Open the Vault: Eight Pre-Meet Must Haves
2/1/2018 2:29:00 PM | Women's Gymnastics, Features
Open the Vault is an inside look at the Michigan women's gymnastics team as told through the voice of its student-athletes. This week, junior communication major Olivia Karas goes over the team's eight must haves before a meet.
Michigan is all about tradition. Ever since my freshman year, there have always been certain pre-meet rituals before we go out to start stretching for the meet. In my three years, this is what I have experienced. Every team in Michigan history has done things differently, and, of course, some of the same traditions have stayed year after year. So here are the eight must-haves in the locker room before a meet for this year's team!
1. Block M face tattoos
Ever since I can remember, I would watch Michigan compete on TV and the gymnasts always had a block M tattoo on the right side of their faces. A lot of teams wear face tattoos for meets, but for some reason I was always drawn to how cool it was that Michigan wore the famous "M." So, depending on the leotard we wear, there are either maize M's or blue M's waiting to be put on. And the minute they're put on the right side of our faces, that means go time.
2. Sour Patch Kids
How many of you know that we eat Sour Patch Kids on meet day? I sure didn't, until our first exhibition meet my freshman year when Lindsay Williams (2016 graduate) whipped a bag of them out of her backpack. From observing people the first few meets, I found that everyone had their own ritual with the candy. Some ate only maize and blue ones, some ate the colors of the team we were competing against. Everyone had their own "thing" and soon, everyone develops their own Sour Patch Kids ritual. Our team has a bit of a sweet tooth.
BONUS: We've recently included sour patch watermelons as well, which I am a huge fan of!
3. Sam Roy's marvelous motivation
Sophomore Sam Roy never missed a beat with her meet-day motivation last season. Whether we were away or at home, she had little Ziploc bags with motivational sayings and little treats for everyone on the team. Sometimes we had gum, candy or little knick-knacks, but every week, her motivation and little present had a purpose. Everyone always looked forward to Sam's weekly motivation. And the cool thing is, she started that tradition all on her own.
Freshman Sam Roy hands out some inspirational notes and gum before we leave for the meet. #MoneyintheBank #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/f1CK5Pqeh8
— Michigan Women's Gymnastics (@UMichWGym) March 11, 2017
4. Flip for Chip tattoos
Going off the block M tattoos, we are never short on "Flip for Chip" tats on meet day. Senior Cailee Hills' father Chip Hills is a very important person to our entire team. We have started wearing pancreatic cancer tattoos on our necks at every meet to remind ourselves that he is always with us. You will never see a Michigan gymnastics locker room without our special tattoos, nor a Michigan gymnast without a "Flip for Chip" tat on their neck.
5. A wall full of inside jokes and motivation
Every meet day, we fill the whiteboard in the locker room with funny inside jokes, motivational sayings or little reminders to get us hyped up and excited for the meet. Those little jokes and sayings I unfortunately cannot share with you as those are confidential, but I can leave it up to you to think about what is up there ;).
6. Sparkles
It is a Michigan staple to have a sparkle explosion on our faces. It started my freshman year when everyone put a little sparkle here and there, but it ended up turning into a colossal sparkle party before the meet. It got to the point where we used to add to the sparkle party in between warmups and march out, and even started sprinkling sparkles in our hair and on our "Flip for Chip" tats.
7. Teammate or hairstylist?
Most of our team does each other's hair pre-meet. Junior Emma McLean is practically our team hairstylist, having everyone come over before the meet for her to braid their hair. A lot of people do the same style each meet for superstitious reasons, but we do play around with hair sometimes.
8. The team's playlist
As always, every team jams to music pre-meet. We have a wide variety of music playing in the locker room; some country, hardcore rap, the occasional pop and even some real good oldies. Our team loves to dance, so our locker room pre-meet is usually a little dance party (but not too much dancing … we've got to save our energy for the actual meet). You better believe when one of our favorite songs pops on, the locker room starts jumping and singing. This is one of the best parts of meet day!
Go behind the scenes as we got ready for our season-opening win over No. 4 Alabama. It's always a good time. #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/M72rKJirSe
— Michigan Women's Gymnastics (@UMichWGym) January 6, 2018
9. BONUS!
We have a blow up whale named Mosby that senior Lauren Marinez purchased for sophomore Polina Shchennikova. Mosby has become a good pal of ours who joins in on the pre-meet dance party and is perched beautifully atop many panel mats in the gym. Mosby is a new addition to pre-meet fun! In addition to Mosby, assistant coach, Scott Vetere, brings in his infamous Snow Dragon and a surprise creature to join us in our meets to get us hyped up even more.
Premeet battle between ??? and the Hulk?. Who wins? pic.twitter.com/hDq6tZkufz
— Michigan Women's Gymnastics (@UMichWGym) January 5, 2018
So there you have it! The eight (nine, kind of. I gave you all a bonus. Ha ha.) essentials for the Michigan women's gymnastics team pre-meet. Next time you're on your way to Crisler, or any venue we are competing in, you'll have an idea of what goes on behind the scenes!
#GoBlue
Players Mentioned
