Southeast Missouri State gymnastics season begins Sunday

Southeast Missouri State gymnastics coach Kristi Ewasko uttered two words, or some variation of them, several times while discussing her team on Thursday afternoon at Houck Field House while her gymnasts practiced.

Those two words -- take hold -- have been emphasized to the squad in the months leading up to the 2015 season.

"What we spoke to our team about and continue to speak to them about is 'Take hold of this opportunity,'" Ewasko said. "You know, take hold of the chance to show off -- don't let that fear envelope you and make you not do what you're capable of doing. We've really used that 'take hold' mentality this year to be like, 'Hey, you're scared. I understand you're scared, but take hold of this chance to get better and be better. I know it's hard. I know you're struggling right now, but take hold.'

"Like this is an opportunity that not many people get, and for the most part they've really taken hold of that thought and that process. That's really what we're building on this season is take hold. It is one routine, one meet at a time, to give yourself that chance to make it to postseason, which is ultimately our goal."

The Redhawks have their first opportunity when they host Illinois State at 1 p.m. today at Houck Field House. It is the first of five home meets for the Redhawks.

An area of importance for defending Midwest Independent Conference champion Southeast, which finished 16-5 last year, is consistency.

The Redhawks' struggled to post consistent scores last season, particularly on the balance beam. Ewasko's focused on getting the gymnasts to believe that they're capable of doing a routine or skill on a regular basis. She knows the routines weren't too difficult for the athletes last season because there were times where they performed them with ease.

"A lot of numbers, and a lot of numbers the right way," sophomore Alyssa Tucker said of the process for consistency. "So like learning how to make bar routines not once every other turn but almost every turn."

Tucker, who competed in an NCAA Regional as a freshman, is one of three sophomores that are slated to compete in the all-around.

Chelsi Hamilton and Ashley Thomas are also projected to compete in all four events today.

Tucker and Thomas each have upgraded their floor routines to feature "E" passes, which is the highest difficulty of skill level, according to Ewasko.

Ewasko is excited to see how Hamilton responds in the season opener after a preseason injury.

"Last year she was in and out of a lot of our lineups, a little bit inconsistent scoring, and then she actually had an injury mid-preseason and we were very fearful that she wouldn't be back," Ewasko said. "In the last two weeks since Christmas she has been lit on fire. *... The plan will be for her to do the four events again [today] as her first time of really shining as an all-around athlete. I'm really excited to see her step into that game of what we recruited her for."

Ewasko does have some concern about some of her athletes' inexperience of competing at the college level. Three of the squad's six freshman -- Alexis Brawner, Jordan Clark and McKenna Stanley -- are in the projected lineups for today's meet. The Redhawks also have seven sophomores, one junior and a senior.

"I'm hoping that that doesn't show, but as coaches we're thinking it might," Ewasko said of the inexperience. "We really want to build on that and improve on that before mid-season."

Southeast's ultimate goal is to advance to a regional meet as a team, something the program hasn't done since 2008. An individual has advanced to regionals each year since.

"One of our big ones is to start off the season with a 194-195 [score], up in that range, so that at the end we can make it to regionals as a whole team instead of individually," said Tucker, who was the MIC freshman of the year and finished seventh in the all-around competition at regionals.

Ewasko said her athletes have "proven" to her that they have the drive and persistence to improve, and she's confident they'll rise to any challenges they face this season.

"You're not here to be stable. You've come to learn, improve, get better, grow, and so every single coach has given every single athlete some [area] to improve on, and every single one of them is stepping up to the plate," Ewasko said. "That's where I know they're determined. Any time we talk about postseason -- what does it mean? What do you want out of this? -- they're firing off, 'We want this. We want that. We're willing to do this.'"