BGC Newsletter

We just found out on Monday that we can have a food booth at the Dragon Boat Festival. We have until Wednesday to figure out what we are going to sell at the booth. Probably by the time you get this we will have decided. This is a great opportunity for the BGC to make some money and it’s important that we do. This means, of course that we need LOTS of volunteer help. The booth needs to be open from 5:00-10:00 on Thursday, July 31st, 10:00-10:00 on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1 & 2. That’s a lot of shifts and a lot of needed people to fill those shifts.

Those of you who have not yet gotten your required volunteer hours in should use this as a way to complete them. There will be a sign-up sheet on the VOLUNTEER BOARD very soon please sign up as quickly as possible so those in charge don’t have to worry about getting help.

The Aerials, the high school and the Rising Stars will all be performing at Art in the Park on this Saturday at 11:00. It would be wonderful if everyone (even those who haven’t been practicing this summer) could make it so we could put on a wonderful show. Anyone who wishes to perform should just show up at the lake front where the mats are in your circus leotards (or a similar one if you don’t have a circus one). Form fitting shorts (not boxers etc.) over the leotard are okay. And speaking of mats—if some adults would like to volunteer to help Pappy load and unload mats please let Pappy or Mary know.

Rising Stars please remember that you DO NOT have practice next week, because of the BGC camp. You will have two more weeks of practice after that-going until August 7th. Aerials and high school gymnasts who have registered have camp all next week.

Please plan to attend the BGC’s annual meeting scheduled for 6:00 on September 15th. It is during this meeting that new board members are elected, the budget is approved, and the by-laws will be changed. It is also at this meeting that you learn about the BGC and the benefits and requirements of belonging to the club. There are break-out sessions for each level for you to learn more about these levels and your gymnast’s involvement in them. Those who are new to a team are required to attend and those new to a different level are very strongly encouraged to attend. And everyone else should come too.

Each year three (of 9) board members’ terms expire and we elect three people to the board. This year Pam Gregg and Arlene Bergquist have elected to run again for another term. Judy Comstock is not running again. If you are interested in running for a position on the board please contact Nancy Schram, the BGC president.

A reminder to those who have not gotten all your volunteer hours in: a new year starts in September and those who are short hours will lose BGC benefits for next year. Some of those benefits would be paying a lesser fee for BGC camps and clinics, being able to finance your meets through the BGC, a bag for your competitive gymnast and others. There are still opportunities to get your hours in. The Dragon Boat Festival would be the best one because there are lots of opportunities there. It could be a family affair since teen-aged gymnasts can sign up to work and of course both Mom and Dad can.

We will also be vacuuming the main floor carpet on Thursday, Aug. 21st at 5:00. We vacuum the carpet, roll up the carpet and vacuum the foam underneath and then put everything back and sometimes vacuum the carpet again. The next day we have a cleaning company come in to clean the carpet. If you are still looking for more opportunities you may check with Mary. There is some painting, cleaning and repairing to be done at the Gym Bin and those hours could be used as volunteer hours.

NEW LEOTARDS: As I hope you all know the competitive gymnasts will be getting new leotards and warm-ups for this coming season. We will be needing to order them soon so please keep checking your emails and the bulletin board for more information. We are presently waiting for sizers so our girls can get fitted properly. Once they come the gymnasts will try them on so that when the final decision is made about the leotards they can be quickly ordered. PLEASE KEEP WATCHING!

FALL INFORMATION: Mary is in the process of getting the fall information out to all the Aerials. Included in the packet will be a USAG number form for those gymnasts who are absolutely sure to be ready to compete in the fall. For those who might not know if they’ll be ready the number can be purchased later. The coaches will decide if your gymnast is ready to compete. If you have any questions about any of the information that comes in the packet please just ask Mary. Rising Stars won’t get their information until early August.

NEW COMPETITION: We have been invited to join Grand Rapids, a couple Duluth teams and a couple Wisconsin teams in a conference that holds three meets in the fall, just among these clubs. The board decided at its last meeting to try this for at least this one year. Some of the benefits would be an easier introduction to competition for new gymnasts, most likely the meets would be closer and our gymnasts have done well with Duluth judges, who would be judging these meets. The drawbacks might be that one of the meets would be in Wisconsin, which wouldn’t be any closer than the Cities and some of our gymnasts need the Cities type of competition. However we will also be going to the MN. qualifiers so our gymnasts can still qualify for our Minnesota State Meet.

Don’t forget the Olympic Games are scheduled to begin on August 8th. You will find some information about them at the end of the newsletter. Also there is a board up at the Gym Bin with Olympic information. Our gymnastics women have a good chance of winning the gold.
The BGC will be sponsoring a developmental clinic for our competitive gymnasts. Keep watching for more information. It will occur in late August or early September.
The date for the August BGC board meeting has been changed. It will be held on Monday, August 18th. Don’t forget you’re welcome to attend.
Level 4 gymnasts-don’t forget the camp scheduled for Mon-Wed, Aug. 18-20. We are still hoping that Andrea Hassel from Grand Rapids will be there to coach at least part of the time. Pappy will also be coaching.
Rising Stars, remember your camp is scheduled for Mon-Thurs, Aug. 11-14.

At the time of this writing only two of the women’s team has officially been picked to compete in Beijing. These are Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. Shawn is a 16 year old from West Des Moines, Iowa. She has been doing gymnastics since she was 3 years old and her favorite event is beam. She won the AA (all-around) and floor in the 2008 Visa Championships and placed 1st in AA at the Olympic trials. Nastia is a 19 year old from Parker, Texas. She has been doing gymnastics since she was 4 years old and her favorite events are bars and beam. She placed 1st on bars and beam and 2nd in AA at the 2008 Visa Championships and was second in AA at the Olympic trials.

The rest of the women will be picked at a training camp in late July. Start looking in the news for a list after the 20th. Names that will mostly likely appear in this announcement will be Chellsie Memmel, a 20 year old from West Allis, Wisconsin; Samantha Peszek, a 17 year old from Indianapolis, Indiana; Alicia Sacramone, a 20 year old from Winchester, Massachusetts; Jana Bieger, an 18 year old from Coconut Creek, Florida; Ivana Hong, a 15 year old from Bluesprings, Missouri; and Shayla Worley, an 18 year old from Orlando, Florida. There will be six women who make the team and then there will be 2-3 alternates chosen.

The men’s team has already been decided. Paul Hamm, who is the first male to win the AA title in the 2004 Olympics was named to the team even though he has a broken hand. He has until the 22nd of July to prove that he can perform. Morgan Hamm, Paul’s twin brother, also made the team. Both of these gymnasts have been in two previous Olympic Games. Jonathan Horton, the AA winner in the Olympic trials, will be part of the men’s team also, along with Justin Spring, Joe Hagerty, and Kevin Tan. The alternates are Raj Bhavsar, Alexander (Sasha) Artemev and David Durante.

The scoring system that will be used for gymnastics during the Olympic Games is different than what we are used to seeing. There no longer will be scores like 9.6 or 8.8 or even 10.0 (the previous perfect score). Instead you will see scores like 16.9, a very good score, or 15.1 a not such good score. These scores have two parts to them. One part is the difficulty of the routine-how hard the skills are. This score ranged from 4.7 to 7.7 at the Olympic trials, with most of these scores being between 6.1-6.6.

The second part of the score is the execution score or how well the routine was performed and put together. It’s in this score that bent or apart legs, unpointed toes, wobbling, extra swings etc come into play. This score begins at 10.0 and for each mistake a deduction is taken from this 10.0. Falling off the apparatus during a routine is a big deduction (.8) from this score. Execution scores at the Olympic trials ranged from 7.7 to 9.9 with most of them falling between 9.0-9.4

The scores are then added together to get the gymnasts complete score. Occasionally a gymnast will step out of bounds or have too long a routine and these are deductions as well, but they come off the sum of the other two parts.

MARY LU RETTON: In the 1984 Olympics, at the age of 16, she became the first American woman to earn a first place gold medal in All-Around. She also won silver in Team and vault and bronze on bars and floor, making her the most decorated female gymnast until 1996. Her coach was Bela Karolyi and the two of them were the start of great things in American gymnastics.

Mary Lu is still involved with the promotion of gymnastics. She is a frequent and well like motivational speaker and supports and encourages fitness. She is the mother of 4 girls, ages 13, 11, 8 and 6.

BELA and MARTA KAROLYI: Bela is the coach who has done more form American women’s gymnastics than any other coach. He was the Romanian national coach until he and his wife defected in 1981. There he coached the famous gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who was the first girl to score a perfect 10.

Bela coached Mary Lu Retton in 1984 when she won her gold medal. He and his wife have continued to coach many successful women gymnasts, including two of the Magnificent 7 in 1996. He is a great representative for all of gymnastics still. His wife Marta, continues to coach and is the National Team Coordinator and will be the one who mainly decides what female gymnasts will make the 2008 Olympic Team.

He and his wife, Marta, have a gymnastics camp in Texas where many gymnasts come to train. (Cassandra Schram and Heidi Murphy, as Level 7’s, spent a week at that camp. They even spent a little time working with Bela and Marta.) It is at this camp where the final 6 gymnasts will be selected for the Women’s 2008 Olympic Team.

SHANNON MILLER: In the 1992 Olympics Shannon matched Mary Lu’s record of 5 medals, earning a silver in all around and beam, a bronze for team, bars and floor. She added two more medals in the 1996 Olympics earning gold with the Magnificent 7 team and on beam. She is still involved in gymnastics through promotions and commentating.

CARLY PATTERSON: During the 2004 Olympics Carly won the women’s all around title, making her the first American woman to win the AA title in a fully attended Olympic games. (When Mary Lu Retton won the Russians were boycotting the Games.) She also earned a silver on beam and the team won a silver medal.

JOHN ROETHLISBERGER: John is a Minnesota gymnast who grew up in Falcon Heights, MN. and competed for the University ofMinnesota. He is a 3 time US Olympian-competing in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He was a 4 times AA National Champion. He is one of the most decorated male gymnasts in history.

He comes from a family of gymnasts. His father was in the 1968 Olympics and coaches him both at the Olympics and at the University. His sister, Marie, was an alternate for the 1984 Olympics. He presently does commentary for gymnastics and own Flip Fest Gymnastics Camp.

BLAINE WILSON: He was a member of the 2004 Olympic Silver Medal Team and also competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. His plan was to compete for this Olympics as well, but retired from gymnastics 3 weeks prior to the Olympic Trials. His hometown is Columbus,Ohio and his favorite event is rings. He is married and has one daughter.


	928 Washington Avenue, S., Bemidji, Minnesota 56601 — 218.444.FLIP
	BGC Newsletter
		Volume 16, Number 7 WE’RE ON FOR THE DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL We just found out on Monday that we can have a food booth at the Dragon Boat Festival. We have until Wednesday to figure out what we are going to sell at the booth. Probably by the time you get this we will have decided. This is a great opportunity for the BGC to make some money and it’s important that we do. This means, of course that we need LOTS of volunteer help. The booth needs to be open from 5:00-10:00 on Thursday, July 31st, 10:00-10:00 on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 1 & 2. That’s a lot of shifts and a lot of needed people to fill those shifts. Those of you who have not yet gotten your required volunteer hours in should use this as a way to complete them. There will be a sign-up sheet on the VOLUNTEER BOARD very soon please sign up as quickly as possible so those in charge don’t have to worry about getting help. A COUPLE OF IMPORTANT REMINDERS The Aerials, the high school and the Rising Stars will all be performing at Art in the Park on this Saturday at 11:00. It would be wonderful if everyone (even those who haven’t been practicing this summer) could make it so we could put on a wonderful show. Anyone who wishes to perform should just show up at the lake front where the mats are in your circus leotards (or a similar one if you don’t have a circus one). Form fitting shorts (not boxers etc.) over the leotard are okay. And speaking of mats—if some adults would like to volunteer to help Pappy load and unload mats please let Pappy or Mary know. Rising Stars please remember that you DO NOT have practice next week, because of the BGC camp. You will have two more weeks of practice after that-going until August 7th. Aerials and high school gymnasts who have registered have camp all next week. ANNUAL MEETING-SEPTEMBER 15TH Please plan to attend the BGC’s annual meeting scheduled for 6:00 on September 15th. It is during this meeting that new board members are elected, the budget is approved, and the by-laws will be changed. It is also at this meeting that you learn about the BGC and the benefits and requirements of belonging to the club. There are break-out sessions for each level for you to learn more about these levels and your gymnast’s involvement in them. Those who are new to a team are required to attend and those new to a different level are very strongly encouraged to attend. And everyone else should come too. Each year three (of 9) board members’ terms expire and we elect three people to the board. This year Pam Gregg and Arlene Bergquist have elected to run again for another term. Judy Comstock is not running again. If you are interested in running for a position on the board please contact Nancy Schram, the BGC president. Please plan to be there. VOLUNTEER HOURS A reminder to those who have not gotten all your volunteer hours in: a new year starts in September and those who are short hours will lose BGC benefits for next year. Some of those benefits would be paying a lesser fee for BGC camps and clinics, being able to finance your meets through the BGC, a bag for your competitive gymnast and others. There are still opportunities to get your hours in. The Dragon Boat Festival would be the best one because there are lots of opportunities there. It could be a family affair since teen-aged gymnasts can sign up to work and of course both Mom and Dad can. We will also be vacuuming the main floor carpet on Thursday, Aug. 21st at 5:00. We vacuum the carpet, roll up the carpet and vacuum the foam underneath and then put everything back and sometimes vacuum the carpet again. The next day we have a cleaning company come in to clean the carpet. If you are still looking for more opportunities you may check with Mary. There is some painting, cleaning and repairing to be done at the Gym Bin and those hours could be used as volunteer hours. A most up to date list of people and there hours should be on the board fairly soon. If you have questions about your hours please check with Pam Gregg. SOME FALL ITEMS NEW LEOTARDS: As I hope you all know the competitive gymnasts will be getting new leotards and warm-ups for this coming season. We will be needing to order them soon so please keep checking your emails and the bulletin board for more information. We are presently waiting for sizers so our girls can get fitted properly. Once they come the gymnasts will try them on so that when the final decision is made about the leotards they can be quickly ordered. PLEASE KEEP WATCHING! FALL INFORMATION: Mary is in the process of getting the fall information out to all the Aerials. Included in the packet will be a USAG number form for those gymnasts who are absolutely sure to be ready to compete in the fall. For those who might not know if they’ll be ready the number can be purchased later. The coaches will decide if your gymnast is ready to compete. If you have any questions about any of the information that comes in the packet please just ask Mary. Rising Stars won’t get their information until early August. NEW COMPETITION: We have been invited to join Grand Rapids, a couple Duluth teams and a couple Wisconsin teams in a conference that holds three meets in the fall, just among these clubs. The board decided at its last meeting to try this for at least this one year. Some of the benefits would be an easier introduction to competition for new gymnasts, most likely the meets would be closer and our gymnasts have done well with Duluth judges, who would be judging these meets. The drawbacks might be that one of the meets would be in Wisconsin, which wouldn’t be any closer than the Cities and some of our gymnasts need the Cities type of competition. However we will also be going to the MN. qualifiers so our gymnasts can still qualify for our Minnesota State Meet. *SOME BITS OF INFORMATION* Don’t forget the Olympic Games are scheduled to begin on August 8th. You will find some information about them at the end of the newsletter. Also there is a board up at the Gym Bin with Olympic information. Our gymnastics women have a good chance of winning the gold. The BGC will be sponsoring a developmental clinic for our competitive gymnasts. Keep watching for more information. It will occur in late August or early September. The date for the August BGC board meeting has been changed. It will be held on Monday, August 18th. Don’t forget you’re welcome to attend. Level 4 gymnasts-don’t forget the camp scheduled for Mon-Wed, Aug. 18-20. We are still hoping that Andrea Hassel from Grand Rapids will be there to coach at least part of the time. Pappy will also be coaching. Rising Stars, remember your camp is scheduled for Mon-Thurs, Aug. 11-14. OUR GYMNASTICS OLYMPIANS At the time of this writing only two of the women’s team has officially been picked to compete in Beijing. These are Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin. Shawn is a 16 year old from West Des Moines, Iowa. She has been doing gymnastics since she was 3 years old and her favorite event is beam. She won the AA (all-around) and floor in the 2008 Visa Championships and placed 1st in AA at the Olympic trials. Nastia is a 19 year old from Parker, Texas. She has been doing gymnastics since she was 4 years old and her favorite events are bars and beam. She placed 1st on bars and beam and 2nd in AA at the 2008 Visa Championships and was second in AA at the Olympic trials. The rest of the women will be picked at a training camp in late July. Start looking in the news for a list after the 20th. Names that will mostly likely appear in this announcement will be Chellsie Memmel, a 20 year old from West Allis, Wisconsin; Samantha Peszek, a 17 year old from Indianapolis, Indiana; Alicia Sacramone, a 20 year old from Winchester, Massachusetts; Jana Bieger, an 18 year old from Coconut Creek, Florida; Ivana Hong, a 15 year old from Bluesprings, Missouri; and Shayla Worley, an 18 year old from Orlando, Florida. There will be six women who make the team and then there will be 2-3 alternates chosen. The men’s team has already been decided. Paul Hamm, who is the first male to win the AA title in the 2004 Olympics was named to the team even though he has a broken hand. He has until the 22nd of July to prove that he can perform. Morgan Hamm, Paul’s twin brother, also made the team. Both of these gymnasts have been in two previous Olympic Games. Jonathan Horton, the AA winner in the Olympic trials, will be part of the men’s team also, along with Justin Spring, Joe Hagerty, and Kevin Tan. The alternates are Raj Bhavsar, Alexander (Sasha) Artemev and David Durante. A NEW SCORING SYSTEM The scoring system that will be used for gymnastics during the Olympic Games is different than what we are used to seeing. There no longer will be scores like 9.6 or 8.8 or even 10.0 (the previous perfect score). Instead you will see scores like 16.9, a very good score, or 15.1 a not such good score. These scores have two parts to them. One part is the difficulty of the routine-how hard the skills are. This score ranged from 4.7 to 7.7 at the Olympic trials, with most of these scores being between 6.1-6.6. The second part of the score is the execution score or how well the routine was performed and put together. It’s in this score that bent or apart legs, unpointed toes, wobbling, extra swings etc come into play. This score begins at 10.0 and for each mistake a deduction is taken from this 10.0. Falling off the apparatus during a routine is a big deduction (.8) from this score. Execution scores at the Olympic trials ranged from 7.7 to 9.9 with most of them falling between 9.0-9.4 The scores are then added together to get the gymnasts complete score. Occasionally a gymnast will step out of bounds or have too long a routine and these are deductions as well, but they come off the sum of the other two parts. PEOPLE IN GYMNASTICS YOU SHOULD KNOW MARY LU RETTON: In the 1984 Olympics, at the age of 16, she became the first American woman to earn a first place gold medal in All-Around. She also won silver in Team and vault and bronze on bars and floor, making her the most decorated female gymnast until 1996. Her coach was Bela Karolyi and the two of them were the start of great things in American gymnastics. Mary Lu is still involved with the promotion of gymnastics. She is a frequent and well like motivational speaker and supports and encourages fitness. She is the mother of 4 girls, ages 13, 11, 8 and 6. BELA and MARTA KAROLYI: Bela is the coach who has done more form American women’s gymnastics than any other coach. He was the Romanian national coach until he and his wife defected in 1981. There he coached the famous gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who was the first girl to score a perfect 10. Bela coached Mary Lu Retton in 1984 when she won her gold medal. He and his wife have continued to coach many successful women gymnasts, including two of the Magnificent 7 in 1996. He is a great representative for all of gymnastics still. His wife Marta, continues to coach and is the National Team Coordinator and will be the one who mainly decides what female gymnasts will make the 2008 Olympic Team. He and his wife, Marta, have a gymnastics camp in Texas where many gymnasts come to train. (Cassandra Schram and Heidi Murphy, as Level 7’s, spent a week at that camp. They even spent a little time working with Bela and Marta.) It is at this camp where the final 6 gymnasts will be selected for the Women’s 2008 Olympic Team. SHANNON MILLER: In the 1992 Olympics Shannon matched Mary Lu’s record of 5 medals, earning a silver in all around and beam, a bronze for team, bars and floor. She added two more medals in the 1996 Olympics earning gold with the Magnificent 7 team and on beam. She is still involved in gymnastics through promotions and commentating. CARLY PATTERSON: During the 2004 Olympics Carly won the women’s all around title, making her the first American woman to win the AA title in a fully attended Olympic games. (When Mary Lu Retton won the Russians were boycotting the Games.) She also earned a silver on beam and the team won a silver medal. Carly is no longer a gymnast but does some promoting of the sport. She is presently starting a singing career. JOHN ROETHLISBERGER: John is a Minnesota gymnast who grew up in Falcon Heights, MN. and competed for the University ofMinnesota. He is a 3 time US Olympian-competing in 1992, 1996 and 2000. He was a 4 times AA National Champion. He is one of the most decorated male gymnasts in history. He comes from a family of gymnasts. His father was in the 1968 Olympics and coaches him both at the Olympics and at the University. His sister, Marie, was an alternate for the 1984 Olympics. He presently does commentary for gymnastics and own Flip Fest Gymnastics Camp. BLAINE WILSON: He was a member of the 2004 Olympic Silver Medal Team and also competed in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games. His plan was to compete for this Olympics as well, but retired from gymnastics 3 weeks prior to the Olympic Trials. His hometown is Columbus,Ohio and his favorite event is rings. He is married and has one daughter.
		Archived newsletters can be viewed and printed using Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Reader, you can download it for free at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html If you wish to have PDF copies of any archived newsletters not listed here, please email Holly Solo. BGC Newsletter - Volume 16, Number 4 BGC Newsletter - Volume 16, Number 5 BGC Newsletter - Volume 16, Number 6 BGC Newsletter - Volume 16, Number 7
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