This past Friday night your Bama gymnasts and coaches faced the Arkansas Razorbacks in historic Barnhill Arena. A great crowd helped cheer the Lady Razorbacks on but your Bama gymnasts performed steady and with confidence despite the most difficult judging we have faced all year.

I have learned over the course of 25 + years that you cannot always understand the rationale for scores in this subjective sport. I have been pleasantly surprised and pleased by our Coaches Association's efforts to help secure officials who would take the necessary deductions in terms of execution and composition this season. With several exceptions I have felt that the "escalation" of scores has been much better this season. While Friday night both teams experienced the most conservative judging I have seen in years. I tried to reinforce with our student-athletes that it was their performance that counted......not necessarily their score.

We will take from this experience and use it to make a better team both in execution and composition. I was proud of our victory......the University of Arkansas was looking for their first "Signature" win in the South Eastern Conference and I think our ladies realized this and took the challenge to heart. We are on the road to Palo Alto, San Francisco and the Stanford Cardinals this weekend. Most of you will not be able to join us so we hope you will tune in to the website at www.rolltide.com or www.gymtide.com to listen to our radio broadcast.