Greetings Bama gymnastics fans and visitors, welcome to another exciting gymnastics season here on GymTide.com. If you've been visiting the site over the last several weeks, you know that we have been making some changes and additions. Stay tuned, there are even more on the way! We hope that these changes will help us do even a better job of bringing the sights, sounds, and stories of Crimson Tide gymnastics to you, the fan. If you'll pardon us blowing our own horn a little, we like to think that, for a very long time, GymTide.com has been the best college gymnastics booster site in the country. We intend to keep it that way!

The team has, of course, already been in action, placing third in the season opening 'Super Six Challenge' last Friday night in Gainesville, Florida. The followers of the University of Florida GymGators put on a fine show of support, packing the stands with over 8000 enthusiastic fans. Rest assured, though, the Tide upperclassmen have advised the freshmen that they haven't seen (or heard!) anything yet. With that in mind, the staff here at GymTide.com would like to take this opportunity challenge the BamaNation to show up in numbers so vast that it will stun and amaze even the seniors!

The doors to Coleman Coliseum will open at least an hour before the 7:30 start time and there will be plenty of things to do and to see before the meet, maybe even a surprise or two. The fact is, for a lot of us 'old hands', the warm-up sessions are almost as fun to watch as the meet. The Tide athletic administration has declared this meet as free to all students in the eighth grade or younger. The children will be admitted through any gate and seated in general admission areas. (Parents and adults accompanying the children can buy tickets for the general admission area.) And, parents, please, be sure to come early - there is nothing that kids hate worse than standing in long lines waiting for you to buy their tickets, while their buddies are off getting their faces painted, hugging Big Al, and eating nachos!

As far as the team is concerned, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch their progress this year. Unlike last year - the last few years, really - we're going to see someone new or someone on a new apparatus, for them, almost every week for quite some time. For instance, last weekend juniors Ashley Miles and Dana Filetti performed in the all-around for the first time in their Tide careers, while freshman Kaitlin White made her debut as a GymTider, on the uneven bars. Sophomore Erin Rightley, who saw only limited action last season, performed with distinction on three events in Gainesville. This week, look for high-flying tumbler and wing-footed vaulter, senior Alexis Brion, in her first Bama all-around performance. In addition, the reigning Olympic Silver Medalist on uneven bars, Tide freshman Terin Humphrey, will get her first college start on the same apparatus: trust us, if you're a GymTide fan - if you're just a gymnastics fan, in general - you won't want to miss one of her performances...ever!

It's true, the GymTide had a pleasant enough trip to Gainesville last week, but we have it on 'good authority' that the team is very excited about getting out there in front of their own fans. While the team had a bit of a rough start at the Super Six Challenge, they kept their poise and really 'poured it on' in the second half of the meet. They know that they have plenty of work ahead of them get 'where they want to be' this season. However, they also know that, with your help and enthusiastic support, they can keep that forward momentum going. See you at the meet, bring a friend (or, better yet, several!) and . . . Roll Tide!!!