Hey Ladies' Fans, it's freshman Courtney Tripp here with my first ever gym talk! We had a jam-packed few weeks that started with us getting back to campus Monday evening from our Thanksgiving break. Tuesday morning, we got up early to get Covid tested before practice and worked in small groups and stayed separated until everyone got their results. Thankfully we all came back negative and were ready to go for some solid training time!
Starting on Wednesday morning we had a strong few days of practice working back into full routines before a rest day on Friday. On Friday night the team went to Coach Jackie's "Lake Shack" and had a Just Dance tournament before eating a delicious dinner of salmon and steak, we have to send out congrats to fellow freshman Rylie Molina, the winning dancer! It was really nice to get away to the shack to spend some time away from campus and relax and enjoy some fun!
During our Saturday practice, we prepared for Sunday's intra-squad. We continued to build on getting back into full routines (finals week and Thanksgiving break set up back a bit), and we had a great practice full of high energy and hard work knowing what was coming on Sunday.
For the intra-squad we were divided into two teams, Maroon vs. Black. However, before we started, the local news channel hot some videos to be aired on TV and interviewed senior Si-Si Ponder who is being honored as the Shreveport/Bossier athlete to watch. The Maroon team started on bars; shoutout to seniors Jenny Jackson for catching a gorgeous Ray on bars and Si-Si Ponder for hitting her beautiful new bar routine featuring a blind full-Tkatchev to a straddle back hand. Meanwhile over on beam, sophomore Kendall Huff hit her triple series, and junior Kendall Sanders made a clean routine for the Black team. Next on the floor, Jerrica Harris and Kendall Sanders hit their routines with sassy new choreography for the Black team, and junior Xian Baumgartner and sophomore Kennedy Stevens did stunning and confident beam routines. For our final event, the Black team finished on bars with Taylor Ann Wilson connecting her Maloney to Pak salto and once again Kendall Sanders hitting a dynamic routine. The Maroon team ended on floor with Kennedy Stevens making her new combination pass into a double back. When the scores were tallied up, the Black team edged out the Maroon team to secure the win!
We continued our training for the next 10 days, working on getting our routines competition ready. Some choreography was touched up and finished, we had so many great moments, and of course got to spend quality time with our team as we get ready for our season.
It's been a great couple of weeks; the Ladies have enjoyed some dedicated training time as we prepare for our upcoming season. That's all I have for now but check back in 2021 to hear from Senior Jerrica Harris!
<3 Courtney
