By Wayne Witkowski
They share the same gym for practices, the same bus ride to multi-team meets and even share their coaches, who give valuable tips and coaching direction to both teams.
That’s been the situation over the years for the girls gymnastic teams at Jackson Memorial High School and Jackson Liberty High School, which hosts the teams’ practices.
“We take the same bus for those [meets that both teams are in] to save on expenses,” Jackson Liberty coach Stephanie Szoke said. “We say it’s two schools, but it’s one team. It’s fun. We all get along and practice and travel together. We help coach each other’s team; we don’t have assistant coaches. But we all get along. That’s the main thing.”
It’s been that way for the past 10 seasons, largely because Jackson Memorial has not had enough girls to field a full team.
But that has changed this year — drastically for the better for Jackson Memorial. Not only does the team have a full complement that has led it to a 2-1 start, including an impressive victory over Brick Memorial High School Sept. 22, 105.65-103.75, but the roster also makes Oct. 20 an interesting date. It’s when the Jaguars will put a full team on the floor against Jackson Liberty at the Jackson Liberty gym.
“I’m very excited to see the growth we’ve had the last couple of years,” Jackson Memorial coach Diana Strizki said. “We finally have a full roster with three solid kids at every event. Hopefully we can continue to progress.”
But Strizki echoes the sentiments of Szoke at Jackson Liberty that when the two teams meet, it will not be a display of a bitter crosstown rivalry, but instead a well-contested meet between two teams that have bonded in many respects.
Jackson Liberty is off to a 3-1 start and has won nine Shore Conference B South Division championships in 10 years. But both coaches share the feeling that this is the year that Jackson Memorial should go in as a clear favorite against Jackson Liberty, although the Lions have two solid seniors in the all-around in Molly Grau, whose greatest strength is in floor exercise, and Lynzie Burmeister, whose best event is the balance beam. Nicole Wood and Cassandra Rudederow also have been reliable performers in the lineup.
“The talent is stronger on Memorial’s side this year,” Szoke said. “It’s about skills and what it takes.”
With level 10 gymnast Jacie Van de Zilver leading the way, Jackson Memorial has four gymnasts who can score well in the all-around, including junior Taylor Cusick, who is out for the team for the first time, sophomore Megan Compell and freshman Alyssa Takacs. Van de Zilver swept every event and tabulated an impressive 37.55 score against perennial state meet contender Brick Memorial. Cusick finished third behind Brick Memorial’s Bri Dombrowski.
“It’s definitely a big win. Scoring 105 [team] points turns heads, especially in the Shore Conference,” Strizki said. “Whenever you do that, it sets the tone for where the season can go.”
“Even with a few uncommon mistakes and falls from both teams that day, it was still clear that Jackson Memorial would have come out on top this year against Brick Memorial, regardless,” Szoke said.
Van de Zilver reliably gives the Jaguars a lot of points. She won the all-around in last year’s state section meet with a score of 37.95, winning the vault (9.85), the balance beam (9.5) and the bars (9.125).
“And Cusick has been a big asset,” Strizki said. “We’re pretty strong on bars, which is a hard event for a high level of competition. We have four competitors we can turn to on any given day. Any of them can score at a high level.”
That will be needed for Jackson Memorial to add more wins to its record. Szoke said Jackson Liberty scores well in vault and floor exercise, which can carry it to more victories in upcoming meets. If that happens, it could make for an interesting meet Oct. 20.
