Hello Dawg fans!
Another season is upon us, and this year’s team is already in full swing preparing for an exciting year. We have nine new freshmen, all talented individuals with a strong work ethic and great personalities that will only add to our amazing team culture and competitive spirit. We will be traveling to California, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma for our away meets this year, as well as participating in the second annual GymACT All Stars Competition that will be held in Memphis, TN. This year will also mark my last year as the Head Coach of this amazing team, but I won’t go on about that now, I want to give you all an idea of what this year has in store!
Our nine new freshmen are as follows; Cole Dollens is from Acton, CA, his favorite events are floor, vault, and high bar. Drake Miesel is from Lake Stevens, WA, and has some unique skills on p-bars, rings, and high bar that might contribute to the team score this year. Drew Allen is from Seattle, WA, and is working hard to build his rings strength to be our strongest ring man on the team. Elyas Sharp is from Queen Creek, AZ, and will most likely showcase his ability to stick landings this year on floor and vault. Connor Folmar comes to us from Livermore, CA, and is already showing promise on his best event, p-bars. Everett O’Donnell is from Olympia, WA. He has a solid base on all the events, giving him a chance at becoming one of our strongest all-arounders in the next couple of years. Nathan Vezina grew up in Bend, OR, and his beautiful lines and solid basics will come in handy as he builds his difficulty throughout the next year. We may end up seeing him compete on one or two events this year. Riley Lineman comes all the way from Shrewsbury, MA. He’s got some very big gymnastics that may show up on the competition floor this year, especially on high bar. Zack Murray is from Washougal, WA, and is looking to compete this year on as many events as possible. Zack also looks to become another all-around contender for the Dawgs within the next year or two.
This team will have some standout routines this year with some very difficult and unique skills. However, it is difficult to predict who will certainly be making the lineup for each event as we have so many who could put up some great routines.
This year, the GymACT division has made some adjustments to the rules to make competitions more competitive and exciting to watch. This year, every stuck dismount will receive a bonus based on how difficult the dismount is. So, if an athlete does a ‘C’ level dismount and sticks it, he will receive 0.2 in bonus added to his final score, and if he were to stick a ‘D’ level dismount, it would be worth 0.3 bonus (and so on and so forth). This will put a huge emphasis on the dismount landing and will be that much more exciting when someone nails their landing. Gymnasts will also be rewarded with a 0.5 one-time bonus on the rings for doing the difficult strength moves, like the iron cross, maltese, inverted cross, etc. This is to encourage these athletes to show off the most iconic skills that men’s gymnastics has to offer.
With this new team and new rules, I am very excited to see how our Huskies will perform this year. They have all been working so hard in the gym and out. This year is also shaping up to be the biggest fundraising year we’ve ever had. I am already so proud of this team and their incredible attitude toward the amount of work they are required to do just to be able to do the thing they love the most. We really do appreciate EVERYTHING you, our fans, do for us. Whether it be money or time donated, your participation or attendance in the competitions we host, or even just following us on social media. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our fans! So, thank you!
Go DAWGS!!!
Sincerely,
Jeff Crockett
Head Coach
Washington Men’s Gymnastics