Player Diaries

Mohini Bhardwaj Kristin Parker
Senior Mohini Bhardwaj and sophomore Kristin Parker are members of
the women’s gymnastics team, which is competing at NCAA
Championships this weekend. They wrote this diary chronicling their
trip from Los Angeles to Athens on Tuesday.

ATHENS, GA. “”mdash; The morning came way too early after
finishing last-minute packing late into the night. Our team met at
the turnaround at 8:30 a.m. and then departed for the airport on
the bus together. No drama occurred ““ for once everyone
arrived on time!

It was hard to leave part of our team behind, since there were
only 15 credentials available for the team. The few people that
were staying behind brought their end-of-the-year gifts to exchange
with those who were leaving. At every meet during the year we
exchange gifts anonymously with the same person, and then at
nationals we find out who our “Bruin Buddy” is.

At the airport we all checked in and then waited at the terminal
for boarding. A few people asked questions about what team we are
affiliated with. Surprisingly, we are often asked if we are on a
basketball or volleyball team or even with “UCLA High
School!” People also think we are much younger than we really
are. Today someone actually asked Mo, who is 22, if she was 13!

The flight was loooong, a total of five hours. It was hard to
sit still, knowing what lies ahead in the next few days. The
atmosphere on our team in general was energetic. Some of the team
members tried to study, others slept, and then most of us watched
the in-flight movie, “What Women Want.”

After we landed, we almost made it to the baggage check without
any problems, but right before boarding the tram to take us there,
we noticed that people were missing. Thankfully, we realized early
enough that they were gone and waited for them to get back from a
second rest room stop since deplaning.

Usually we have to wait FOREVER for vans to take us to the hotel
after getting our baggage, but this time we had a bus waiting for
us. We all boarded without a hitch and took off for the
hour-and-a-half trip to Athens from Atlanta. On the bus ride there,
those of us who weren’t sleeping recounted stories from our
gymnastics pasts, both the good and the bad.

We went to Chili’s before checking into the hotel, and
this is where things really got interesting. It always takes a long
time for our team to get our food since there is such a large group
of us. So, to entertain ourselves while waiting to be served we
danced and played “flick football” with sugar packets.
There was a tie between Jamie Dantzcher and Doni Thompson, but
further down the table Onnie Willis triumphed over Lindsey Dong by
a large margin.

We checked in, and then in a rush, some of the team took off for
the grocery store. Back at the hotel a few of us met with our
massage therapist and then headed off to bed. Who knows what time
we’ll actually fall asleep, though, due to the time
difference.