An Eventful Sport is Added to Hillie Nation

Emily Mills

After years of growing interest, Haverhill High School has recently added Gymnastics its vast repertoire of team-sports. All grades are welcome to join the team, coached by the experienced, Lyndsey Capra.

 The team is competing within the Merrimack Valley Conference league. There are 9 other teams within the league: Billerica, Methuen, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Chelmsford, North Andover, Andover, and Central Catholic High School. The HHS Gymnastics team being in its inaugural year, there are concerns having to do with the team not being prepared for the upcoming competition season. However, Coach Capra is not discouraged. “The team is working hard and within the first week, the team already looked promising,” said Capra.

 Coach Capra had been a gymnast herself for 15 years; competing before high school, during high school and one year in college.  She competed with Southern Connecticut State University for about a year before being stopped due to a back injury. Along with coaching the team for the high school, she is also coaching a handful of varied leveled gymnasts at Wilkey’s Gymnastics located in Tewksbury.

 Gymnastics is a very physically demanding sport, but even more so mentally. Fortunately, the Haverhill High School gymnastics team seems to be mixing well with each other. Megan Carroll, a sophomore on the high school team, describes the new gymnasts as a “small closely bonded team.”

Gymnastics is not only a team sport, but an individual sport. Individuals compete to earn points for the team. Teammates also compete against each other to get individual awards. Gymnastics consists of four events: vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and the floor exercise. Gymnastics is offered not only in high school but college as well. There are nearly 1500 scholarships available for high school gymnasts. It is considered a varsity sport for at least 82 colleges and universities in the United States.

The team will be practicing at the Haverhill YMCA. Practice began at the beginning of December and will continue until early February. The team practices five days a week, Monday through to Friday. Their first competition is the 30th of December in Tewksbury. The first home competition will be on January 6th.

For more information ask Coach Capra herself or someone within the gymnastics team.

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Labels: Sports