The varsity women’s gymnastics team looks to improve their skills for upcoming competitions, according to senior Ella Voss.

Although starting the season with some injured members, the team was able to adjust by bringing up players from the JV and freshman teams to fill varsity spots, according to junior Katie Wahl. Wahl suffered a concussion during a meet, preventing her from participating. However, she has attended meets and cheered on her teammates. Wahl was recently cleared, and will soon be activity participating again.

“A lot of girls had to step up, [when they] didn’t expect to,” Wahl said. “I was still able to be a part of the team [even with my injury].”

For head coach Stephen Gale, the outcome of the meets are crucial, but not the top priority. Gale reminds the girls that the goal is to walk away from every competition knowing they did the best they could.

“Their job is to compete well  and if they compete well, then that’s a win for us,” Gale said.

Although the season is going very well, Voss hopes to see some improvements throughout the rest of the season.

“Personally, I want to clean up my routines and have them down and solid,” Voss said. “As for the team, I’d love to see the team qualify for state again.”

Having recovered from her injury, Wahl has high expectations for herself to regain all her skills and nail all her routines. When she competes during meets it should look as if she did not miss any practices during the season.

 “I want to get all my skills back and I want to be where I was before I got hurt,” Wahl said. “Last year as a team we qualified for state, so hopefully we can get back there [this year].”

Voss stated that while the girls have fun and enjoy each other’s enthusiasm during meets, there are times when during meets the girls don’t play to their true potential.

“I think sometimes we get too caught up in the scores or the outcome of the meet, but we should probably focus more on our routines and getting through them,” Voss said.

Coming to the end of the season, Gale reflects on the accomplishments and improvements from the beginning of the season.

“We had a really good meet [the other day], the girls did a very good job on the floor, competing and doing their routines,” Gale said. “The next day I stressed that our job at every meet is to go out and do the best that we can.”

Wahl explains that the girls this year are really close, and because of that, can go into competitions and meets cheering each other on and feeling comfortable with another.

“The comradery is really strong with us girls, we’re all so close and we all know each other really well so then when we’re competing we know how to get each other to do this or do that, or just to get each other motivated,” Wahl stated.

Another strength that Voss believes is vital is the fact that the women on the team have a real bond and find themselves in a good environment whenever they’re with each other.

“Everyone’s always cheering each other on,” Voss said. “Even if they take a bad fall or they’re upset, we just want to see them get back up and try again, we just want the best for everyone.”