Minnesota Season Preview   by Kylen

As most coaches will tell you, failure can be as important a learning tool as success.  It's a lesson the Minnesota women's gymnastics team has taken to heart this season. The Gophers had the eleventh-best team score in the nation at Regionals last year, but   missed a trip to Nationals by a tenth of a point, finishing third at their Regional behind Alabama and Arizona State.

Co-head coaches Jim and Meg Stephenson, in their 10th season, aren't blaming the system. Instead, their team is using the experience to motivate themselves to make sure it does not happen again.

"We were left with a bad taste last year," says Jim Stephenson. "We were a good team. It just didn't work out. I think the team has really rallied."

Minnesota graduated just three routines from two seniors last year, and returns four seniors, three juniors and five sophomores. Two frosh are now added to the mix. Add in a high attendance rate at spring and summer practice, and the team is preparing for success. Minnesota has long been considered a team with clean gymnastics and great presentation, but recently the difficulty has begun to rise as well.

Both the coaches and athletes have picked up the enthusiasm for what needs to be done to get the team to nationals, and the optimism among the two head coaches is contagious.

"We feel great about our performance (at Regionals last year)," Jim says. "We were just in the wrong place. It left everyone on the team feeling like we don't want that to happen again." (continued... 1 of 3 parts))

 MORE in Part Two

 CONTINUED IN PART 2