By Christopher Tremblay

Over the past two seasons, the Norwood gymnastic team has not had all that much success in terms of wins, but nonetheless, the squad continues to stay optimistic and give it their all each and every time they enter a meet. 

 

“We haven’t won in such a long time, but it doesn’t bring us down as a team,” second-year captain Lucy Scafati said. “Winning would be a bonus at this point, but with nothing to lose we can go out and take new risks to bring our scores up. Through hard work and motivation, it may not show in the score, but we know that we are improving.”

 

Abigail Trahon, another Mustang captain, noted that things can be upsetting at times, but the girls are still having fun at a sport that they love to take part in.

“We are making progress and that’s all that really matters,” Trahon said. “Yes, it can be very frustrating at times, but we continue to work hard, have fun and everyone understands that.”

The Norwood tri-captains (Scafati, Trahon, and Madi DiTullio) are all pretty much lifelong gymnasts looking to make Norwood relevant again. The trio began their gymnastic quests at a very young age with Trahon being the youngest to begin at age two. Trahon and DiTuillio originally got involved in the sport because of their older sisters; Scafati was intrigued by what she saw on television.

 

“I found that I was really interested in watching the Olympics and seeing the flips; it was something that I wanted to do,” Scafati said. “I think that I spent more time upside down than upright as a child.”

While Scafati was staying the course of gymnastics, she also took a shot at dance and swim, but nothing seemed to stick with her like gymnastics. It seemed to be her safe place and she was at her happiest when taking part in the sport.

On the other hand, Trahon and DiTuillio, both stepped away from gymnastics for a period of time to pursue other things. Trahon quit gymnastics for about four years so that she could focus on cheer. She noted that at that moment she liked cheer more than gymnastics and wanted to continue with it, but by the time she got into high school gymnastics would once again become a part of her daily life.

Much like her counterpart, DiTullio was also involved in cheer and decided to forgo gymnastics for five years to have somewhat of a normal less stressful schedule.

“Gymnastics was taking up too much time of my daily life and I wanted to be a normal kid, so I stepped away for a while,” DiTuillo said. “I eventually got back into gymnastics when I got into high school; it was more laid back and I could enjoy it with my friends.”

Now that they are all participating in a sport that they love for their high school team in their final season, the trio is hoping that they can put the Mustangs into the win column before they leave to take part in their individual events. Scafati will be competing in bars, beam, and floor, with the last being her favorite as she gets to show off her personality. DiTullio will also be sharing her skills for Norwood in the vault, beam and bars, with beam definitely being the event she has more control over.

“I can customize my beam routine,” Ditullio said. “Bars is hard, but I’ve been doing it for such a long time I feel that I have the strength to do it on the high school level. However, I am not the best at bars here at Norwood, I’d rather stick with the beam.”

Rounding out the trio, Trahon can contribute on the floor, the beam, and the vault, with the vault not only being her favorite but the event she excels at.

“I’ve been doing the vault since the beginning of my gymnastics career and feel that it is my best event,” Trahon said. “I occasionally will do the beam, but the vault is where I am the most comfortable and I love working on getting better with each performance.”

As they compete in their final campaign with the Norwood gymnastic team, the three captains would like to be the ones to get the Mustangs that elusive win. For the most part, however, they are just hoping for improvement while the team continues to enjoy the sport while having fun taking part in it.

“My main goal is for this team to have fun and enjoy the season as much as I do,” Scafati said. “Gymnastics is an amazing thing to be part of. As a team, I hope that the girls can remember the season fondly and go about tier work with a great attitude. This team has the potential.”

One of the goals that all three captains mentioned was improvement with their team scores. Last year, the squad finished the season on a high note, scoring 118 in their last meet of the season. This year, they wanted to top 120, and they did that early enough in the season that they had to update their goals.

“We wanted to do better scoring wise than we did last year, and having already scored a 127, we needed to change that and now we are looking for 130 or better,” Trahon said.

Much like their team goals, the trio is also shooting for the same goal individually as well. 

“While I want to make sure that the rest of the team is successful, I also want to make sure that we are all having fun,” DiTullio said. “I just want to have fun, doing what I have loved from a young age and doing it with my friends.”

While the Mustangs may not have that success in terms of wins, the Norwood gymnastic team, behind their three captains, will have themselves a year to remember having done so with people they enjoy being around