BATON ROUGE — The sixth-ranked LSU gymnastics team spent time with those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease at Charlie’s Place, and head coach D-D Breaux previewed the season opener at a press luncheon at Walk-On’s Bistreaux Tuesday.
The team met with Alzheimer’s clients at Charlie’s Place, the respite center located on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge and operated by the organization Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area.
Because Charlie’s House is not a nursing home they refer to those who attend as clients rather than patients.
The center is open every week day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to help caregivers of Alzheimer’s victims receive a break as those who suffer from the disease can spend the day at Charlie’s Place.
The team learned proper etiquette of how to speak and approach the clients, and they also learned about all the aspects of Alzheimer’s disease.
After the session the team interacted with the clients by playing a game called “Noodle Ball” and also spent one-on-one time with clients to offer them an opportunity for conversation and games.
“Today really opened our eyes to the reality of Alzheimer’s disease,” senior Summer Hubbard said. “It also opened our eyes to all the wonderful help that is out there for the disease. Charlie’s Place is truly making a difference, and I am so grateful we became a part of it. We had a great time interacting with the people there, and I hope we have a chance to visit again.”
After the team left Charlie’s House, Breaux previewed Friday’s season opener at Walk-On’s. LSU will open the season Friday at 7 p.m. CT against Maryland in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Below is a transcript from today’s press conference with Breaux:
D-D Breaux Press Conference
January 5, 2010
Opening Statement …
“Thanks everybody for coming. We are really looking forward to this season. Being preseason ranked No. 6 is basically an indication of the respect that we gained from our performances last year. Graduating Ashleigh Clare-Kearney is, of course, a huge loss to our team. We felt like about November that we had a couple freshmen who would be able to step up and not fill those shoes but at least close that gap a little bit. We lost Kaleigh Dickson during the Christmas holidays. She is one of our freshmen who we thought would really make an impact in our lineup immediately. She chipped a bone in her knee, and they went in this morning and put a screw in it to facilitate the healing. We are hoping to have her back with any luck at all at about the eight or nine week of our season. The other two freshmen that we are counting on a lot, Shelby Prunty and Janelle Garcia, both had injuries last year, and I requested of their coaches that they not compete last year to try to let them heal. With that we knew we would be in a slow preparation mode with them. They may see limited action Friday night. It just depends on how they perform on Wednesday. When Kaleigh got injured we sped up and did some two-a-days with them to try to speed up getting them ready. It’s just like anything else, though. It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.
“We are returning a host of very solid, not only good gymnasts but extremely good people. Our senior class has been outstanding leaders and made a huge impact. They have been with us through the two Super Six performances, and they have been instrumental in those successes. Susan Jackson is as good as she has been ever in her career. You are talking about an individual who, last year, finished second in vaulting with Ashleigh Clare-Kearney finishing first. Had it not been for Susan’s performance before Ashleigh, Ashleigh would not have won the national championship. Susan’s feet hit the floor, and she walked down the runway, looked at Ashleigh and said, ‘Now you know what you have to do.’ I give a lot of credit to Bob (Moore), our vaulting coach, because he really did bring those kids along from a very low level to create some outstanding vaulters. His task is very difficult this year, but I think Friday night we may be very conservative in our approach. With some of our kids who usually do big vaults we may back them down and not even twist vaults, trying to stay healthy until we can get everybody ready to compete at their highest level.
“Also, competing in the all-around for the first time this week will be Summer Hubbard. Summer started out her freshman year and only did bars. She was an All-American in bars last year and her sophomore year. She added balance beam and floor exercise to her skills last year and did a super job, winning the bars title at the regional championships. She has been very solid for us, and we really need her to step up and become an all-arounder. She is another one who we have to be very conservative with and spoon feed her a little bit at a time.
“Sabrina Franceschelli looks fabulous. She’ll do four events. She may be our top all-arounder. She and Susan can challenge each other which is really what you want to see happen. Kayla Rogers is a returning All-American as well. All of our seniors are All-Americans. Kayla has traditionally only done floor exercise and vaulting, but with our limited power at our freshman level we may put her in and see how she does in the other two events, hoping that just her experience will carry her through the competition. Sam Engle, who is now a junior, I contend, has the best bar routine in the nation. She is going to see action in three events. If she competes well in the gym on Wednesday we will probably put her in. Another individual that we didn’t see last year, Nikki Lyons, who competed her freshman year in our first Super Six season, has fought back from an injury and in all probability will see limited action. She is training three events, and we would like to start her off on one event in this meet and get her back into more events as our season progresses.
“We are excited. It’s our first meet. We never open at home. It is going to be a group night. Any group of 10 or more that comes to the meet will get in free. The first 500 people will get Super Tiger Fan t-shirts. They are really working hard to market this despite the cold weather. The cheerleaders are going to be there performing their national championship routine in preparation for that competition as well as the Tiger Girls. We are pretty excited. The team is very excited about this season. Another thing I need to mention is that we did sign Ericka Garcia who is an international level gymnast. She is a very solid all-arounder from Mexico City, Mexico. She has competed internationally, and her last competition was the World Championships (in London). She will not be eligible to compete until the middle of our season. I will reiterate again – it’s not how we start; it’s how we finish, and traditionally with our gymnastics team it’s our coaching style to bring them around slowly and get better as our season goes on.”
On how much it helps to have four returning All-American seniors with loss of Ashleigh Clare-Kearney …
“You have to remember that in Ashleigh’s freshman year it was ‘Who’s that?’ She was not the finished, polished product that she was that we saw last year who stepped on the floor and dominated the national championships and took two titles. It was a slow process, and it’s not like the Shayla Worley’s who are the Olympic and international-level gymnasts from the United States who go to UCLA or Georgia. These kids come to LSU, and we work really hard to develop them and bring them along. The fact that Ashleigh was just a regular, all-around kid who came to LSU because she wanted to be here and we coached her as though our lives depended upon it, I have a lot of confidence that this team will step up and do everything that is expected of them.”
On if she has seen gymnasts become better by being part of a great team …
“Absolutely. In 2005 that was probably the best team we ever had. We should have gone to the Super Six, and we should have finished in the top three in the nation and didn’t because we had a couple of kids who turned into jelly beans on the balance beam at the preliminary round at the national championship. That team was probably the best, but the team two years ago and the team last year, we had a couple of stars and then kids who had a tremendous amount of desire and pride. They really loved LSU, the tradition and what they have accomplished. This team is special. They went this morning and spent the morning at Charlie’s House, which is a home for Alzheimer’s patients where they go from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This is a special group of kids.”
On what her biggest concern is right now …
“The biggest concern is lack of depth, and I’m not a real patient person and me having to be patient and go slow by spoon feeding the freshmen group to bring them along and try to raise the bottom to be at the same level as the top is difficult. We need our depth, and we need those kids. We can put five great kids on the floor, but you need six and seven because you are only as good as the worst performance out there.”