It happens. She had a great freshman year, and then last year experienced some issues, including a concussion at mid-season. She never regained the form of her freshman year. 

But Amiah has had a great first semester. She is working extremely hard and she is already performing well above where she was as a freshman. I think she is turned around. She has her head screwed on straight. I’m expecting her to have a huge impact tonight and getting ahead of where she was before.

Marie Case is a big leader for us, but she is a little bit down right now. She is not doing floor or vault. She is frustrated because she wants to be out there, but her ankle will not allow it. She’ll be able to be on bars and beam, and we need her to be a rock over there. But when it comes to floor, she has been our top kid, and she has been since she arrived here. It’s tough to throw out a 9.9 week in and week out.

We’ll do some tinkering tonight to get ready for the season. There may be a kid or two who would regularly be in a spot, but we’ll want to take a look at a younger kid or two who may not be quite ready, but we know they could be the future. Will it be this year or next year for those athletes? If they continue to improve, they may be able to have an impact this season.

Olivia Trout is one of those freshmen who will be in on two events tonight, balance beam being one of them. Any time you are looking at putting a freshman in on balance beam, it is really interesting to see how she handles that first time out in front of the crowd, the judges and with something else on the line. So many of these kids come from private clubs where the only thing that matters is what they do for themselves. Now they walk into a team setting where if they screw up, it impacts everyone else on the team. A lot of kids are not used to that in this sport. Some kids relish it and feed off of it. Some kids struggle a little bit. 

I think Olivia has some great potential on beam and floor, and she can be good in the other two events as well. We just had a little talk with her yesterday about understanding that her consistency needs to improve for us to be confident in putting her in at this level. It will be interesting to see her tonight.

Jordan Hardison is another freshman in a similar situation. She has the potential to be a very good vaulter, beam worker and floor worker. But we’ve also seen little bits of being timid when you put her out in front of other people. Sometimes she’ll do a great job. Sometimes she will falter a little bit. We’ll find out tonight how she handles that pressure.

If we are going to be good, it’s kids like Olivia and Jordan who have to step up and produce. We are not a sport like a lot of other sports where the freshman class has a chance to sit back, wait, watch and mature. We don’t have the fifth-year people. We just lost a very good senior class, so if we are waiting for the freshmen to mature for a year, then that means we have just two classes to work with. That’s not going to work, so we need the freshmen to step up right away. Two kids like Olivia and Jordan are going to be extremely important to our success.

Another one we are really curious to see tonight is Jaymi Baxter, who is a sophomore this year who didn’t compete last year. She had an ACL injury in the middle of her senior season of high school. In between getting her skills back and regaining her strength, she didn’t have much of a freshman year. But she is a very talented young lady who is coming along very well on vault and bars. She has great lines. In those two events in particular, we are looking for some upgrades on routines. She gives us the potential of a really good vault and a really nice bar routine. 

We are going to have to try to replace Lindsay Runyan and Rachel Guida, and those are two tough routines to replace on bar. Jaymi is one of those kids who I think can replace one of those routines. Rebecca Osmer is another kid who can potentially replace one of those routines as well. It will be interesting to see how Rebecca handles the transition coming over from Towson. She shows great potential over there as well. Between those two kids, I think we’ll be able to take a look at some athletes who can become very contributors for us this year.