"We're all going to be part of the T.J. Maxx Tour, which I think has 38 stops across the country (with the closest stop in St. Louis). Then I am going to enroll at the University of Alabama in January. I wanted to enroll this fall, but I'm going to be too busy."

• First & 10 Conversation: Terin Humphrey

• Terin takes silver - [Note: Registration required]
• U.S. far from uneven in gym - [Note: Registration required]
• Humphrey ends Olympic run with a second silver - [Note: Registration required]

For Terin Humphrey, good things come in twos. The Bates City, Mo. native, who will join the University of Alabama gymnastics this season, had already earned one silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympic during the team competition earlier in the week. Now she has two silver medals, having taken second in the uneven bars today.

Humphrey scored a 9.662 to finish just behind France's Emilie Lepennec who took gold with a 9.687. The U.S.'s Courtney Kupets took the bronze with a 9.637. It was a good day for the U.S. team as Annia Hatch took silver in the vault with a score of 9.481. The individual finals of the balance beam and floor exercise gets underway Monday.

"It is unbelievable, so amazing," Humphrey said of the medal. "You can't know what it really feels like, winning a medal, unless you are out there on the podium."

We have a new "Chalk Talk" from Coach Patterson:

• ChalkTalk: USA Going for Gold!

Jeana Rice, like so many athletes in her grueling, demanding, all-consuming sport, has spent much of her life in gymnastics. In fact, you could reasonably say her entire life, since Jeana's folks are former gymnasts and still intimately involved with the sport. After all those hours, years - decades - in the gym, then, the concept of a senior season - a 'last year' in gymnastics, so to speak - must have been a little hard to fathom.

The 2004 season found the GymTide looking to replace their reliably high-scoring two-year captain, Kristin Sterner - a daunting task. For the first three years of Jeana's college career, the team benefitted from a real 'embarrassment of riches' in terms of team leadership. Her first year squad was led by no less than a three-time team captain, the indomitable Lissy Smith. 2002, of course - Jeana's sophomore year - was the year of the National Championship and Bama's 'fab five', featuring Andreé Pickens. Never-the-less, that team tapped Junior Kristin Sterner as team captain, a role she naturally retained for the 2003 season.

So, the 2004 Tide seniors, Jeana, Lauren Holdefer, and Stephanie Kite, had to step up more fully into the roles of team leaders. As Jeana told Tom Roberts during an interview broadcast on the Hey, Coach! radio show, "I think that we have tried to kind of 'divvy up' leadership roles...we all play a different part as leaders."²⁶ Naturally, as the season went along a slightly different dynamic began to emerge, but more about that in due time.