Sophomore gymnasts Susan Jackson and Summer Hubbard will be writing a diary entry every other day for LSUsports.net as the Tigers get ready for the season-opening Cancun Classic on Jan. 4 in Cancun, Mexico. Jackson, an All-American from Spring, Texas, and Hubbard, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., will give their insight into the Tigers’ preparations and training leading up to the start of their 2008 season.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Reporting back to you, our tiger fans, for a quick update on the past day in a half. On Jan. 3, we participated in a successful practice before we headed off to our adventure at the Mexican market. Only half the team and staff particpiated in this trip while the others stayed back to rest and shop at strores near the hotel. The market was not only filled with many intersting items, but with many interesting people as well. The native Mexicans were persistent, but fun to talk to and bargain with. Those who went to this market came back with many bracelets and anklets which were purchased from the young children.
Later that evening, the team and coaches got all dolled up for the Cancun Classic banquet. The banquet consisted of dinner and entertainment, including bongo players and an acrobatic team. The events in which each university would start on at Friday’s competition were announced as well.
This morning, Jan. 4, we woke up early, had a team breakfast and gathered for what is known as “power circle.” “Power circle,” is when the line ups are announced and is a time for the team to mentally prepare for the competition. We arrived at the compeition site with swagger in our step! We all had a great warm up that lead to a great and successful meet. We stuck to our motto by staying prepared which helped your Tigers come out on top!
Now the vacation begins! The team will enjoy dinner and a night out on the town. Tomorrow will bring a small cardio session, but then a full day to enjoy all that Cancun has to offer.
It’s Fiesta Time,
Summer and Susan
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Hola tiger fans! It is Summer and Susan again with an update from beautiful Cancun, Mexico. Let us start with our traveling experience in which we encountered better luck than we did in our first diary entry. The whole team and staff arrived at the Baton Rouge airport at 5:45 a.m. where we all one-by-one checked in. As we stood in line, teammate, and freshman of course, Samantha Engle realized she forgot her wallet back at her apartment. This wallet contained all of her money, credit cards and her ID. Quickly, assistant coach Bob Moore and Samantha retreated back to her apartment to fetch her forgotten item. With five minutes to spare, the two reunited with the team and we boarded the plane that took us to Atlanta, Georgia. With a slight delay in Georgia, we were finally on our way to our final destination.
After an exciting plane ride over beautiful blue waters we touched down in Cancun around 1:15 p.m. and suprisingly each one of us received our luggage on time! We all boarded the charter bus that awaited us at the airport and with the twenty minute drive to our hotel, we caught glimpses of the beautiful beaches and Mexican scenery. Once we checked into our hotel rooms, we all changed and met for a stretch and light conditioning session. We now have the rest of the evening to ourselves before meeting for a team dinner at 7:00 p.m. “Lights out” will be at 11:00 p.m. tonight as we prepare for an early start tomorrow morning.
Beginning at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning we will have a structured practice that will allow us to get familiar with the competition arena and equippment. If any of us feel we need more practice time before the big day, head coach DD Breaux set up a time at a local gymnastics facility. Following practice and lunch, we will travel to a local market where we will shop and find entertainment for a couple hours.
As this is our first competition of the season, many of us won’t be competing our most difficult skills. We will build as the year progresses. In the future we will be seeing a double-layout on floor from Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and yours truly, Susan Jackson, while Sabrina Franceschelli and Samantha Engle will eventually debut double arabians. Ashleigh, however, will be adding a full-twisting double tuck dismount off of the uneven bars at this first competition.
With high hopes for a great competition day, we will be conditioning and mentally preparing for the meet from now until then. To support the team and catch all the action of the competition, log into the “Geaux Zone,” here on LSUsports.net on Friday, January 4 at 2:55 p.m.
Hasta Luego,
Summer and Susan
Monday, December 31, 2007
So we are back Tiger fans and a lot has gone on since the last diary update. Let us begin with updating you on practices and workouts. Since we arrived in Baton Rouge, we have been in the gym practicing everyday. Practices have been very productive and we have all been working very hard. On Dec. 26, we entered the gym ready to work however were granted a light practice to prepare us for the hard work ahead. At 9 a.m. the following morning we all met at the weight lifting facility where we endured hard weight strength, cardio and abs. Later that day at 2 p.m. the team gathered for practice. This was the first day we had to do full routines since we had returned. Despite a slow start, everyone held their head high, overcame adversity and rose to the occasion. The following two days consisted of full routines along with another 9 a.m. weight lifting session.
With landing drills, full routines, mental toughness preparation and team bonding, a motto arose from our head coach, D-D Breaux. It is that if we stay prepared we will not have to get prepared. This motto is one we will continue to use as we enter our first competition and throughout the season.
Aside from gymnastics, the team and staff have not only been bonding inside of the gym walls, but outside of them as well. On Dec. 29, the team and staff had a late Christmas party at assistant coach, Philip Ogletree‘s house. It had a pajama party theme and was comprised of food, a “secret Santa gift exchange,” games and tons of pictures. A couple highlights of the night were that Sabrina Franceschelli, Kayla Rogers, Yvette Triay and myself, Summer Hubbard, received our SEC Academic Honor Roll plaques. Another was that the party included one of Santa’s little helpers known as, “Susan Jackson,” who went against the pajama theme and arrived in an elf costume. It was a hit indeed!
To generate more team bonding, on Dec. 30, just the team met at Ashleigh Clare-Kearney, Kristi Esposito, Sabrina Franceschelli and Lauren Klein’s apartment. We had girl-talk of course, watched a movie and had snacks. A big topic of the night though, was how excited we all are to get this opportunity to compete in Cancun. We leave in just two days with just two practices remaining. We will continue to work hard and maintain positive attitudes for reaching our highest goal, Super Six. It is a journey that begins now, at this first competition.
We will be back with more information soon, so stay posted! From all of us on the team, we wish you a safe and happy new year!
Catch Ya’ Next Year,
Summer and Susan
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Hi Tiger fans! We are sophomore gymnasts Susan Jackson and Summer Hubbard and we want to share with you an in depth look at what goes on behind the scenes as we prepare for first meet, the Cancun Classic, on Jan. 4 in Cancun, Mexico.
To take you back a week or so, we had a hard and long week of finals, before enjoying a chance to go home and visit with family for the Christmas holiday. However, with the season just around the corner, our break was over on Dec. 26 and we returned to our chalk-filled practice facility on the LSU campus, a place many of us call our “second home.” Most of us had pleasant traveling experiences, returning back to Baton Rouge mid afternoon just in time for our 6:00 p.m. practice. However, four of our teammates — Sabrina Fraceschelli, Kayla Rogers, Nicole Lyons, and Paige Cipolloni ? did not.
Not surprising to her fellow teammates and coaches, Sabrina arrived at the airport in Boston ready to check-in when she realized she was at the wrong airline counter. Of course, the correct one was on the opposite side of the airport, so she immediately jumped in a cab and retreated to the other side. Already panicking, she got to the correct check-in counter only to realize that the other airline did not give her back her ID. At that point, Sabrina was a wreck. She managed to hop into another cab, get her ID, but upon returning realized she has now missed her flight. Sabrina made many attempts to return back to Baton Rouge on stand-by, but all of them fail. She ended up staying one more night at home and finally touched down in New Orleans on Thursday, Dec. 27 at 7:00 p.m.
The next traveling ordeal was with Kayla. Now Kayla’s problem was not due to personal error, but rather due to Mother Nature. The plane that was supposed to pick her up from Kansas City, Mo., was delayed three hours in Detroit due to a severe snow storm. At that point it was so late no other planes were flying directly to Baton Rouge. Finally, she was able to board a plan to San Antonio where she sat for two hours before heading to Houston. She then sat in Houston for another two hours before finally arriving in Baton Rouge around 11:00 p.m. Relieved that she was finally where she needed to be Kayla thought that her worries were over only to be disappointed when her luggage did not arrive with her flight. So without her belongings, Kayla went home tired, irritated and without her luggage, which she did not get back until Friday, Dec. 28.
You’d think our problems would be over at that point, but no, we still had two freshmen ? Nicole and Paige — that hadn’t made it in yet. At 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday Nicole flew out of Pennsylvania and headed to Cincinnati where she expected a one-hour lay over, but instead had a three-hour delay. Finally able to get on a plane she was headed Memphis, Tenn. While waiting in Memphis for a flight to Baton Rouge, Nicole bumped into Paige who had flown there from Newark, N.J. The two, now together, sat even longer. They waited for nearly five hours before flying out around 6:00 p.m. and landing in Baton Rouge at 8:00 p.m.
While it wasn’t easy, everyone did finally make it back in Baton Rouge. We are all grateful to be safe and sound and back at school where we have jumped right back into the swing of things in preparation for our meet first competition in Cancun, Mexico.
Stay posted, as we will be updating you frequently before and throughout our journey to Mexico.
Out For Now,
Summer and Susan