During a gymnastics meet, one of the rotations include a floor routine. With the Red Rocks, whoever is on the floor, her teammates are on the side not only cheering her on, but they are also dancing her routine as well.
As the Red Rocks dominated the BYU Cougars on Friday, Jan. 13, the support — and dancing — was more prominent. Junior Maddy Stover stood alone on one side of the mat, but whenever a gymnast looked onto that side and hit a pose, Stover would hit the exact same pose and smile at the girl on the floor.
Stover isn’t the only team member to dance along side the girl on the floor, however. In fact, every single teammate can be seen dancing alongside the girl on the floor. For some, it would seem as a distraction, but for the Red Rocks, it is just the fun distraction they need.
“You see your teammates out there in the middle of the floor routine having just as much fun as you are having — it kind of distracts you from being in an actual competition,” said junior Tiffani Lewis. “We do each other’s floor routines in the gym, and we have fun with each other. And when we are all playing with each other, it kind of brings the mood up and light.”
There is a part in freshman MyKayla Skinner’s routine when she gets to the corner of the floor and shimmies. Along with her, Stover, Lewis and the rest of the team shimmies along with her, putting a smile on everyone’s face. And for Skinner, she said that it’s her favorite part.
“I love doing floor and I love having the girls on my side,” Skinner said. “Just being out there, it gets me pumped and it just tells me that we got this. It’s just what we do, and it is just awesome to be able to cheer everyone on and have that awesome experience.”
It’s not just during Skinner’s routine that the girls dance on the side. For every girl who participates, they get the honor of the girls on the side dancing with them. According sophomore Sabrina Schwab, it lifts everyone up, no matter who it is.
“It is so fun — it is almost like a party,” Schwab said. “Every single person out on the floor has our backs and they trust us, and they are doing our routine with us so it just makes it fun.”
Just like every meet they have competed in, the Red Rocks will be dancing on the sidelines as their teammate performs on the floor this Friday, Jan. 20, as they host a meet against Boise State, Denver, and Illinois-Chicago in the Huntsman Center. The meet is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
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