To see Stephanie Woods perform is to realize grace embodied, to instantly become a gymnastics fan and to turn green with envy.

Here's Steph. Perched on the end of a four-inch-wide beam, four feet off the ground. One leg perfectly planted on the plank and the other fully extended with her ankle to her ear--toes perfectly pointed.

Did you catch it a few seconds earlier, when she was on the same end of the beam, turned the opposite direction and grabbed her foot from behind her and pulled it over her head? It's a move that's been called a scorpion, but Stephanie will just call it a "leg thing." The style events in women's gymnastics belong to Stephanie Woods. She's always the crowd favorite on balance beam, on which she scored a 10 earlier this season. And, she's the reigning NCAA uneven bars champion.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that the Texan's future career will be based on her personal style and taste. She's an interior design major with sights on becoming a designing woman. "After graduation, I'm going to go home and hopefully work in a design firm," she said. "What I really hope is that I can gain a lot of experience in the residential design area. I want to know enough to own my own business one day."

Can you imagine Stephanie Woods needing to get any experience in style?

Likewise, can you imagine an Alabama gymnastics team without Stephanie Woods? Thankfully, her recruitment was clear-cut enough.

"My club was Capital gymnastics-which is where Sheryl Dundas and Kara Stilp trained," she said. "So the whole recruitment process was neat for me because Sarah and David had already come down recruiting Sheryl and Kara. Plus, they would always tell me how much fun they were having, how they loved Alabama and what I could expect. I knew as a junior in high school I wanted to come here."

Like almost everyone else, it was the visit that secured her decision. "I visited here first," she continued, "and found everything I wanted. I had two other visits scheduled-to Utah and Michigan-and I canceled them. Alabama was and has been all I wanted it to be."

But face it fans, this is our last year to enjoy that confident feeling of Stephanie being the rock-solid anchor on beam and bars. But, the senior says we should not worry about the future of the team, and that she's enjoyed her senior status.

"As far as the team this year goes," she reports, "we have been doing a great job with consistency. Of course, we're still working on new tricks. But as far as the rest of this year, if we keep confidence and consistency up, we will have a great end of the year."

But what about the future? Even though she can't comment specifically about recruits, "They all look really good," Woods said with a blanket opinion.

On her leadership role this year, Woods said seniors have a great impact.

"Freshmen look up to seniors," she said. "They are the leaders of the team. But last year as juniors, we all felt leadership was partly on our shoulders as well as on the seniors'. And this year, our juniors are certainly stepping into that role, too. Especially during practice."

And you can look at her perform and know Woods has logged her fair share of hours in the gym.

"What I have had to spend the most time on is learning to point my toes," she remembers. "I started gymnastics when I was five, and I used to point my toes to the side. It took a lot of work to get them to point straight."

Notice she didn't mention that it took a lot of work to get her body into the contortions which are her signature. "I've just always been flexible. Not to say I didn't have to work hard at learning those leg skills, but I wasn't trained to be flexible. I've just always been."

Even though her flexibility is a natural trait, the tumbling hasn't always been. "Now, if you want to know what I have to work on-flip flops take work."

Her flip flop combination is when she fell during the Georgia meet.

"I fell on my flip flop, flip flop, lay out," she said. "It wasn't something I was expecting since when I started to go for it, I didn't feel like I was crooked. Obviously, I was crooked and there was no way for me to stay up. But I'm fine with it. It's just something that happens. I'm not upset. It's a mistake that happens, and it's something I have to work on. I worked on it today in practice, and I'll have it better for the next meet."

Georgia coach Suzanne Yoculan commented in the papers after the meet that Stephanie wouldn't have fallen if the meet had been closer, which brings a response from Woods.

"I didn't know how close the meet was. I knew we were behind, but I didn't know by how much. I wasn't worried," she said. "Plus, it didn't matter if I did know. What went wrong is something you can't control. If I could have controlled it, I would have made it."

Woods said, despite the loss, the meet was probably the best so far this season-before senior night, of course.

"I thought the meet itself was a really great meet," she said. "As far as coming together, and being right there for everybody, it's the best meet we've had. The team spirit was more evident than at any other time. Usually, when we're warming up bars, we have a few people standing in one group and a few people standing in another group and we have to pull people together."

But she said this meet was different. "We were always together. We warmed up events together, and that made the meet so much more fun. The fact that we were at Georgia might have had something to do with it, but I really think it was just our team coming together."

Wood's reception at home is much different, as you would expect. In Tuscaloosa, she's a crowd favorite.

"I really love our crowd," she said. "Especially when we march, out, the welcome they give us really pumps the team up."

Have you ever wondered if crowd noise affects the gymnasts on beam? Woods wants you to cheer her on-but to also understand she probably won't be able to hear it.

"It doesn't matter what happens when I'm on the beam," she said, "because I can't hear anything. I'm too busy concentrating. I may hear stuff, but I don't comprehend what's being said. In the gym, we do our beam routines to music and I like that. It takes our mind off what we're doing. At meets, I always think I'm going to remember the song from the gym and sing it to myself as I go through the routine, but I never remember it."

She's too busy coaching herself through her routine. "I tell myself the same things during my routine. Like to keep my legs straight and not to split too soon. At the end of my illusion, I tell myself not to come out early-which I have a tendency to do. Right before I go up, I say one word to myself, 'concentrate.'"

And her concentration obviously paid off, with her first perfect score earlier this season.

"I am still really excited about the 10 on the beam," she said with a "whew" implied. "At the very best, I wanted one before my career was over. It's my favorite event and I just wanted that 10."

Everything went how she wanted it, she remembers. "Usually, when the first half of the routine goes well, I'll mess up on something in the second half. I knew that even if I didn't get a 10, it was one of my best routines. And, when it came up, I was just so excited. I thought to myself, 'I finally got one'. And it was so much more special that it was at home. In front of the home crowd."

And her reaction to the score was typical calm, cool Stephanie Woods. She was huddled with her teammates, busy receiving hugs and hearing screams for her accomplishments. It was, to her, a team victory instead of a personal one. But finally, Sarah nudged her out from the pack to acknowledge the crowd who had leapt to its feet for one of its favorites.

"Whenever I do something well," she said, "I don't jump up and down. I'm just not one of those people. For me, a clap and a smile show my excitement. I know I give the impression of the shy, quiet type, but I'm very talkative-especially in the gym. But, mostly I probably do consider myself shy."

"I am very competitive," she points out. "You might think I'm pretty laid back at the meets, but I'm more concentrating on doing a good job. I'm just a very relaxed person, and I don't really get nervous."

That's the Stephanie Woods approach. We'll miss it on the bars and beam next year, but we'll also know she has planned her life around matters of style.

Steve Kent