New sports

With the Olympics taking place and MUW adding sports, I got to thinking why do we not have a gymnastics team?

I don't know much about the sport other than the popularity it has all over the nation with children. Is it an expensive sport to implement? It just seems strange that no school in the state has a team.

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Originally Posted by EdDawg

With the Olympics taking place and MUW adding sports, I got to thinking why do we not have a gymnastics team?

I don't know much about the sport other than the popularity it has all over the nation with children. Is it an expensive sport to implement? It just seems strange that no school in the state has a team.

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Probably just a decision made because Mississippi doesn't produce many Gymnasts & it would probably be a sport in which we got our face beat in like soccer & volleyball

One interesting note on that is that girls peak in gymnastics around 16-17 years old. As girls turn more into women at 19+ (college age) they are well on their way down in their overall ability to perform at the highest level. Watching Gabby Douglas in the Olympics, its pretty obvious that while she is still good, she is not as good as she was 4 years ago as a 16 year old.

There has to be a lot of gymnastic camps for girls throughout the state to feed a program or you will always be trying to recruit nationally to Starkville which isn't the easiest thing to do. The rural nature of Mississippi doesn't really lend itself to that.

I live in Houston and I can think of three large gymnastic camps off the top of my head. You're not competing with that for at least twenty years.

Isn't Bama really good in gymnastics? Seems like I read a girl in Tupelo was really good a few years ago. That is a sport that is just odd to watch. The 22 year old on the team is nicknamed Grandma.

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Originally Posted by Reason2succeed

There has to be a lot of gymnastic camps for girls throughout the state to feed a program or you will always be trying to recruit nationally to Starkville which isn't the easiest thing to do. The rural nature of Mississippi doesn't really lend itself to that.

I live in Houston and I can think of three large gymnastic camps off the top of my head. You're not competing with that for at least twenty years.

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Not necessarily. I agree that the programs would be behind for a long time, but having camps throughout the state wouldn't be the reason.

Alabama is well known of its gymnastics teams and typically sell-out their meets. Their current roster has 3 girls from AL and 1 from MS.

My wife and I were discussing last night how many swimmers were in the Olympics that attend UGA.

The potential sports are there, but I highly doubt they turn a profit. That would be the reason we'd be behind for many, many years.

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Originally Posted by Gutter Cobreh

Not necessarily. I agree that the programs would be behind for a long time, but having camps throughout the state wouldn't be the reason.

Alabama is well known of its gymnastics teams and typically sell-out their meets. Their current roster has 3 girls from AL and 1 from MS.

My wife and I were discussing last night how many swimmers were in the Olympics that attend UGA.

The potential sports are there, but I highly doubt they turn a profit. That would be the reason we'd be behind for many, many years.

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Auburn is also a very good swimming program. These are the types of reasons that we won't ever win the Capital One trophy or whatever it is called. We don't compete in very many sports compared to other universities.

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Originally Posted by Tbonewannabe

Auburn is also a very good swimming program. These are the types of reasons that we won't ever win the Capital One trophy or whatever it is called. We don't compete in very many sports compared to other universities.

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UF and Bama are big in the pool also, just not this Olympics.

We will have it within 5 years. It's one of the fastest growing sports in the south. And if you don't think there is gym talent in MS then go check out one of these team competitions around the state this winter/spring. It's unreal. My daughter competes as a level 3 gymnast at 8 years old. The coaching in MS is surprisingly very good.

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Originally Posted by spbdawg

Ladies gymnastics would be an instant hit. For the first years we would need to recruit a number of girls from outside the state with a few in state girls I suppose. I promise everyone it would be a break even sport financially at worst......which is better than almost every other Title IX sport at MSU. To be honest I don't understand why we didn't go this direction first when Title IX became law....it's like we propped up a bunch of ladies sports that were guaranteed to lose money (and probably lots of it).

Right now every 40 something mom is sitting in front of a TV with their daughter(s) reliving some Mary Lou Retton moment bc of Rio. Women eat this shit up. The butts in seats and eyeballs in front of TV would be huge and i bet the merchandising would be stronger than every other MSU ladies sport. The intensity level from women for ladies gymnastics is incredible.

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Back off the excitement a little bit... if we created a team.. and drew 1500-2k that would be a good start. We aren't gonna draw 12/10k like BAMA/UGA

It would seem to be the cheapest sport to add as they would use the hump. They would need a practice facility though as the equipment can't stay up non-stop in the hump during spring basketball season.
Recruiting would be a big uphill battle with Top 3 national Bama next door.

and before you claim any profits too quick... know that's a myth. no SEC team makes a profit on gymnastics.
Bama lost 1.4mil recently in fact.

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Bc Stricklin hasn't figured out a way to trot them out yet during a break in the action of a football game.

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Originally Posted by I seen it dawg

Bc Stricklin hasn't figured out a way to trot them out yet during a break in the action of a football game.

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Well played...

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Originally Posted by I seen it dawg

Bc Stricklin hasn't figured out a way to trot them out yet during a break in the action of a football game.

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You must spread some reputation around before giving it to I seen it Dawg again. Funny because it's probably true.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

One interesting note on that is that girls peak in gymnastics around 16-17 years old. As girls turn more into women at 19+ (college age) they are well on their way down in their overall ability to perform at the highest level. Watching Gabby Douglas in the Olympics, its pretty obvious that while she is still good, she is not as good as she was 4 years ago as a 16 year old.

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Gabby and Aly took about 2 years off. Had they kept training just as hard, I think they would've been better, not worse. That one lady is in her record setting 7th Olympics and she's better now than she's ever been.

We aren't a big enough school to support anymore sports programs right now. If we had another 4 or 5k students, then maybe. The other schools in our league that have gymnastics or swim teams have natural advantages over us.

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Originally Posted by sleepy dawg

Gabby and Aly took about 2 years off. Had they kept training just as hard, I think they would've been better, not worse. That one lady is in her record setting 7th Olympics and she's better now than she's ever been.

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Doubt she would have been better. Looking through gymnastics history whether it be Olga Korbut, Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, and so on all the best women's gymnasts peak around 15-18 years old.

I'm for a cost/benefit to be successful on a National level. Equestrian is expensive. Gymnastics is as well. That's why I say (don't laugh) Bowling. It doesn't cost much. Vandy has won an NCAA Natty. Sam Houston State and Arkansas State are perennial Top 5 teams. Surely we can out recruit those guys.

Trying to compete with Houston for Gymnastics skews the results. The US Olympic training center is just North of Houston. I've met 5 Gold medalist just walking around the Galleria. I've sat beside a 3 time Olympic champion Gymnast from the USSR getting a haircut. There are training gyms everywhere.

Houston is where you'd recruit if you were MSU.

I wish they hadn't cheap'd out on the Sanderson pool and made it regulation 50x25.