Surprise! There’s a gymnastics team at Newman, and there has been for 5 years. Many of you probably know nothing about the program or that it even existed.

Sophomore Maggie Roos and I, Caroline Sillars, have been on the team every year since 5^th grade; we were the youngest kids to ever play a varsity sport at Newman. We have driven to Baton Rouge at the beginning of May every year to compete in the state meet. As 5^th graders, Maggie won a gold and a bronze medal and as a team, we took third in the state at our level. We will never forget the faces of the high school girls that we beat as lower school students. In our 8^th grade year, the team consisted of 3 girls, and since then, we have grown into a team of 8. Although more than half of our team is in middle school, we continue to train as any other sport would. We have practice 4 times a week, 2 hours every day. Even though gymnastics is insanely hard to get back into after taking half the year off, we still have a great time working together. As Maggie put it, “We have fun, and we win.” Our coach, Gretchen Schultz, has been with us since Day 1. She has built our team from the ground up and we are forever thankful for her. This year we plan to take another state title and even more individual medals in Baton Rouge. So, now that you know about the team, maybe we can even get a fan bus.