A quick look at the upcoming 2017 Fall Season

Summer training was a busy time for all of our WAG athletes. The 25hr Provincial program welcomed some new members when a few of “April’s Little Ones” earned a spot, training with the “older girls”. The program also said good-bye to long-time team member, Kathryn Doran, who is now attending Bridgeport University on a full athletic scholarship. Alexzandra Throndson made the decision to leave the WAG program to concentrate on pole vaulting after earning a first place ranking as the Under 18, Women’s Pole Vaulting National Champion. We are excited for Kat and Alex but sad to see them leave.

At the beginning of every summer the 25hr program coaches, Lorne Bobkin, Monica Covacci and Candice Feinrip insist that the girls take a couple of weeks off to rest and heal themselves both physically and mentally. You would think the girls would jump at the chance to take a break, but a lot of them struggle with the loss of gym time. A good number of them end up attending a gymnastics camp of some kind or other for at least one of their two weeks “off”. Gymrep, in Quebec, and Woodward and IGC (International Gymnastics Camp), in Pennsylvania, are some of the more popular camps that provide structured gymnastics training with some good old fashioned summer camp experiences. A few of the older athletes who are looking ahead to the possibility of doing post-secondary gymnastics, attended university gymnastics camps to get a sense of what life would be like as a college gymnast.

Even with their camps and their heavy training schedule, the girls still found time for sleepovers, parties, camping, shopping, and some weekend trips. As summer came to a close, our WAG athletes were busy trying to learn those last few new skills that will bump them into the next JO level.

A summer visit from Christine Peng Peng Lee, current UCLA gymnast, former OGC gymnast, Team Canada Member and qualifier to the 2012 Olympics, helped inspire the girls. They seemed more focused and determined to succeed in this incredible but amazingly difficult sport.

September marked the return of “oh no! My leotard doesn’t fit!” season which resulted in some new purchases and a lot of swapping suits. One on one interviews with the coaches also took place in September, giving the athletes and their parents the opportunity to ask questions and/or raise any concerns that they may have about any aspect of their training.

In August, news came out about the intended location for the WAG program’s travel meet. This year’s selected meet is the December Atlantis Crown Invitational at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. We are going to pack the Atlantis Imperial Ballroom with a lot of Oakville Gymnastics athletes! The opportunity for the girls to travel together, along with some great resort and flight rates have made this a very popular meet and many OGC WAG families have committed to attending the meet.

We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves though … there are a couple of important competitions to attend in between now and the travel meet. For one of our athletes, competition season started at the beginning of October … Mackenzie Robinson competed for the Jamaican National team at the 2017 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Montreal on October 3rd. She was joined by her OGC coach Monica Covacci and a coach from the Jamaican National Team. What an experience! Such a major accomplishment to compete at that level! Mackenzie did very well. Although she did not qualify for finals, she certainly proved she can handle the pressure and put forward 4 amazing routines. I am sure the World will be seeing more of Mackenzie Robinson in the future.

For the rest of the girls, Tour Selection (ages 13+) kicks off their competition season in Belleville, the weekend of November 10^th, followed by their first WAG Qualifier of the season, in Orangeville, the following weekend (November 25^th).