By Taylor Morgan
Special to Tidesports
After closing last week’s meet with a season-best 49.550 on the floor, the Alabama gymnastics team picked up another win against Kentucky to push it to No. 8 in the polls.
Alabama will celebrate senior night Saturday against Georgia as the Crimson Tide seniors compete in their last regular-season meet in Coleman Coliseum. Senior Wynter Childers mentioned how exciting it is to end their time in Coleman on a big rivalry.
“Every SEC team is fun to compete against. There’s nothing like the SEC and we genuinely mean that, any other competitor really just doesn’t compare. It’s going to be really fun,” Childers said.
Maddie Desch and Shea Mahoney said how exciting it is that this is their last meet, but it’s also bittersweet. They know how much they will miss Coleman, but more importantly, the people who fill it.
“I am going to miss the people the most. I am going to miss cheering for my teammates and having my teammates by side when I compete. The support we have here at Alabama is amazing and I will never forget the feeling of running out and standing on the big script A,” said Desch.
“I’m super excited, any SEC meet is going to be an awesome rivalry meet. Georgia has always been an exciting meet for us every year and were going to just focus on enjoying every minute,” Mahoney said.
With all the injuries the Crimson Tide has endured, they’ve managed to remain competitive. Alabama coach Dana Duckworth continued to mention the words faith, resilience, and team spirit when talking about what’s been going on this season with the constant changing of the lineups.
“The definition of team spirit is the eagerness to sacrifice oneself for others for the good of the team,” said Duckworth “they’re all ready and they’re confident, and the team is confident.”
When asked about the limitations that have occurred with certain athletes, Duckworth was quick to reassure that these injuries have not defined this team this season.
“Limitations are only what you accept as limitations, I think that they also huge are opportunities because when one person is down someone else has the opportunity to step up and step in and grow and dominate and I think we’ve seen that multiple times,” said Duckworth.
“You just use it and you try to find what’s the good from it. That’s the mindset that I’m going to try to continue to get the girls to believe in. There’s silver lining in everything.”
