The road to state starts now for the Odessa High and Permian boys gymnastics teams.
In their preparation for the highly-anticipated meet in April, both teams competed in two December meets to find out some of their strengths and weaknesses.
During their optional round competition at the Martha Mitchell/Harold Green Invitational Friday, both teams got to see more competitors from around the state.
Schools from Lubbock, El Paso and the Metroplex made their way to Odessa for the two-day meet.
Odessa High boys coach Trey Enriquez said the first meet of 2022 helps his team in gaining experience and exposing them to the atmosphere that comes with going up against some of the state’s top teams.
“I like what I saw today, even though scores are not where I’d prefer,” Enriquez said. “But I like the character I got.”
Although the Bronchos competed in the City Meet at Odessa High and the Key City Invitational in Abilene to start the campaign, Enriquez believes the Martha Mitchell/Harold Green Invitational provides a true opening to what will be a competitive stretch of meets.
The Odessa High boys are coming off a state appearance as a team in 2021, but most of those team members departed due to graduation.
Jabezz Chavez knows it’s up to him to take on a leadership role to get the Bronchos back to where they want to be.
He knows reaching that goal will take hard work and dedication, but he’s no stranger to putting in extra effort as he has recovered from multiple injuries to help the Bronchos.
Chavez wants to motivate his teammates after his recovery.
“I want them to be better than me,” Chavez said. “If I can push through this, y’all can through too and be more than me.”
Sincere Galindo was one of the only boys gymnasts from Permian to make it to last year’s state meet.
He said that experience is helping him gain confidence and that is working its way through the rest of the team.
Galindo hopes his trip to state will beneficial through his junior season.
“I’m trying to make sure they’re watching me work hard to get them to try and push harder,” Galindo said.
The Martha Mitchell/Harold Green Invitational serves to set a baseline for the Panthers to keep improving for their next meets.
Galindo feels competing in the optional round showed him which parts of his routines still need improvement.
Permian boys coach Chris Soto said he is still trying to get his athletes to realize they still have a job to do when they step out for their events.
Seeing competitors from other areas helps the Panthers get an idea of what they might see down the line.
Soto didn’t want the Panthers to feel overwhelmed with how other teams were executing their routines, he wanted his athletes to follow their own plan.
“We’ll take it as a first meet,” Soto said. “I think that this kind of to get them back into the idea that it’s competition season, this is what it’s about.”
The Panthers missed last year’s state meet as a team and Soto knows picking up strong results through the season will help them get back on track.
Soto said the meet held at the Permian Gymnastics Gym was important because it showed his athletes that they can get mistakes in their routines out of the way early.
“We can’t be perfect today and it’ll be silly to try and think that,” Soto said. “Today was to make those little mistakes to understand these are the stakes in practice.”
