"What is past is prologue," opined the immortal bard - and ol' Bill Shakespeare might have been talking about the college gymnastics season. The GymTide took care of business during the season and at SEC's; enough to get that all-important 'number 1 seeding' in their own Regional. However, everyone starts afresh now.

I'm not going to try to pretend, I get more nervous for Regionals than for any other meet of the year. No matter how well you've done during the year, it is place in the 'top two' or stay home for Nationals. And, as last season's close call in Corvallis showed, you can't afford to take anything for granted.

There's no reason why we can't sneak a look back over the season, however. It has been an eventful, and a most unusual one, indeed. I've collected up a few quotes along the way that might be of interest, as well.

· The GymTide averaged 10,570 fans per home meet for the season, a new school and Southeastern Conference attendance record.

· Ashley Miles competed in the all-around for the first time in her Alabama career at the Super Six Challenge. She not only won that all-around, but went on to win the next 4 all-arounds in which she was entered, and 6 out of the 8 total all-arounds in which she participated during the season.

· Terin Humphrey, of course, was the first gymnast who had competed in the Olympics to go on to compete for the GymTide. However, 2006 Tide signee Melanie Banville will be the second. Ms. Banville competed for the Canadian team at the Athens games, placing 24^th in the all-around.

· WVUA-FM's groundbreaking, full-season radio coverage of Alabama gymnastics continues to set records for listenership at the student-run station. WVUA-FM began its coverage of Alabama gymnastics on January 7^th, 2005 with station sports director, Chad Anderson, and the Medalist Club's Leesa Davis calling all the action. "I'm completely thrilled and motivated by the response of the listeners," Anderson said. "I knew with gymnastics being an elite program at Alabama that fans would give the broadcast a try, but I didn't think the response would be this large."

· The GymTide's tradition of complete domination of both the SEC's and the NCAA's academic awards was continued at the SEC Championship by senior Michele Reeser. Michelle was named the SEC Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of the Year in a post-meet ceremony. The accounting major, a three-year Scholastic All-American, carries a 3.96 grade point average for her career. Michele or 'Mouse', as her teammates call her, also has a team NCAA and a team SEC championship to her credit, has performed some of the most critical balance beam routines during her GymTide career, and is, perhaps, the most Bama-fan-beloved floor exercise performer.

· Shortly after the draws were announced, Auburn head coach Jeff Thompson spoke to Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News concerning the GymTigers' assignment to the Central Regional to begin their National Championship competition: "We're thrilled," he said. "We have an opportunity to do what we did two years ago. We come to Tuscaloosa, where all our fans can get to, and get to be the spoiler and knock off a couple of teams higher than us. I don't think the kids even know where we're going yet. I think they're going to be pumped. They're going to have their family and friends there, and it's such a great gymnastics crowd...The Bama fans have seen the transformation of this team," he said. "They know the kind of year we've had and how we've struggled with early injuries. What we found two years ago, and it was a little bit of a surprise, was that the Alabama fans were cheering for us. They wanted us to finish second and be the other team [to advance]."

· Another coach will bring a team to the Central Regional for a repeat performance, K. J. Kindler of Iowa State. After the Cyclones took on the GymTide at Coleman Coliseum earlier in the season, Coach Kindler had some complimentary things of her own to say about the Coleman Coliseum crowd and Bama's gymnastics program: "Alabama has a very classy program. They definitely set the bar for all the other teams. It was very exciting for us to come here. We enjoyed the crowd. This tells us where we're at."

· Staying with the same theme, Leesa Davis interviewed Terin Humphrey on GymTide radio after her first Bama competition, an uneven bars performance in Coleman Coliseum against the Iowa State Cyclones. Leesa asked Terin how the Bama gymnastics fans stacked up against the fans at the world performances in which she had participated: "Oh, [the Bama fans] are much better. It's so much fun, seeing them, it just makes me want to go out there and scream just like they're doing!"

· Every meet during a season seems to have a defining moment or two - good or bad. For instance, the first meet of the year, the Super Six Challenge, and the most recent meet, the SEC Championship, will likely be remembered for Bama's struggles in the first rotation of each meet. In both meets the GymTide rebounded in later rotations, but was unable completely to close the gap. The second meet, Bama's first home meet, as mentioned above, was Terin Humphrey's first competition - a most anticipated event in the Bama GymNation. The LSU meet followed that and was, perhaps, one of the best head-to-head contests between two equally matched gym teams that I have ever seen - and included Ashley Miles' first 10.0 of the year. The following meet, down in Gainesville against the GymGators, was nearly as good a meet and featured an outstanding 9.90 floor exercise performance by Erin Rightley subbing in for an ailing Alexis Brion. Of course, the Auburn meet was the 'Pink Meet', the Target the Cure night. As usual, the heavily 'underdog' Kentucky Wildcats came into Coleman Coliseum and turned everything topsy-turvy, actually leading after three rotations before the Bama floor team flexed their scoring muscles and took over the show. The next meet, Bama vs UGA in Athens, will be remembered for a small misunderstanding about the type of uneven bars that would be used - and a giant victory by the GymTide. The Arkansas meet was the 'judge's revenge' meet, while the Stanford meet was the 'Mari goes home' meet. Which brings us full circle to the North Carolina meet, the 'Senior Night' meet and the last regular season meet.

So, there are just a few of the memorable moments from the 2005 season. Naturally, we all hope there will be even more and greater things to come. One of the more interesting turn of events this year was when the coaches and gymnasts decided to reverse the tradition and elect team captains before, rather than after, the season. Junior Ashley Miles and senior Shannon Hrozek were tapped for the top spots, roles which they have fulfilled most admirably. If you watch carefully during the meets you'll often see Ashley and Shannon conferring, both together and together with the coaches. It's also interesting, but hardly surprising, just how much the gymnasts grow to reflect the values and high standards the coaching staff tries to impart to them. This was brought home to me by an interview with Shannon, once again by the redoubtable Tommy Deas of the Tuscaloosa News: "We can't be blunt all the time and not understanding," she said, "but there are some points when you can't be scared to be mean, to be blunt...Sometimes you've got to be down and dirty and say, 'That was awful. That won't do.' We had a bad set on beam last week [against Auburn] and I told them so. I was saying it and my score was the lowest one. You need that reality check from your leaders."

You go, girl - on to the Regional and to Nationals, Roll Tide!!!