After Rebel Gymnastics went winless in 2011-2012, new coach Kady Sullivan led the team last year to not only one or two wins, but four — with improvements across the board individually and in terms of team success. As a team, Walpole vaulted up the state leaderboard to 38th in average points scored, good enough for 5th in the Bay State — behind powerhouses like Wellesley, Newton North, and Needham. As for the rest of the Bay State, Walpole finished the season within 2.2 average points of Braintree, Walpole, Norwood, Weymouth and Natick — an extremely small margin, considering that the Rebels’ average point differential in their 2011-2012 season was around 4.68 points. With the low variability between the Bay State teams — other than the aforementioned powerhouses and weaker teams, like Brookline and Framingham — a few points could be the difference between progression and regression for the Rebels.
Hence, Coach Sullivan does not want this progress to stop after one season. She said, “I want to have a better record than last year. I want to build up the program and go from there.”
Other than Sullivan, the young talent that joined the gymnastics program last year improved the talent level of the team. Now sophomores Kaitlin Porter and Hannah Phelan are two of the highest scorers on the team, and with the addition of sophomore Sam Chauvin, this dynamic trio of sophomores looks to provide the foundation for the Walpole Gymnastics program. Last year, Phelan individually won the championship at Individuals in beam, scoring a 9.6 out of a possible 10. Although Phelan suffered an injury during her successful quest for a diving State Championship, she expects to return to competition as soon as possible. As for Porter, she hopes to improve upon her season last year — a season in which she qualified for bars at Individuals.
“We have a lot more potential this year,” said Coach Sullivan. “I’m hoping to move further ahead than we did last year and work as a team to complete that goal.”
However, if last season is any indicator, Walpole has what it takes to step up to the challenge: in each of their three losses against the upper echelon teams in the Bay State, the Rebels scored more points than their season average. Also, in all three of these losses, the margin of victory was much smaller than the seasonal point difference between the teams. In fact, Walpole’s highest scoring meet last year was against Newton North — the 13th ranked team in the South.
Coach Sullivan not only hopes to improve in the years to come, but also throughout this coming year. “We need to build up confidence as we go along,” she said. If their top athletes can stay healthy and can continue to perform in clutch situations as they approach the postseason, Coach Sullivan’s second year as the coach of the Rebel Gymnasts will be another mark of progress for the program.
