TRAMPOLINE SHOES — For those athletes on the Tumbling & Trampoline team, they should start thinking about purchasing trampoline shoes for the upcoming season. Trampoline shoes are similar to ballet slippers with rubber tread and can be found just about anywhere. Dancewear Solutions has a wide variety and for a decent price. The cheapest pair is less than $20. More information is available here. If you purchase from here, order one size larger than you would for regular shoes as these run really tight.

SUNDAY, OCT. 17 PRIVATE LESSONS — Private lessons will be offered by Alie and Blain (and likely Amy too, she will announce the times she will be free) on Sunday, Oct. 17 for any gymnast who would like a pre-Wild Wild West Classic tune-up.  T&T athletes are welcome to sign up as well with Blain. Cost is $40. Alie has promised that she will not turn anyone away and will add times on Saturday if need be.

T&T MEETs — We’re still waiting on the date of a meet at Gymfinity in Fitchburg, near Madison, and the state meet to be held sometime in March, but the best idea of a T&T schedule is the following:

Dec. 20 — Frozen Challenge — New Berlin
Jan. 10-11 — M&M Challenge — West Allis
Jan. 17-18 — Hang 10.0 Invitational — Kenosha
Feb. TBD — Gymfinity Invitational — Fitchburg
Mar. TBD — State Championships — Location TBD (Likely Kenosha)
Apr. TBD — Region 4 Championships — Location TBD *
July 27-Aug. 6 — AAU Junior Olympics — Houston, Texas *

* optional to participate in

We will need to start collecting these fees, especially for the first three meets. The Gymfinity, State, Regional and AAU Junior Olympic Meets will likely be collected on a case by case basis. Junior Olympics will be a good opportunity for athletes who are in gymnastics and T&T to compete in both if the schedule works out.

We will collect two installments for the first three meets starting Oct. 20 and Nov. 20 of $105 each. Athletes not competing in gymnastics will need to pay $125 for the first installment to cover the required USA Gymnastics membership.

OPEN GYM AT M&M ON SATURDAY — For anyone who wants to go to open gym at M&M on Saturday Night, Oct. 17, Alie, Blain and Rhea will be going. Cost is $10 and its from 6-8 p.m. Gymnasts will have access to a pit above bars and vault. T&T athletes will have access to a Russian trampoline and a rod floor. It is recommended that any T&T athlete performing a salto (Level 5 or higher) attend to get a feel for how different the equipment is from what we have at Wildcard Gymnastics.

MEET VOLUNTEER SIGN-UPS — Thank you for everyone who has signed up to volunteer for the 2015 Wild Wild West Classic. However, we still need lots of volunteers to make the meet a success. This is Wildcard’s biggest fund-raiser for the year and helps offset lots of costs, keeping our prices reasonable.

We still need lots of help in the following areas:

Thursday 6:30 p.m. Gym Set Up
Saturday 8 a.m. Session
Saturday 6 p.m. Session
Sunday 8 a.m. Session
Sunday 2 p.m. Session
Sunday 5 p.m. Session
Sunday 8 p.m. Gym Set-Up

We have about half of what we need for the gym set-ups each day. As a reminder, the more people we have, the faster it goes. Unlike an off-site meet, we’re just moving our own equipment so it should go relatively fast if we have 15 or so strong people helping out.

Click here to sign-up for the meet.

The concession donation list will be up in the next couple of days.

FUND-RAISER — Thank you to everyone who participated in the fund-raiser. The pasta has been ordered and will hopefully be here by the end of the week. Participation was not at its highest, unfortunately. It was an OK fund-raiser, but it could have been better. Kudos go to the Level 4 Boys team and Level 7 Girls, who had 100 percent participation and to Jillian C., who was our high seller. There were also two members of the Gold Bugs’ rec class who participated in the fund-raiser. The following is participation by level:

Girls’ Level 2: 3 of 9 (33.3 percent)
Girls’ Level 3: 6 of 17 (35.2 percent)
Girls’ Level 4: 4 of 12 (33.3 percent)
Girls’ Level 6: 3 of 6 (50.0 percent)
Girls’ Level 7: 6 of 6 (100.0 percent)
Girls’ Level 8/9: 1 of 4 (25.0 percent)
Girls’ Xcel Bronze: 1 of 8 (12.5 percent)
Girls’ Xcel Silver: 2 of 7 (28.5 percent)
Girls’ Xcel Gold: 2 of 9 (33.3 percent)
Girls’ Xcel Platinum: 0 of 2 (0.0 percent)
Girls’ Xcel Diamond: 0 of 1 (0.0 percent)
Boys’ Level 4: 3 of 3 (100.0 percent)
Boys Level 5-8: 1 of 2 (50.0 percent)
T&T Team (Non-Gymnasts): 0 of 4 (0.0 percent)

About 1/3 of all team members participated in the fund-raiser. If we had everyone participate, we’d raise so much more money.

For those of you who didn’t participate in the fund-raiser, please make a donation to the gym fund-raiser fund so we can use that money to purchase some new equipment.

SUCCESS WALL — Wildcard compulsory gymnasts are making great strides at the near halfway point of the season. Success wall additions are more than double what we saw after the first two weeks. In addition, every Level 3 gymnast has qualified to state and we’re just needing three in Level 4 to qualify. The following gymnasts made the success wall from the CSA Fall Challenge:

Level 2
Jillian C. — 9.050 on beam
Grace D. — 9.175 on floor, 9.375 on beam
Payton D. — 9.050 on beam
Alanna L. — 9.000 on beam
McKayla — 9.200 on beam

Level 3
Kayla B. — 9.000 on beam, 9.075 on floor
Caelyr G. — 9.125 on bars (1st), 9.100 on floor
Claire M. — 9.000 on bars, 9.000 on beam
Jordyn H. — 1st on vault, 9.000 on floor
Rhianna R. — 9.100 on floor

Level 4
Aniyah B. — 9.100 on bars
Essence B. — 9.100 on vault (1st)
Mariyah L. — 9.025 on floor
Taylor T. — 1st on vault, 9.100 on beam, 1st on floor, 1st AA