Malden High Gymnastics Team has lots of new faces this season and is eager to learn

By Steve Freker

There are plenty of new faces this year, but that is just fine with Malden High Gymnastics Head Coach Katie Bowdridge.

The longtime Tornado gymnastics mentor reports that the majority of the team members are not only new to the team, but are also new to the competitive sport. “Many of the kids have never done gymnastics prior to high school and only two have competed outside of high school,” Coach Bowdridge said. “Usually we start our season with participants who have more experience, but that is fine, because they have really worked hard and are learning quickly.”

Malden has participated in two meets so far this year and had two close calls, falling by just two points in its most recent meet, at Medford High, 105.5 to 103.5, last week. Malden opened the season with another close loss on the road at Wakefield.

“Despite us being a fairly new group of girls, they do work very hard and the improvement from the first week until now has been incredible,” the Malden coach said. “We are so lucky to have such an amazing group of kids.”

“They come to practice excited to learn new skills and work hard to be able to use their new skills,” Coach Bowdridge added.

Coach Michael Nicholson, the head coach’s son, who is a physical education teacher at the Beebe K-8 School, is a longtime assistant with the gymnastics program.

Malden was back in action with another meet at Medford High yesterday, Thursday, January 23 at Medford High and has a January 30 meet at Medford and a February 7 meet at Melrose remaining on the schedule.