Today was the first official practice for the Alabama Gymnastics team.  PBAs, Salto and a host of other interested observers stormed the gymnastics complex to see what the gals were up to.  Several eye-popping elements were being thrown by the veterans and we are happy to report that everyone is in excellent shape for so early in the fall practice season. One bit of news included the decision by Johnna Gay, a walk on from Mobile, to discontinue college gymnastics.  Johnna earned Scholastic All America honors her freshman year and exhibited last season on the vault and on the floor exercise at the LSU meet in Baton Rouge, where she scored a 9.825.  Best of luck to Johnna as she continues her education at the Capstone.  Another bit of news involved newcomer Jessie Silver from Forney, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), who has walked onto the team for 2005.  Now onto the highlights!

Shannon Hrozek: PBAs noticed Shannon to be in excellent condition as usual and ready to compete.  The senior from Texas was working on her bar routine, which now includes a Shaposhnikova release to go along with her signature Gienger.  Shannon also worked a lot on her new dismount, a double layout.  Looks like the summer voluntary work-outs are already paying off in terms of helping Shannon upgrade her bar routine with the hope of earning All America status on this event. On the balance beam she was upgrading her flight series to a bhs-layout-layout to move her towards the anchor position of the line-up. 

Alexis Brion: The Virginia Beach, Virginia senior is in excellent shape as well and was working on her vault and balance beam routines along with the uneven bars (transition moves and giants, building upper body endurance).  Could the all-around be far behind for her final season?

Michelle Reeser: "Mouse" seems determined to roar like a lion in her final year of competition and was busy working on a tucked full-in as her opening pass on the floor. Balance beam and uneven bars were also garnering her attention on this date.  We will have more to report on which skills she will be possibly upgrading on these events in the coming weeks.

Ashley Miles: The San Antonio junior was doing several reps on the balance beam to prepare for the all-around in '05.  She mounted with a round-off layout onto the beam and was practicing timers for a double back dismount.  Leaps and flight series (gainer bhs-layout) looked solid.  She vaulted the Yurchenko 1/1 on the soft mats and was consistently nailing these to the point that David Patterson finally waved her off to more challenging work on the beam.

Mari-Christine Bayer: What stood out about the San Jose junior on this date was her work on the uneven bars, which included a new double layout dismount as well.  She was also doing new dance moves on the balance beam with Coach Patterson's help and possibly will be throwing a new vault since the Tide already has several gymnasts performing the Yurchenko 1/1. We'll have more to report on this in the coming weeks as well.

Dana Pierce: The junior from Advance, Indiana is in great shape as well and was working through her beam and bars routines primarily.  She was working a double layout dismount off the bars, which will be one of her primary objectives for the '05 season and she was also doing vaulting timers into the pits.

Dana Filetti: Her balance beam flight series is being upgraded to a handstand to immediate layout-layout and David Patterson was spotting her on this move.  She showed nice progress with this element during the course of the afternoon.  On uneven bars she was working the double front with a ½ twist into the pits.  She vaulted the Yurchenko full twist on-back pike off into the pits.  Dana was also in terrific shape for the beginning of Fall practice.

Rachael Delahoussaye: The Mandeville, Lousiana native was working her timers on the floor (front tumbling) and on bars and beam.  Word up is that almost all of the routines will have upgraded dismounts on the balance beam this year, including Rachael's.

Brittany Comeaux: PBAs saw her working the vault, uneven bars and the balance beam (front walkover to Korbut) on this date.  Her double front dismount off the bars was solid as ever. Her pinball vault was executed in the pits with nice amplitude.

Erin Rightley: She showed very nice body lines on the uneven bars, working timers and half turns primarily.  On the beam she had a gorgeous switch leap combination and a straddle-straddle-wolf combination that showed fantastic toe point and amplitude.  Hopefully we will see her master the power of her huge double pike on the floor so that she will have a chance to compete for a spot in the line-up.

Meredith Laxton: She was working a round-off 1 ½ dismount, missing it only one time.  Flight series of a ff-layout-ff looked a little rusty but she had nice lines on the uneven bars, working on giants and pirouettes primarily.

Kaitlin White: Since we first saw her as a junior international elite at the USA Nationals, this Allen, Texas gal has grown many inches and now just brushes below Ashley in total height.  And that transfers to more power on the floor and vault! She has a very powerful stride on the vault runway and was working the uneven bars and the balance beam as well on this date. She throws a nice switch leap to straddle Popa on the beam. Looking good!

Mindy Weber: Rehab conditioning was the main focus of this practice but she also was allowed to do giants and pirouettes on the uneven bars with David spotting her.  The coaches were asking her to do more controlled moves on the floor as well to prepare for return to full tumbling in the next 4-6 weeks.  Mindy was in noticeably great shape for an incoming freshman.

Jessie Silver: She is tiny like Michelle Reeser and even tumbles back handsprings very quickly like Mouse does on the floor.  Skills will be gradually built up as she has been away from gymnastics competitively for about 1½ years.  The coaches have been impressed so far with her attitude and work ethic in the gym.

Look for more practice reports in the next few weeks with more details.  Ghosts versus Goblins will be here before you know it. ROLL TIDE ROLL!