Nov. 20, 2008

Get behind the scenes of Illinois Gymnastics with Illini Ink - the weekly women's gymnastics journal. In this week's edition, sophomore Melissa Fernandez talks about this weekends intra-squad meet and Thanksgiving at Coach Bob's house.

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Hey Illini Fans!

The cold weather in Champaign brings butterflies and excitement to our team this time of the year...season is just around the corner! As a team, we've been working extremely hard and our efforts are really starting to pay off in the gym. Our first intra-squad will be this Sunday and the energy in the gym has been high this week. Full sets have begun and we're looking better than ever at this point in the pre-season. The intra-squad this weekend will be a great opportunity for the freshmen to get a taste of how a collegiate meet works and get into the groove of things.

Before the excitement on Sunday begins, we'll be done with classes on Friday and our Thanksgiving Break begins. It will be nice to give our brains a little rest before finals start in December. This Saturday, we will have our annual team dinner at Bob's house, where we eat a delicious meal and celebrate Thanksgiving together. The girls bring appetizers and Mazza will bring her amazingly cooked sweet potatoes! Of course Bob will have all the usual fixings... turkey, potatoes, and much more. It will be a great dinner to get us energized for the intra-squad the next day!

Season is quickly approaching and with our hard work, there's no doubt that this years' team has what it takes to reach all our goals. Thanks for reading, and watch out, we're ready to DOMINATE in 2009!

GO ILLINI!!!
Mel