Niwot High School gymnastics young and strong

Niwot High School gymnastics Coach Marisa Purcell has seen some amazing Cougar teams in her now ninth year of leading the Cougars – 4A state championships in 2015 and 2018 and, more recently, top three finishes in each of the past three state meets. So, when she says she’s excited about this year’s edition, there’s probably plenty of good reasons.

The Cougars are coming off a third-place state finish a year ago with a team made up of two sophomores and three freshmen, all of whom return for another shot at adding to the Niwot gymnastics legacy.

“Yeah, we are excited,” Purcell admitted. “They are definitely young. Last year it took awhile to just kind of learn how things work. We feel like we at least have a little bit of a head start from last year since they’re all coming back, and they know what we’ve been working hard at during the off season. This team’s ready to go, so I’m excited. I’m definitely excited.”

Talent clearly shines across all apparatus with this team. Sophomore Kylee Schlepp returns after earning a 4A state gold medal in the vault which also led to her selection on the all-state first team.

“That’s a hard thing to do, just because she hadn’t been there before (at the state tournament),” Purcell said about Schlepp’s accomplishments a year ago as a freshman. “I wouldn’t say that it was that surprising–it just kind of tells you how competitive and how calm she was in that environment. She’s got a lot to look forward to and I’m sure she feels the pressure of doing so well your freshman year, but she’s a great vault gymnast for sure. She’s super powerful.”

Teammate Maeve Flentie posted an eighth-place finish in the all-around competition as well as sixth- and seventh-place individual rankings in the bar and beam state competitions, respectively. Going into her junior year, Flentie will join senior Heidi Herbert as players that Coach Purcell will be looking to as leaders on this young team.

“It’s tough because we graduated two seniors last year, including Nia Terrell who was one of our main leaders for quite a few years,” Purcell said. “So, we will definitely be looking for the ones who have been there before to help the younger ones. Maeve has been on varsity since her freshman year, so we’re definitely looking to her.”

There are other reasons to be excited about the team. “Heidi Herbert will be a senior, but she has been injured the last two seasons, so she hasn’t really been able to be a part of the varsity team, but she has really stepped up and taken a big role in helping us get this team prepared,” she said. “So, it’s those who have learned it and have kind of seen how it all works that we really lean on to guide the younger ones that come in.”

Also returning to the varsity team this season are junior Claire Vardas, who finished the state tournament 10th on the beam; sophomore Lilly O’Neill, fifth in the beam at state; and sophomore Isabella Foster, 15th on the bars.

There is clearly no lack of raw skill on this young Cougar team, but Coach Purcell sees her biggest challenge as channeling all that individual talent into a cohesive team because it is the combined scores of each team member that determines success in this team-oriented sport at the high school and college levels.

She said, “The toughest part of my job is getting them when they come in and they’re individually focused, to change that focus to understand that you want to do really well, but you want the girl after you to do even better, and then you want the girl after that to do even better. That’s a hard concept and it’s especially hard when you’re competitive because you want to win yourself. That’s why we spend so much time in the off-season and now in the early part of the season working on team bonding and things like that.”

The Cougars open their pursuit of the team glory that could put them in the same conversation as the 2015 and 2018 state champions with their first meet Wednesday, Aug. 30 at 5:30 p.m. at Niwot High School.