January 8, 2007

Hey everyone! Wow, how incredibly exciting these past weeks have been. We all returned to the bay area the day after Christmas to prepare for our first dual meet of the year against the University of Georgia. Full of excitement and enthusiasm, the team trained exceptionally well, hitting routine after routine. When game day came around on the Wednesday before we left for Georgia, each girl performed aggressively, creating a most determined atmosphere. I mean, boy, you should've been there to see everyone's faces, hungry for competition and victory. It was quite a sight. The strong performances from each girl definitely added to the confidence of the team as a whole and really proved our preparedness for our first competition.

Meanwhile, we stayed at the Creekside Inn since we couldn't move back into our dorms yet. It was fun just relaxing and watching America's Next Top Model Megathon. :) Good times. We also had the opportunity to go shopping… a lot. Lol. But seriously, what more would a girl want to do in her free time than shop? That's right, I couldn't think of anything either. Anyway, that's pretty much all we did leading up to the meet: chill like we've never chilled before. :)

Now, moving on…so my whole experience traveling to Georgia with the team was pretty entertaining and definitely interesting. I think I can also speak for my fellow froshies. It was certainly my first time traveling through the airport in heels and formal attire. :O Comical, yes. Comfortable, no. I think all of the freshmen were pretty proud we made it to Georgia without tripping and falling on our faces. Regarding the meet, I realized the importance of team camaraderie, unity, and desire from the way we handled ourselves during the competition. We started off pretty well on bars with five big hits and then moved on to vault where Purnell, Steph, Nikki, CJ, Tab, Blur, and Pinch each delivered huge vaults. Then, we moved to floor and performed some beautiful and dynamic routines. Purnell started off, as usual, with a very strong routine, followed by Pinch's extraordinary dance moves. Though we had a couple of falls on floor, CJ and Tab definitely brought it back together with commendable performances. The crowd of almost 10,000 was definitely awed by our dynamic and exciting routines. On beam, Elmo was a key starter, setting the team up for some big hits. Though we had a few mistakes here and there, we made it through and maintained our high energy. Unfortunately, this was not enough to defeat Georgia, but we are now even more determined to prove our talent this season. We are going to be an indomitable force, so everyone, watch out! Anyway, the next day we had a few hours to spare before our flight left, so we went to the CNN headquarters, which was incredible. We saw everything that goes on during a show, the behind-the-scene stuff and the reporters constantly typing away. It made me want to consider a new major… communications maybe? I could be the next Katie Couric! Or not. Lol.

Well, that's pretty much the synopsis of the past week. We start classes on Tuesday, so things should begin to get fairly busy with competitions every weekend. We'll see how it goes! Go Card!

Peace out,
Allyse Ishino