Wow! We survived the Fun To Flip Invite once again!  Thanks to all the parents for working so hard to make it run smoothly!

· No one else needs to know about all of the behind-the-scenes sweating (Brock), nail biting (Chris) and hair pulling (Kathy)!

· or about the parent that refused to pay admission

· no need for any finger pointing

· did I mention that the parent was from American Elite Gymnastics

· Remember the Karma thing!  Ha Ha!  What comes around goes around!

Session 1: Highlights Blunders and Otherwise Humorous Situations

Well ok so we were a little panicked when we had a Judge that no showed 5 minutes before 42 Level 4 boys were to compete and I had to recruit Mr. All American, Nate Grosserode. As expected, Nate did a great job judging (for the first time in a competition) the boys on Rings and Vault and other than having the wrong start value for vault, which he figured out after the first rotation, all went well.  Thanks Nate for being willing to step in and help out when needed!

Well this was our first official meet where the boys got to wear their full uniforms!  Yippee!  Whose idea was it to allow 6 & 7 year old boys to have a uniform with the following items to keep track off: Jersey, Shorts, Pants, Warm up Jacket, Warm up Pants, Left Sock and Right Sock?  Not to mention that they all come with front and a back.  Oh yea that would be me.

· I know expecting boys to have clean white socks is unrealistic (Robert Mathers)

· Or even having the boys show up with socks at all (Matthew Mathers)

· And then there is always the boy that can only find one sock (Nicholas Elwell)  Special thanks to Derek for loaning him one of his.

· Then there is Michael Liao standing there poised to do his floor routine in his form pants and white socks, luckily Derek was willing to assist in the fast transition of shorts no socks.

· So needless to say we did some line up jockeying and sock swapping, other than that, wearing the uniforms went smoothly, well once we got Peter Dilley to reverse his form pants so that the GK logo faced forward instead of, shall we say backwards?

NOTE: There was another uniform glitch in session 2 (so maybe it has nothing to do with age) (See below)

UNIFORM PRO-TIPS:

1. The draw string will tighten and keep your shorts and form pants on.  Please remember to tuck them in, all the way in. (Too many boys to mention).

2. The form pants have a crease that should not be creatively twisted three times around the ankle (Jack Olsen).

Parents it is ok to go out and buy two pair of CLEAN WHITE SOCKS, and put them in the gymnast bag to be worn for competition only.  Be sure and wash them between meets. I have seen those socks that can stand up on there own…scary, very scary!

PARENT QUESTION of the MEET:

What is the difference between Novice and Experienced Level 4 (submitted by Terry Elwell, mother of fierce competitor!)

ANSWER: At several of the meets that are early on in the season the hosting club will sometimes do Novice and Experienced divisions for the Level 4 gymnasts.  This separates the Novice (those competing their first year; aka, pants on backwards) from the Experienced (those that have competed the year or years before; aka, pants on forward expected, but not guaranteed). Towards the middle to end of the season they will all be combined in one division and compete against each other as this is how it will be at State Championships.

So, how did they do? Well they boys did a great job!  Foris survived his first competition and looked like a seasoned veteran! Not bad considering his mom didn’t even know he was on the competitive team until the night before.

Now to the Highlights: (finishing 3^rd or higher)

· Nicholas Elwell: 2^nd on V and  3^rd on HB

· Adam Inderberg: 2^nd on SR, and 3^rd on HB

· Troy Leftwich: 3^rd on FX

· Michael Altenhofen: 3^rd on PH and 1^st on HB

· Paul Wilson: 2^nd on SR

· Cordis Cleaveland: 3^rd on FX, 2^nd on PB!  Cordis made his very first HB routine complete with pullover and back hip circle!  Cordis was really excited and gave me a big High Five and knocked himself backwards tumbling off the high bar mats onto the floor where he completely disappeared from everyone’s view.  Luckily the excitement of hitting the routine overpowered the bumped elbow that he sustained.

· Peter Wilson: 3^rd on PH, V, PB, HB and AA

· Riley Grossman: 1^st on FX, 2^nd PH, 3^rd SR, and 2^nd on V,  PB & HB

· Kyle Hausmann: 2^nd on FX (Still could not remember his routine), 1^st on PH, SR, V, PB, HB and AA

· Michael Alber: 2^nd on FX and 3^rd on SR

· Joseph Mattern: 3^rd on FX, PH, V, PB and AA 1^st on HB

· Nick Marek: 2^nd on SR, V, HB, and AA 1^st PB

· Chance Wurm: 2^nd PB, 3^rd on HB, and 1^st on FX, PH, SR, V and in the AA

Now the best part - trying to fit 20 guys on the award stand for 1^st place team! No injuries were reported. Congratulations Level 4 Boys!

Session 2 Highlights Blunders and Otherwise Humorous Situations

Text Message received at 9:12 am Saturday from one Corey Burton: What color socks do I wear?  I am sooooooooooooo nervous!

This was going to be Corey’s first competition in 2 years.

Well this session started off with and finished with Humor and Success!

Floor Exercise:

OK our first event was floor, that’s why all of the boys had their shorts on and no socks on. So far so good! Cody Spielberg was first up and a little confused. He could not find the judge so he asked Coach Nic “Where is the Judge?”  So Nic pointed out the Judge sitting over by the Floor (hint hint, by the Floor). Cody professionally saluted, turned and promptly ran down the Vault Runway; did his Vault (a good vault I might add); finished and saluted the Judge (way over by the floor, hint hint over by the floor. He began his walk back toward the team who were hysterical and in tears with laughter.  Derek politely thanked Cody for “Making his day”

So I calmed Cody down and pointed him in the right direction (toward the floor, hint hint, did I mention that the Judge was 100 feet away from the Vault) to which he did a fine routine.  In Cody’s defense, Vault is also done wearing shorts and no socks.  Cody finished 3^rd on FX! Did I mention that Cody’s mom was the Floor Judges Assistant?

Other notables:

· Adam Puchi who was sidelined for a month with foot ailments including being booted, did a great Floor Routine finishing 2^nd!

· Drew Collins created a new corner transition when he did a pirouette to body slam on his back.  Very impressive! Drew also managed to land on his bottom on his second pass.  Gravitationally challenged that one is!

· Michael Loh although his diagonals were different than everyone else’s finished 2^nd and Geno Holmquist placed 3^rd.

· Nate Grosserode, Corey Burton and Derek Holman finished 1, 2, and 3 respectively on Floor.  Let me say that again Nate finished 1^st on Floor!  Wow didn’t see that one coming. Could that be what earned him an autograph request?

· Corey, who was a little geared up, completely over rotated his first pass and did a much bigger, louder body slam, following Drew’s lead no doubt.

Pommel Horse:

· Cody Spielberg 3^rd, Geno 2^nd, Michael 3^rd

· Drew looked like he was in a Rodeo and did a few too many dismounts finishing  3^rd.

· Geno finished 3^rd.

· Derek, after toppling over the horse on his mount made his bailie extra pommel loop sort of, and then improvised the rest of his routine to finish 3^rd.  Good fight!

· Corey did a beautiful pommel horse routine finishing 1^st with a respectable 7.0!

Still Rings

· Nathan Ormiston did a beautiful ring routine scoring an 8.7!  Looking forward to watching him evolve into the Ring Master!

· Adam received an 8.2 finishing 2nd, he would have won the event if he didn’t have the “Ronald McDonald” deduction of .3 for moppy hair!  Is it time to get a hair cut yet?  Possibly our next online poll.

· Geno 3^rd, then Michael who finished 2^nd behind James Paugh who scored a 7.6, I keep “Watching James to see if he will do a trick?” Maybe this was it, hopefully not the last one.

· While Nate received the most oohs and ahhs for his impressive Deltchev and Iron Cross work, it was Derek who stole the platform with a 7.4 and 1^st place finish while performing a solid shoot to handstand, and dismounting with a double back.