CAMAS — Happen upon the Vancouver Elite Gymnastics Academy on a given weeknight, there’s a chance you’ll find an spacious tumbling room empty if not for the huddle of high school girls stacked high on each other’s shoulders, the bottom row standing on a three foot by four foot piece of loose shag carpet.
You’ll also hear giggles of laughter. Partially from the natural discomfort of the situation, but mainly, the girls are having fun.
“If you don’t work together, somebody is going to fall off the carpet square,” sophomore Shea McGee said, “so you all need to work together to stay on the carpet.”
The spectacle is one of the many team-building exercises Camas gymnastics coach Carol Willson has put in place for her team this season.
As the Papermakers seek a repeat 4A state gymnastics team title on Friday at Sammamish High School in Bellevue — a year after bringing home the first 4A team gymnastics title in Southwest Washington history — Willson’s focus has been on maintaining cohesion among the team.
Willson’s lessons about the importance of teamwork have come in the form of activities throughout the season.
In the carpet activity, a gymnast’s equivalent of a human knot, the girls must rely on each other in order to complete the task.
On the bus ride to the district meet, the team was given a paper clip for each hand and tasked with linking them –red and white — into a necklace, only using one hand and the hand of a teammate. Willson then wore the paper clip necklace throughout the district meet.
An athlete who scores high in a team event gets cotton candy — “because you (gave) padding for the team,” sophomore Alyssa Shibata said. Stick your landing? Gorilla glue or sticky-notes.
The symbolism is not lost on the gymnasts.
“That’s been our biggest (focus),” Willson said, “a lot of team building, bonding, splitting them up, giving them jobs, helping them try to understand that we’re as strong as our weakest link, that they’ve got to do their part.”
The top gymnasts in the area come into high school with junior olympic (or J.O., as it’s referred to) experience — the gymnastics equivalent of club or AAU.
In J.O., gymnasts say there is a premium on individual competition over team. Meets are quieter. There’s less celebrating and cheering teammates on. In high school, not the case.
“You feel more powerful, do bigger skills and do a lot better,” sophomore Lily Ford said. “In J.O it’s really nerve-racking, but with high school with a big team it helps me calm my nerves, ‘OK I can do this, my team is here for me.’ ”
It all factors into to the team’s overarching motto: “out of many, come one.”
Last year, the Papermakers defeated perennial power Woodinville to claim the team title.
This year, they are determined to prove they’re here to stay.
Outside of Jacqueline Purwins, the lone graduate, the Papermakers return every member of its state championship team.
In fact, the Papermakers’ roster nearly doubled — 40 — from last season. Willson credits the increased turnout to last season’s success.
That includes The Columbian’s All-Region gymnast of the year Shea McGee, a sophomore who finished second in the all-around competition last year — just a tenth of a point shy of first — and Shibata, who placed fifth in the all-around.
This year, four Papermakers are poised to make a run at the individual title: McGee, Shibata, sophomore Lili Ford and freshman Peyton Cody.
McGee said though disappointed, she was at least happy the girl who edged her for a state title was a senior. Now, she’s determined to win, and to do so, her focus has been on the little things.
As she of all people knows, every last point counts.
“It’s motivated me a lot to do better than last year,” McGee said. “I’ve been working a lot harder at just fighting for every tenth.”
