A considerable amount of time has been spent since last year's team won the National Championship asking just that question. How good will the 2003 Tide be? What will the effect be of losing so many skilled and veteran gymnasts? Can the Tide's newcomers fill those very large shoes? Will the returning gymnasts be able to forge a new, cohesive team? How will the coaches respond to all the new faces in the gym? Will the Bama Nation continue its phenomenal support of the GymTide with so many long-time favorites gone? Will Bama's traditional place right at the top of the rankings be secure?

Last weekend's SEC Championship went a long way toward answering each of those questions, and more.

Bama started the meet on the vault, a doubly lucky occurrence for us because, not only were our seats in Bartow Arena close to the vault table, but Bama got to go in 'Olympic rotation' (vault, bars, beam, floor). Olympic rotation in a championship meet - what a refreshing change from last year! (OK, Olympic rotation with a twist - a 'seven-rotation-including-three-byes' twist.) Unlike a dual-meet, each event had four judges. The gymnast's score was computed by averaging the 'middle two' of the judge's scores. Jeana Rice led off for the Tide on vault, as has become customary over the last few meets. The hope, I'm sure, is that Jeana will set that first score high enough to kick off the rotation with a bang. Regular readers of this column (OK, a man can dream!) may recall that my usual spot in Coleman Coliseum is far away from the vault landing area. For this reason, I have never developed a real 'feel' for the vault and am more at the mercy of the judges. Having said that, I was surprised that Jeana received 'only' a 9.85 for what looked to be an excellent vault. (I later checked the PBA's play-by-play commentary and noted that they said, at the time, that Jeana's vault "can't be done any better than that.") Can it be that the old 'the first competitor in the first rotation can't get a high score' concept was involved? Going first does appear, at times, to be somewhat detrimental to one's scoring average. In Jeana's case, it serves to highlight another selfless and team-oriented act by one of the nation's top all-arounders, as least, so it seems to this admittedly biased reporter.

The vault proceeded with a 9.85 from Alexis Brion, who continues to improve by leaps and bounds (sorry). Kristin Sterner's 9.80 was destined to be 'thrown out' as the rotation's low score, but it seemed underscored a little, too (again, whadda I know!). Dana Pierce followed on with an awesome 9.875 vault. Lauren Holdefer's new 10.0 start value vault - which is far too complicated to describe, but I understand is called a 'Phelps' - netted her an excellent 9.85. Then Ashley Miles received a 9.90 for her vault; a score so low that it might have occasioned a bit of comic relief had the situation not been so grimly serious. (OK, maybe 'grimly serious' is a bit of a hyperbole!) In my defense, it should be remembered that, to me, calling what Ashley does a 'vault' is akin to calling the Hindenburg a 'balloon' - at least, in comparison with anyone else's vault. Be that as it may, the upshot was that the Tide finished with a 49.325, well within a tenth of their vault Regional Qualifying Score or 'RQS' of 49.385.

After a bye, the Tide continued on to the uneven bars. Shannon Hrozek led off with a 9.775. Our close-up, side-view vantage point afforded us an excellent position from which to see any deductions or form breaks. Of these we saw almost none in Shannon's routine, that is, none until she was forced to take a small balance step on her landing. Dana Filetti followed on with a solid 9.80. Her routine is truly intricate with a lot of twisting, pirouetting moves; really 'Olympic-y-looking', to coin a phrase. And what a dismount! Kristin Sterner, much like Shannon, had a really good routine going when she had to take several steps forward to keep from falling on her dismount. If her 9.60 put any extra pressure on the next up, Larissa Stewart, it didn't show. In fact, Larissa powered up to a 9.90 routine including my favorite dismount, the always impressive 'lay-out double back'. Jeana was next and I thought for a moment that she just might get a 10.0. Only one judge agreed, however. Honesty forces me to admit that the judge who gave her the 10.0 was at exactly the wrong angle to see the tiny, tiny, tiny amount of 'scissors' that Jeana's legs had on her 'release-from-the-high-bar-to-the-low-bar' handstand. If forced to give a deduction, I would have grudgingly given her a 9.95. The fact that she actually received a 9.925- and became the SEC Uneven Bars champion with that score - reflects more on the overall, consistently low scoring on bars Saturday night than on anything else. That point was further driven home by last up, Mari-Christine Bayer, who received a 9.875 for what was just a perfectly beautiful routine. BamaBars wound up with a 49.275, also within a tenth of their RQS of 49.36.

At this, the mid-point of the meet, Alabama and Georgia had taken a small lead on the rest of the field - with Bama holding a scant one tenth advantage over the GymDogs.

I have a confession to make about the Tide's next event, the balance beam. I was so far away that I could barely make out which gymnast was which! I could see the scoreboard, though, especially when Michele Reeser lit it up with a big-time leadoff 9.90. Dana Pierce was next and fell on her flight series, but only after a heroic effort to stay on. She wisely saved tenths by doing a good job with the rest of her routine and was awarded a 9.350 - not bad at all, considering. (You never know when you might have to count one of those scores.) Shannon and Mari followed Dana, calmly posting identical 9.825's. At this point, the meet had settled into a real 'dogfight'. Bama on beam and the GymDogs on floor were trading the lead back and forth with virtually every other routine. The usually reliable GymDog, Cory Fritzinger, posted a disappointing floor score of 9.75, which Kristin answered with an excellent 9.875. Sierra Sapunar then closed the gap with a well-deserved 9.90, which Jeana Rice opened back up with her SEC beam championship winning score of 9.95. Not to be outdone, Georgia's Chelsa Byrd narrowed the gap back down again with a powerful 9.975 - a score that would show back up later in the meet. In the end, Bama scored a 49.375 on beam and Georgia had a team floor score of 49.350, giving the Tide a 0.125 lead (147.975 to 147.850).

Alabama and Georgia then retired to their respective corners, both sitting out byes in the fifth rotation.

The sixth rotation turned into one for the ages. Both Georgia on the vault and Bama on the floor could well consider themselves to be in great shape, with each team going, arguably, to its best event. In fact, before the meet Georgia head coach Suzanne Yoculan had said, "vaulting is our best event, so we wanted to be on vault last." It would have been great, for the drama alone, if the teams could have gone into a 'dual-meet format' at this point, taking it time and about with routines. As it was, Georgia seemed to take full advantage of the rule allowing the vault rotation to use more than the 3-minute touch period to warm up. Bama was well into their rotation before the GymDogs threw their first vault. Even so, and even with the GymDogs seeming to take as long as was possible between vaults, they still finished up in plenty of time for Bama - and a sizable portion of the Bama-friendly crowd - to know exactly what the Tide needed to win the meet.

Michelle Reeser again led off and again put up a big floor score, 9.875. Lauren Holdefer followed her with a fine routine for a 9.85. All during this time, Georgia was putting up 9.90 after 9.925 after 9.90. Senior Kristin Sterner was undismayed by the GymDogs success, however, as she placed the whole Tide team on her back and carried them to a big-time 9.95. Jeana then chipped in a 9.875 as Georgia's Chelsa Byrd prepared for her 'anchor position' vault. And what a vault it was - a perfect 10.0. Yet, even as the GymDog fans cheered wildly, Stephanie Kite was putting the finishing touches on her finest floor routine of the year. With Stephanie's 9.925 posted and Georgia's vault team totaled out with an awesome 49.650, the whole focus of the meet narrowed down on the powerful frame of Tide freshman phenom and floor team anchor, Ashley Miles. "She needs a 9.925 to tie," reported Salsa, as she feverishly checked and rechecked the scores. Coach Patterson stopped by briefly at the scorer's table, as we later learned, to hear the same information.

In all the years I have been watching gymnastics, I think this was the first time that I literally held my breath during each tumbling pass of a floor routine. For me at least, Ashley's routine had the kind of suspense and tension usually associated only with the balance beam. There was just such an ebb and flo to it. First the giant layout, double back - successfully negotiated. Then some dance into the intricate middle pass - no problem. More dance and playing to the crowd, followed by a brief pause in the corner before the final, dismount pass. You could hear her teammates and voices in the crowd yelling encouragement, "Go, Ashley!" "Go, Ash!" "You got it!" "You can do it!" Then - the rush across the mat...the hurdle...the big round-off...up in the air...tumbling...tumbling...perfect landing...finish off with a flourish and salute the judges as the crowd explodes! 9.975! 2003 SEC Champions!

The seventh rotation, necessitated by the inclusion of first-year Arkansas, was the anticlimax of all anticlimaxes. It did allow for a bit of a breather, though, before the award ceremony - during which Bama was well represented. I will only hit the highlights of that. The peerless Jeana Rice was the 2003 SEC Bars, Beam, and All-Around Champion, and the SEC Gymnastics Athlete of the Year Co-Champion along with Chelsa Byrd (who's 10.0 netted her the SEC vault championship). Ashley Miles and Chelsa Byrd were Co-Champions on the Floor. Auburn's Coach Jeff Thompson was awarded SEC Coach of the Year, a well-deserved honor. Under Coach Thompson, Auburn turned a corner this year, in my opinion, and is now much, much more of a contender than a pretender.

Without taking anything away from Coach Thompson's fine effort, I think there were, at least, two other coaching performances worthy of an honorable mention. Mark and Rene Cook, co-head coaches at Arkansas, really did the impossible. They started a program, pulled in a lot of fans to their meets, and even had a little success in the universe's toughest known women's collegiate gymnastics conference - no mean feat. Also, of course, Coach Sarah Patterson and staff, who lost most of a National Championship team, only to find the nucleus of a young, very skilled, and confident SEC Championship team - also no mean feat. However, on the 'Hey Coach!' radio show Monday night, Coach Patterson was more than willing to share the credit for her team's success with her senior stand-out, Kristin Sterner: "...This is her team. I told her that, what she has done this year - and whatever happens in the next three years - Kristin Sterner is a part of our success because she has helped build this team..."

Even after winning the conference title, the GymTide has yet to have it's best meet, in my opinion. They just have so much potential, so much talent. I wouldn't even want to hazard a guess as to Bama's starting line-ups for the Central Regional (set for Tuscaloosa, Saturday, April 12th at 6:00), much less try to guess how the Regional will turn out. However, potential is just that, potential. They still have to go out and 'get the job done'. Somehow, I have a feeling that the Tide will do just that. Now, I don't want to get too far ahead of events, and I sure don't want to start making too many assumptions about the future. But, I did start this article with the question: How good are they?

Good enough.

Roll Tide!!!