Walking into North Shore Gymnastics at 8:30 on a Monday night, one would expect it to be empty, however, the number of teams practicing was amazing. It seemed nowhere was safe to walk without the possibility of being hit by a twisting, flipping or jumping athlete.

On the mat, the OHS gymnastics team was running through their floor routines for their upcoming competitions. The girls who weren’t actively performing their routines were cheering loudly for their teammates or working on their tumbling skills on the tumble track.

“We go to each event and work on the skills we are going to compete for that meet,” captain Kylie Thedens said.

As the 7 – 9 pm practice was just winding down, the team finished their floor routines. They moved on to a captain-led team-building game that was accompanied by more cheering and laughing from the team.

This year’s captains are: senior Emory Landis, junior Kylie Thedens and junior Olivia Scharf. These girls are leading the team through a coaching change by welcoming their new head coach David Parkin.

Parkin was the head coach for Rockford last year and answered Orono’s call for a new head coach. He has ample coaching experience and seems to really be motivated to push the girls to excel.

“I’ve added 14 team gymnastics tournaments throughout the whole season, they have only had a couple in mind. I’ve added a lot of different varsity meets so the girls could get a lot more experience versus A and AA teams,” Parkin said.

The team has already competed in their first meet against some bigger AA teams which proved to be a challenge, but they remain positive. With only one meet under their belt and many more to come, the season is just getting started for these talented athletes.

“We are very determined and hardworking and can’t wait to improve for our next meet,” Thedens said. Last year the team had 6 state qualifiers and is hopeful to repeat that.

“I hope our team can get at least 140 as a team score, and I hope our team can make it to state again,” captain Emory Landis said. 140 is a very good score especially for a small team.