Batavia welcomes talented new gymnasts

In high school sports you can pretty much gauge how good a team is going to be based on how it did last season, what it lost due to graduation and what upperclassmen it has coming back.

That's not always the case in gymnastics. Like a Major League Baseball team that cornered the open market and signed the top free agents available, a similar circumstance has occurred at Batavia.

Four club gymnasts -- juniors Rebecca Thone, Alessandra Bronzino and Rachel Besic and sophomore Danae Fuqua -- have decided to give high school gymnastics a whirl. A Bulldogs team, which was freshmen-heavy a year ago, will look almost completely different with these four newcomers likely competing in all-around and returning seniors Allison Moran and Cindy Douglas, sophomore Marissa Dransoff, among others, vying for the remaining spots.

This turnabout came as a bit of a surprise to Bulldogs coach Taryn Boyce who heard of Thone's interest late in the summer before learning from the three others just before the season started.

"They all knew each other but haven't been competing at the same clubs," Boyce said. "The girls are probably getting burned out (with club) and want to be a part of high school and that's pretty much the main reason; getting involved with high school and the training (of club) is burning them out for 25 to 30 hours a week."

While in past years Boyce often found herself teaching rather than coaching, this winter she's excited about the opportunity to coach a team which perhaps could be among the top teams in the state, especially with some of the perennial powerhouses in Conant, Palatine, Carmel and Naperville Central having to rebuild due to major graduation losses.

"I think if everyone stays healthy we have a pretty good shot of going really far this year and hopefully to state for some of the kids," Boyce said. "It's hard to get excited right now, I don't want to, but they're all hard workers and have good attitudes."

While Batavia could be the big newcomer making noise this winter, it was St. Charles co-op that did it last year. St. Charles fell 0.125 of a point of qualifying as a team for the state finals a year ago.

Last year, former coach Lindsay Schultz said, "the girls are both bummed for missing (state) by 0.125, yet excited because this is the highest they've scored in a long time. The girls are motivated to continue working out in the off-season and they want to begin next season where they left off."

Schultz stepped down after one year as head coach and assistant Amy Hill has taken over.

The biggest plus for St. Charles co-op is the three gymnasts that advanced to state last year are all back this year. The bad news is that one of them, Amanda Johnston, who qualified for state in the floor exercise last winter, begins the season on the shelf with a knee injury.

That could put added pressure on all-around qualifier, sophomore Stephanie de la Torriente, and senior Katie Shanel. It could also raise expectations from junior Danielle Goebbert, who qualified for state in 2006, and a group of other gymnasts, including Allyssa Beird, Meredith Beird, Courtney Harloff and Justine Meyers among others.

With only one senior this season in Katherine Grubaugh, it'll be interesting to track the progress at Geneva this winter, but coach Kim Hostman has plenty to be excited about in her seventh season for the Vikings.

"Things are looking pretty good right now," she said. "We've got a nice new group of young, talented girls who should contribute and we have some others that are back."

The Vikings will hope the No. 7 is lucky as in seven newcomers. Geneva has six new freshmen and a talented sophomore in Denise Alder. Hostman thinks Alder will be able to contribute early for the Vikings. She also believes that she'll mix and match her gymnasts by focusing more on events rather than just all-around performances.

"I think we're going to see more of a mix at some point this season," she said. "Right now we're just working our routines and getting the required new skills."

While the newcomers will give the Vikings a different look, they do have juniors Sonja Leonard and Shannon Vigna returning, along with sophomore Cami Pfetzer who had a solid season as a freshman last year. Vigna missed last season with an injury so her return should be a huge asset.