Three is the magic number for Wylie High School's Gymnastic team
ABILENE, Texas — For most people, when they think of teams, they think groups of 10, 15, or possibly more. At Wylie High School, their gymnastics team only consists of three people, and so far they have already made top three in the district. The gymnastics team is breaking history by being the first gymnastics team in Big Country history to have a team of less than 10.
The sport of gymnastics is definitely not for the weak. Wylie High School is breaking history as they are the first gymnastics team in Abilene to have three girls as their team. Just last year, Wylie High school didn’t have a gymnastics team. Justin Powers, Wylie’s Gymnastics Coach, proclaims how the team of three was able to form.
“So we had two parents bring up to the school board last summer that they wanted to start a gymnastics club and I was someone who went to Wylie my whole life and I was very interested in doing what I can to help the program. So, we all went to the school board meeting last summer and proposed Wylie Gymnastics and we’re so thankful that they approved it and I've been coaching ever since,” said Powers during an interview at Gymnastics Sports Center.
Powers said that three people are all that they needed to start a team as he explains why his team only has three athletes.
“We started off small. We just got our full approval for this gymnastics team in September,” Powers stated to us.
“The school year has already started, and a lot of potential athletes have already decided what sports they wanted to do. So, three people is all you need for a team,” Powers proclaimed. “They count the top three scores in gymnastics, and we are very lucky to have our three people."
The team might be small, but they are definitely mighty as they are already winning local meets.
“We won one competition so far but we had a lot of individual success. Even if we didn’t win, we would get second place or third place which is really exciting in our district,” Powers told us.
“Our district has the San Angelo Central which is the state championship level team. They won the last couple of years, and we got to compete against them every weekend,” said Powers.
“We’ve had a lot of individual success. We’ve had one victory and that was awesome for them,” Powers announced to us.
Although the team is considered small, Coach Powers says that he is grateful for his athletes.
Abigail Cribbs, a sophomore at Wylie High School, has been a gymnast for 13 years. She says being on a team of three was intimidating at first but rewarding.
“Since we won, I was like wait that's crazy cause there's girls of seven and 15 or whatever, and we’re only three and we got first place at the competition,” said Cribbs.
For Cribbs, working with her teammates is fun and exciting since she already knows the two other girls.
“I’ve known them forever outside of Wylie Gymnastics, so it’s really easy to be on the team with my friends,” said Cribbs.
Chloe Mcgary, a freshman at Wylie High School, is already dominating the gymnastic world. She has achieved something that no other gymnast has done since 2013.
“I qualified for state and doing that as a freshman was a pretty big deal because I've never done high school gymnastics before except for this year. So it was really exciting for me to be able to do it,” said Mcgary.
Mcgary’s experience on the team is quite different from her past experiences.
“I really like being on the team because it’s been an amazing opportunity for me to experience something totally different than just doing it as an extracurricular activity. I’ve been able to compete for my school and show my school that I can do something great for them,” said the ninth-grade student.
Lorelei Standley, a senior at Wylie High School, says she was surprised at first that her team has been able to perform so well.
“It was really good and exciting for me. I didn’t think we would really do that good at all, Standley stated. “Obviously we have good people on our team and everything, but with people having so many people on their team that are really good too, it was really unexpected for us to be able to do that,” declared Standley.
For those who are interested in supporting the Wylie High School gymnastics team be sure to follow them on their Facebook and Instagram page at Abilene Wylie Gymnastics for updates on their competitions.
