by Foothills Level 6 Gymnast Colleen Burke, Polk County Middle School

On March 5, 43 gymnasts and parents from Foothills School of Gymnastics in Tryon gathered at the Ingles parking lot to make the trek to Athens, Georgia. We made carpooling arrangements, then set off for Georgia to see the University of Georgia gymnastics team, a.k.a. the Georgia Gymdogs, compete against their arch rival, Alabama.

We drove and drove until finally we arrived at the stadium at UGA. It was huge – roughly the size of the Bi-Lo center in Greenville, S.C., maybe even larger – we were amazed! A giant picture of the gymdogs team was displayed in the glass at the front of the facility. We could hear the booming music before we entered the stadium just in time to see the fireworks going off as they introduced the gymnasts.

The star of the gymdogs teams is Shayla Worley. She is a sophomore at University of Georgia and scored a season high of 9.9 out of 10 on the balance beam, claiming the first place title over Alabama. Also, Worley scored a 9.85 at the SEC Championship. She is originally from Orlando, Fla. The girls were great and the competition turned out to be really fun! We took a couple of snapshots of the girls who came and at about 11 p.m. we headed home. Hopefully, we will be able to take another fun trip like this one very soon!