Nov. 2, 2007
Get behind the scenes of Illinois Gymnastics with Illini Ink - the weekly women's gymnastics journal. In this week's edition, sophomore Laura Woolf talks about Halloween, the recent inter-squad meet and the team's theme for this season.
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Hey there Illini Fans!
I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. I know all of us here in Champaign had a lot of fun. Suki (Nicole Cowart) and I went to dorm dinner on Halloween and had such a great time. The cafeteria had ghosts and skeletons hung up all over and the entire staff was dressed up in different costumes. They served witch's brew, ogre feet, graveyard pudding, and caramel apples. Yum!
As one of the team's Halloween traditions, we all pick another girls name out of a hat and then have to come up with a costume for them to wear on Halloween. Lori pulled my name and she decided to dress me up as a Hawaiian girl. The costume was very cute! My two favorite costumes were Sarah's (Schmidt) army costume and Al's (Allison Buckley) Richard Simmons costume. This year every girl was extremely creative which made this event very enjoyable. Check out the photos HERE.
To top off our Halloween, we had our first annual Halloween intra-squad. The team was split up into two smaller teams, the black team and the orange team. I was on the Black team with Mel, Lashlee, Marijka, Lindsey, and Sarah. All of us wore black leotards to match our team's color. Our team was first up on floor and every girl's endurance was strong. I was very impressed. Some of the girls were even doing full routines! My team then moved to beam where we looked solid and confident. It was really nice to see all the new beam routines that Mazza and Amy choreographed. Our last event was bars. Again, everyone's endurance looked great and our form looked spectacular as well. This intra-squad showed us what we needed to work on, but more importantly showed our team the great potential we have for this upcoming season!
This year, our team has decided upon a theme for the upcoming season. "ILL-INI UNITE!" This is an awesome theme because every girl is a vital part to our team. All of us need to bring our talents and determination together in order for us to achieve our goals. With the freshmen spicing up the gym with their own styles and routines, and the older girls reviving their old routines, this Illini gymnastics team will without a doubt make some noise this year!
This weekend, the Illini football team is on the road against Minnesota. The Metrodome is a tough place to play, but I think we can come out with a win. Our team was relieved that the Illini picked up a win against Ball State to become bowl eligible. Make sure to watch the game, it's bound to be a good one!
Thanks for reading and GO ILLINI!
Laura
