Final Day at Westerns

Today was another spectacular day for the EDGE team.

Here are some quotes:

Emma: "My finals on trampoline were the most exciting part of the day. Just being in the finals at Westerns was exciting... I don't know another word... spectacular!"

Genai: "I liked trampoline the most because I had an absolutely spectacular routine! It was exciting that I got finals in two things and I've never done that."

Kelsey: "I don't know. Seeing the girls from BC doing back tuck, front tuck was cool".

Janelle: "Super impressed with everyone this weekend. Nerves were well handled, performances were excellent and great attitudes all the way around."

Hailey: "Probably team final was the most amazing moment. Everyone was cheering so loud and then when the judge saluted me it was silent. I could hear the wind rushing past my ears as I was competing. It was kind of nerve-racking. I like it when there's noise and it was kind of weird when it was so quiet. Still fun though!"

Justin: "It was my very first Westerns and it was really fun and it was a great experience. Probably my favorite thing about today was my Double mini when I stuck my Rudi."

Alanya: "I think my favorite moment was just being with everybody. Just being together as a team like a family!"

Brody: "I think that my favorite part was trying being on a different team. I've never had a different coach then Janelle and Jamie and having new team mates was really cool. I actually had to get to know them and that was fun."

Rachel: "I really liked coming to my first Westerns and being able to spend time with the team. Everybody was really fun to be with. Yayyy!"

I can't finish better than that. Yayyyy indeed!

Jamie

WCC 2011 Day 2!

Today was a very long day but altogether successful. Each of our athletes had at least one truly great performance and we were proud of all of them.

We started off our day with Synchro and Tumbling in the morning. Team RaGe (Rachel and Genai) and Team KeDhalla (Emma and Alanya) both had good showings in Synchro and all of our tumblers showed some quality passes. Genai, Justin, Brody, Hailey, and Alanya went on to tumble in the final round later on in the afternoon as well. Fast and long rhythms was the key and Alanya was so successful stretching everything out that she actually ran out of floor. Rats (but a great problem to have!)

In trampoline Genai, Rachel, Emma and Alanya all competed well amidst dozens of competors. Justin, Brody, Hailey, Kelsey, Belle, Emma, and Alanya all showed passes on DMT (phewph!) and all were completed (although one accidental seat drop finish was a little unexpected).

Tomorrow morning we will see Brody, Hailey, Genai, Emma, and Alanya in the final rounds on Trampoline while Justin, Brody and Hailey compete their final passes on DMT. It should be very exciting.

Here is one of our best passes from last night. Perfect stick by Rachel!

After the day wrapped up we rushed back to the hotel to change into fancy duds. Everyone looked especially awesome as we traipsed off to the athlete's social. Pizza, a bouncy castle thingy, some rebounding toy horse whatsits, even some DDR. Looked like fun was had by all and the athletes wrapped up with a hot tub back at the hotel.

Pumped for tomorrow!

Jamie

Western Canada Cup 2011!

Here we are travelling again and this time the wifi works so we'll hopefully be able to update as we go!

The EDGE team is here in green Port Coquitlam, British Columbia for the 27th Western Canada Cup for Trampoline & Tumbling. Brody and Hailey are here with the Alberta Provincial Team (having been selected with 7 others for this honor) and Kelsey, Emma, Genai, Alanya, Justin, Rachel and Belle are representing the EDGE. We flew into Vancouver International last night and drove to the Hotel in just over an hour. Lucky we were told afterwards as others took as long as 2 hrs plus (and one family got lost and took 4 hours to find Port Coquitlam). After a nice meal (Spaghetti and Meatballs for most) at the hotel we handed Hailey and Brody over to the Alberta Team Manager (they will be staying with the Alberta team for the duration of the meet but travel with us) and then we all headed for bed and a good rest before the training and first day of competition.

This morning we hopped out of bed bright and early and headed out to the International House of Pancakes for a tasty breakfast. Everyone enjoyed themselves and fueled up nicely for the training afterwards. We made a point of vetoing any whip cream due to the famous Colton Smith Whip Cream incident of a travelling meet in the past. We managed to get out of there spill free and zipped over to the gym.

Training was quite good. Everyone was a little nervous but got used to everything quickly and pulled off routines on every event. The set up is different from what we're used to with warm-up equipment separate from competition equipment like we see at International Meets. This meant making sure that they took a few turns on 3 trampolines, 2 DMTs, and 1 Tumbling floor. All the equipment is of good quality and we had a great time. We found some lunch at a nearby Subway and enjoyed some sunshine in a park (mostly playing on a statue of a Maypole).

This evening was also the preliminary round of competition for several of the athletes. Justin had a best-ever Compulsory routine on Individual Trampoline and was quite pleased. Genai had phenomenal routines (both of them) on DMT. Rachel lived up to her nickname and was a "Rock Star" on DMT with a picture perfect, stuck, Straddle Jump to Straight Barani. Kelsey was especially pleased with a completed Optional on Tramp (with 10 different skillls!) We watched and cheered as Hailey and Brody both strutted their stuff on Tramp. Hailey was particularly spectacular on her optional (which she had been a bit worried about in training). Brody toughed out two strong routines despite feeling blah and feverish (don't worry Jen he's fine.)

We had an excellent dinner (great THANKS to Mr Atkins who was particularly wonderful to us there) and are well fueled and about to be well rested for our long day tomorrow!

Stay Strong.

Heart, Body, and Mind

Jamie and Janelle (who's particularly strong).