Our favorite area sports team began a new season with a victory last Saturday, and they did it without donning a helmet, swinging a bat or dribbling a basketball.
Using only strength, grace, skill and toughness, the Texas Woman's University gymnastics team soared to a victory over the Air Force in a dual meet in Kitty Magee Arena.
It was a good beginning for a new era in TWU gymnastics. During the 33 years in which Frank Kudlac coached the Pioneers, the team won nine USA Gymnastics team titles, including four straight from 1992 through 1996. New head coach Lisa Bowerman served notice that she intends to build on Kudlac's legacy by leading the Pioneers to a 191.450-188.200 victory Saturday night.
To add to the overall euphoria, Bowerman's opening-night victory came just four days after she gave birth to a son. Kudlac never achieved that in his long and illustrious TWU career, though he earned two assists.
We have always had a quiet but ardent crush on the TWU gymnastics team. The first reason for our devotion is the way that TWU goes about the business of athletics. TWU is not a "big-time" sports school and does not aspire to be. Its student-athletes are always students first, athletes second. Some of the time (a lot of the time during the gymnastics season) its teams win; some of the time, its teams lose. But the school's support for intercollegiate athletics doesn't vary from one sport to another; struggling programs get as much support as the ones that pig the headlines.
Student support is the same: It doesn't wax and wane with won-lost records. TWU students love their Pioneers; that's one of the reasons we love them, too.
Another reason we adore the Pioneer gymnastics team is the sport itself. It is incredibly beautiful to watch, but that beauty is deceptive. There is grace there, certainly; but there is even more strength, toughness and tenacity. Anyone who doubts that top-notch gymnasts are world-class athletes should look closely at gymnasts. You will find enough bruises, sutures, braces and adhesive tape on your average gymnast to rival an Australian-rules football full-forward.
And so it was that our editorial heart skipped a beat or two on Sunday when we read of the Pioneers' opening-night victory. The action continues at 7 p.m. Saturday in Kitty Magee Arena, when the Pioneers play host to Centenary, Oklahoma and Iowa State in a quad meet.
We hope for great things, though we do not expect coach Bowerman to produce another offspring before the weekend. She is, by all accounts, an excellent coach, but nobody's that good.
