The Ohio University club gymnastics team hopes to raise enough money to fly the team to this year’s national competition in California.
Films such as Stick It depict the culture of the gymnastics world, but according to the club gymnastics team at Ohio University, they missed the mark in portraying the team dynamic.
“(The team) becomes the best family you have here,” Cecelia Kane, a member of the team and a senior studying pre-physical therapy said. “You pretty much come on the team and meet your best friend.”
And that isn’t limited to the OU team. Ashley Brown a member of the team and a senior studying organizational and health communications, said getting together at nationals and seeing all the other teams is like a big reunion.
The team has 23 members, of which only one is male, this year and hopes to travel to nationals in California in April.
“We always go work at Cedar Point to raise some traveling money, but this year, we’ve been two weekends already preparing for nationals,” Kane said.
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The team has raised about $5,000 so far but still has a little ways to go before they can fly 23 people cross-country, Kane said.
“We sell T-shirts, candles, candy-bars. We do donation letters to local business and family,” Sara Phillips, a member of the team and a senior studying pre-physical therapy and psychology, said of other fundraising work they do. “And we just started a GoFundMe page so we’ll see how that works out.”
The team only has plans to compete in two meets this year, one against Ohio State University and the other against Miami University, foregoing more meets in order to save money to make it to nationals again.
“(The costs are) more or less all on us,” Brown said. “Club sports does what they can, but we’re hardly the only team that needs money. Sometimes they pitch in for travel costs, but anything that we can’t cover with fundraising comes out of pocket.”
Both meets will be during Spring Semester and nationals will be in April. All the work that the team is doing now is preparation.
“This will be (mine and Phillips’) fourth year going,” Kane said. “But it will be some of the girls’ first time, so we’re really excited.”
Kane and Phillips said they know more or less what to expect in the nationals competition.
“It’s people from all around the country stuffed into these luxury hotels,” Kane said.
And the team takes full advantage of the opportunity.
“We love it, but the hotel people don’t always like it so much,” Brown said.
The gymnastics team tries to keep in contact with the other teams, but nationals is the only time when they can all get together, Brown said.
Kane added that they want the team to experience everything they can when they travel together.
“Last year on our way home from Philadelphia, we stopped in New York City,” Hannah Reeves, a member of the team and a sophomore studying biology and pre-physical therapy said. “It was my first time and it was only for a day, but I loved it.”
Reeves said the team is always trying to do things together.
“Honestly, it’s a lot like a sorority,” Brown said. “We’re always together.”
Phillips also said the team is involved in a lot of community service on campus.
“We like to help out wherever we can,” she said. “I think it’s really good for us as a team to come together to do things like this.”
Brown was a transfer student and said she had been out of the competition world for a little while. She said coming to OU and jumping back in so seamlessly was great for her.
“Most of us have been doing this since we were kids, so to be able to bond with other people who have the same experiences in such a relaxed environment is amazing,” Brown said.
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