Many might think that playing at home is a gimme that gives a distinct advantage to the home team. That might be true for some sports teams, but not for the U gymnastics team — at least not this weekend.
The Red Rocks head into tomorrow as national title contenders, especially because they’re playing at home. However, it is the NCAA Championships and they’re just like any other student at the U with final exams at their doorstep.
“Our kids are going to be dealing with finals,” said U head coach Greg Marsden. “Because we’re here, we’re going to have to sway back and forth to keep up with finals and at the same time do a good job with competition.”
Finals are scattered over the course of this week and next, and not every gymnast has the same schedule. Some have no finals and some only have a couple, while others will have a full load before Nationals begin.
Nina Kim, for example, has all of her finals this week. “It’s kind of hard. It’s kind of distracting,” she said.
Fortunately, some of the gymnasts’ exams are going to be after Nationals, so their main focus can be gymnastics.
“It’s kind of a relief that I don’t have to start thinking about it now,” Ashley Postell said. “That gives me the weekend and stuff to think about what I need to get done.”
Finals are not the only distraction for the Red Rocks. They have family coming from all around the nation to see them compete. For most, it’s exciting that their families get to watch them, but sometimes that excitement can be overwhelming.
“I have so much family coming in. I can’t accommodate everybody,” Nicolle Ford said. “We’re going to treat it like an away meet and stay at a hotel just like if we were away at Nationals.”
Marsden agrees with the idea of treating Nationals like an away meet to minimize the chaos of competing at home.
“We just thought it would be good to get away from the distractions and get down there and spend that time together as we prepare for these, hopefully, last two meets,” he said.
Every team is also competing on equipment so new you can still smell the factory in which it was assembled — so there is no advantage there, either.
“We’re used to the set-up and how things are going to be run, but the equipment is all brand new. Everybody has the same advantage as far as gymnastics goes,” Ford said.
Every team gets to practice with the new equipment at specified times to break in and familiarize themselves with it.
So where’s the benefit of Utah competing at home, one might ask? The answer is the fans.
“The crowd’s going to be so much more crazy,” Ford said.
It is expected to be a full house on tomorrow and Friday night, and one can assume the seats will be filled with a lot more Red Rock fans than anyone else.
“It makes it more energizing,” Marsden said.
So do finals, family distractions and new equipment trump fan-generated adrenaline, or does the mere presence of thousands of screaming fans give an advantage to the Red Rocks?
“I don’t feel that we have a huge advantage,” Ford said. “We’re still competing on the same brand new equipment. Possibly a slight upper hand, but I don’t think it’s going to be that much difference.”
Kristina Baskett said, “We have new equipment, other fans, other teams and it’s not exactly the advantage of a home meet. We’re comfortable in our atmosphere and our arena, so I would say that’s the only advantage.”
Postell, however, thinks the team’s fans can definitely give Utah an advantage.
“We fill the house and they can get pretty rowdy, and I think that can help a little bit,” she said.
No matter how they see it — the advantage of the fans or the drawback of the new equipment — the Red Rocks seem to be peaking when it counts, and competing in front of thousands of their fans, at the very least, probably doesn’t hurt.
