FORT WORTH, Texas -- The NCAA Championships in the Lone Star State means a homecoming of sorts for the Florida gymnastics team.
Just about every other team here, too.
A survey of the 12 squads on hand for college gymnastics' marquee event shows 28 athletes from the state of Texas (or 15 percent of the competitors), with only UCLA and Nebraska without representation. What makes that statistic all the more insane is that the nation's second-most populated state has -- get this -- zero Division I gymnastics programs.
“It's crazy,” UF senior and native Texan Rachel Spicer said. “If they had a school [with the sport] in Texas, they would dominate.”
But they don't, which is good news for some of the elite programs across the country, including two-time reigning NCAA champion Florida, which lists five Texans on the roster; and that doesn't count senior superstar Kytra Hunter, who was born in San Antonio.
“I think of Texas as my second home,” UF coach Rhonda Faehn said. "I have to."
That's because recruiting well is oil-like rich with gymnasts in these parts, which is how Faehn happened upon Spicer (Highland Village), Claire Boyce (Arlington), Ericha Fassbender (Katy), Kennedy Baker (Flower Mound) and Grace McLaughlin (Allen). Each is from the metropolitan Dallas area. Baker and Boyce came out of the prestigous Texas Dreams club.
Coming this fall: Freshman Peyton Ernst, by way of Coppell and a Senior International Elite gymnast and two-time member of the U.S. Senior National team.
Yes, everything is bigger in Texas. Apparently, the gymnasts are better, too. Certainly plentiful.
“My house is literally 15 minutes from here,” Boyce (pictured above) said Thursday after the team's NCAA practice sessions at Fort Worth Convention Center Arena. “I told [the coaches] I wanted to go home for just a few hours, but they wouldn't let me.”
Well, after all, there is some business to tend to here. And the fact it is here -- where these athletes have plenty of family of friends -- should be helpful when the competition begins Friday at 2 p.m. (ET) with the first of two six-team sessions, with the field be cut in half for Saturday night's Super Six.
Florida will be in that first Friday session.
“We're going to have a huge crowd backing us up,” said Hunter, whose mother's side of the family hails from Houston. “We love to have the Gator Nation represented. We get six tickets each, but everybody's been like, 'Got any more tickets?' ”
Baker noted the Gators could have something of a home-gym advantage, but added a caveat.
“So will just about everybody,” she said. “I kept running into [athletes] today and saying, 'Hey, I haven't seen you in years!' I know I wasn't the only one.”
The meet is being hosted by Division II Texas Women's University, home to the lone gymnastics program in the Lone Star, and figures to a grand showcase for the sport in a place where it could use some showcasing. Who knows what it might lead to? An actual gymnastics program somewhere in the state, perhaps?
What a radical thought.
“We're always in support of other schools trying to pick up gymnastics,” Faehn said. “It might ignite something. We would love that.”
