NEWS / UPDATES

August 20, 2008

JO Update effective Aug 1st, 2008 - Click Here

July 18, 2008

Gina Mueller-Martin is the new Communications Rep on the State Administrative Committee. Please refer any questions about this site to her at gmueller-martin@azgym.net.

Effective July 1, 2008, the rate for mileage reimbursement for judges is $0.58 per mile to reflect the recent mid-year change in the IRS standard mileage rate for last half of 2008.

July 5, 2008

• New committee members have been added to the State Administrative Committee page.

• Save the Date! Base Score Clinic and Judges’ Critique Meet to be held September 5-7, 2008! More details to follow.

• Coaches & club owners – please submit the following information on any 2009 & 2010 graduating seniors to Danica Cullins at dcullins@azgym.net

  • First and last name

  • Club Affiliation

  • Competitive Level

  • Graduation Year (2009 & 2010 only)

  • Contact Info (name and phone number/email address)

June 26, 2008

State Committee Elections have now been closed. Votes will be tabulated and new committee members will be announced as soon as possible.

May 30, 2008

State Banquet details may be found on the “Annual Banquet” page, or by clicking here.

May 8, 2008

With summer approaching, there are a lot of new details on the Arizona TOPs web site about testing dates, locations and more information. Please visit www.arizonatops.com.

There are also several Region 1 clinics planned. Dates are below, but click here for more details as well as the entry form!

• July 12-13, 2008 – Level 4 through Elite, hosted by San Mateo Gymnastics in Belmont, CA (***Registration deadline is June 20!***)

• August 9-10, 2008 – Level 4 through Elite, hosted by Team OC Gymnastics in Costa Mesa, CA

• October 18-19, 2008 – Level 7 through Elite, hosted by Arizona Sunrays in Phoenix, AZ

3/31/08

Optional State Meet host Desert Lights has posted extensive information about the competition on their web site. Click here for details: http://www.desertlightsgymnastics.net/meets.html

There will be a Regional Pre-Elite Meet held April 30, 2008 (Optional competition at 10am; Compulsories at 2:30pm). Location of the meet is the Desert Lights gym in Chandler. For more information, please call 480-940-4041.

3/7/08

The following judges have been assigned by the State Administrative Committee to upcoming competitions:

Level 9 & 10 State Championships:
Meet Referee: Neela Nelson
Kim Brown, Fran Earles, Dianne Grayson, Pat Miller, Heather Patrick, Robbie Sumpter, Beth Keller, Janelle MacDonald
alt: Mika Goldstein

Level 8 State Championships:
Meet Referee: Donna Payne
Mika Goldstein, Pat Miller, Heather Patrick, Jackie Maby, Dianne Grayson, Beth Keller, Neela Nelson, Robbie Sumpter
alt: Nita Boyer

Level 7 State Championships:
Meet Referee: Pam Evans
Mika Goldstein, Heather Patrick, Dianne Grayson, Kim Brown, Beth Keller, Nita Boyer, Molly Bozzuto, Neela Nelson
alt: Pat Miller

Arizona Spring Classic:
Meet Referee: Donna Payne
Pam Evans, Danica Cullins, Andrea Pederson, Robbie Sumpter, Heather Patrick, Nita Boyer, Kim Brown, Mika Goldstein
Alt: Robyn Wilder

1/31/08

Congratulations to some more judges who recently passed their exams

Jamie Holton – Level 5/6
Michelle Farrelly – Level 5/6
Kim Farrelly – Level 5/6

1/9/08

The Shamrock Meet has been showing on two different weekends in our calendar – this meet is the weekend of February 23-24, 2008.

Congratulations to the following judges who recently passed their exams! If there are any more of you out there, please email me at dcullins@azgym.net.

Tiffany Toronto – Level 10
Jacqui Allen – Level 9
Cathie White – Level 9

12/22/07

Effective January 1, 2008, the rate for mileage reimbursement is $0.50/mile to reflect the upcoming change in the IRS standard mileage rate for 2008.

Congratulations to our compulsory State Champion teams!

11/27/07

Memorial services to honor Kim Bird will be held Saturday, December 1, 2007 beginning at 11:00am.

Casas Church
10801 N. La Cholla Blvd.
Tucson, AZ 85742
520-297-7238

All are invited. Attending gymnasts and coaches are encouraged to wear their warm-ups in memory of Kim’s gymnastics legacy. There will be a reception following the memorial service at Tumbleweeds Gymnastics.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to:

Valley Fever Center of Excellence
P.O. Box 205215
Tucson, AZ 85724

Donations should be made payable to:
U of A Foundation, with a memo noting the donation to benefit NIK-Z Development.

The NIK-Z Foundation is actually one of three donation areas they have, and the Bird Family is specifically selecting this donation area as it is a research project for developing a vaccination for Valley Fever as there is no cure for the illness.

Arizona Gymnastics Community Loses a Coach, Judge, Gym Owner and Friend

Dear Professional Members of Arizona gymnastics,

It is a sad day for the Arizona gymnastics community. I regretably must inform you that yesterday afternoon, November 20, 2007 our close friend, gym owner, judge and coach Kim Bird of Tumbleweeds Gymnastics passed away from complications related to Valley Fever and Meningitis.

Details of services are not available at this time but will be relayed to the community as soon as they become available. Please keep the Bird family as well as the Tumbleweeds gymnasts and families in your prayers during this difficult time.

Debby Farrelly
SACC:AZ

10/15/07

The location for the Level 4 State Meet has been updated! This meet will now be held at Tempe High School.

The location (Glendale High School) has been added for the Fall Round-Up meet.

New updates have been made to the Club Directory (Scottsdale Gymnastics & Springs Gymnastics)

A new event has been added to the Event Calendar on the weekend of Feb. 29-Mar. 2, 2008.

10/8/07

A new club – Arizona Prestige Gymnastics – has been added to the Club Directory.

Changes to the USAG 2007-2008 Rules & Policies have posted to the landing page.

The registration form for the December 1st clinic is posted to the Judges Page.

9/17/2007

USAG just advised that the following items have been posted to the USA Gymnastics web site:

1. Rules and Policies, revised pages 35, 37 & 75 (the online version of the R & P will also have these changes integrated). Page 75 is the officials' fee chart, which has three incorrect amounts in the original book.

2. Revised Operating Code

3. 2007-08 Meet Director exam

9/11/07

Thanks to all who stayed after the Base Score Clinic for the Professional Members’ Meeting. For those who were not there, please download the 2007-2008 Arizona Rules & Policies. There were some changes made, and it’s now your responsibility to have the current information.

Please note that Dianne Grayson is now the State Judging Director. All official requests for judges should be placed with Dianne. You can contact her at dgrayson@azgym.net. Further contact details are listed at the top of the Club Directory.

The Judges Page contains information pertinent to those who judge collegiate competition.

8/29/07

The updated Arizona Rules & Policies (2007-2008) have been added to that page.

Several Arizona TOPs gymnasts qualify for National Testing! During the summer, gymnasts are evaluated on physical abilities at the state level. From the more than 3,000 participants across the nation, 300 gymnasts qualify to participate in the National TOPs testing, which will be held from October 5-7, 2007, at the National Team Training Center in Houston, Texas. From here approximately 60 gymnasts will make up the TOPs National Team. Arizona’s National TOP Testing qualifiers are as follows:

Diamond Level (7-8 year olds): Indicates that the athlete has scored between 90.0 - 69.0 from the State TOP Testing and has qualified a coach from her club to attend the National TOP Training Camp in December. Athletes will receive the National TOP Team Apparel.

8/15/07

The Regional Base Score Clinic in December has posted to the Event Calendar.

Updates have been made to the Event Calendar, Club Directory, State Administrative Committee Page, Seniors Page and Judges Page.

7/22/07

Arizona gymnasts extend the 2007 competition season by progressing to more national competitions. Congratulations to the following US Challenge qualifiers: Stefani Catour, Desert Lights (Hopes Division); Shelby Edwards, Carter’s Gymnastics (Pre-Elite Division); Brittany Kinal, Carter’s Gymnastics (Pre-Elite Division); Christina Wood, Carter’s Gymnastics (Pre-Elite Division).

The annual Arizona Professional Members Meeting will be held Friday, Sept. 7th at 8:30pm (following the Base Score Clinic at Xtreme Gymnastics). Please plan to attend this meeting so you can receive your revised copies of the Arizona Rules & Policies and be informed of important state news and changes.

See the Graduating Seniors page for new commitments. Coaches – please send your 2008 & 2009 senior’s info to dcullins@azgym.net!

New State Administrative Committee Members have been added to the roster on the State Administrative Committee page.

The 2007-2008 local competitions have been added to the Event Calendar.

7/10/07

Governor Napolitano has signed the Proclamation for Arizona’s official recognition of National Gymnastics Day. Download an electronic copy of the proclamation here.

6/28/07

SAC Elections – ballots were mailed June 16th to all current Arizona professional members. Please be sure to mail in your votes by July 13th. View nominee resumes on the State Administrative Committee page.

Coaches – please submit the following info to dcullins@azgym.net for any new 2008 seniors and all 2009 seniors!

• First and Last Name

• Club Affiliation

• Competitive Level for 2008 season

• Graduation Year (2008 or 2009 only)

• Contact Info (Coach name, phone and/or email address)

Judges – don’t forget to turn in your CPE credits to Dianne Grayson by June 30th!

6/15/07

SAC Elections – view nominee resumes on the State Administrative Committee page.

A new athlete (Tasia Percevecz) has been added to the Graduating Seniors page.

Judges – don’t forget to turn in your CPE credits to Dianne Grayson by June 30th!

Level 8, 9 & 10 Regionals will be held together on one weekend. The deadline for hosts to bid on this competition is July 31, 2007. Click here for more information.

5/25/07

Check out the SAC page for REVISED election info. The NEW nomination deadline is June 11!

Judges – check out the Judges Page for important CPE information.

Don’t forget to reserve your spot at the annual State Banquet on June 13! More information may be found on the Annual Banquet page.

May 2, 2007

In order to get testing administration staff organized for the 2007 TOPs season, Tricia Ogle needs all TOPs participating gyms in Arizona to send a preliminary number of TOP athletes to gymtrix@cox.net.

Arizona Regional Testing sites and dates:

There will be no parent viewing allowed at any of the AZ TOP Regional Testing Sites.

2007 State TOP Testing Online Registration Site

5/1/07

Check out the SAC page for election info. The nomination deadline is May 25!

Info for the next judging test has been added to the Judges Page.

State calendar has been updated with new Elite information

Don’t forget to nominate professional members for awards at the annual State Banquet. The deadline is May 21. Download the nomination form on the Annual Banquet page. Also, don’t forget to make your reservation to attend the banquet!

4/9/07

The deadlines for state banquet award nominations are as follows – please take the time to make a nomination in at least one category!

Compulsory awards – nomination deadline is April 12, 2007
Optional awards – nomination deadline is May 21, 2007
Coach and other non-athlete awards – nomination deadline is May 21, 2007

The nomination form is available on the State Banquet Page.

The NCAA South Central Regional Championships will be held in Tucson on April 14th at 6pm. The teams are competing for a berth to the NCAA Championships. Participating teams are Stanford, Arizona, Oregon State, Illinois, Arizona State, and Illinois-Chicago. Ticket information may be found at HERE.

3/24/07

SAC-AZ meeting minutes have been added to the State Administrative Committee page from the March 20th meeting. The minutes include the draws for Optional State Meet sessions.

A new senior has been added to the Graduating Seniors page.

The Nomination Form for State Banquet Awards has been added to the Annual Banquet page.

3/8/07

New athletes have been added to the Graduating Seniors page.

The TOP season is coming up quick. Please contact Tricia Ogle if you are interested in becoming a TOP testing administrator for the 2007 season. These are paid positions. The Arizona TOPs website will be updated soon with all of the new information. Be sure to check it often: www.arizonatops.com. Tricia Ogle may be contacted at 520-907-4395 or gymtrix@cox.net.

2/21/07

New information about the 2007 State Banquet has been added. Mark your calendars now!

Click here for new information about changes to the TOPs program for 2007.

2/7/07

Meeting minutes have been added to the State Administrative Committee page and a new page has been added for Meet Directors.

Click here to read a letter from Jennifer Shipman-Krause, Region 1 RACC, with regard to speakers at the 2007 USAG Congress.

Click here for information on a Pre-Elite & Hopes Qualifier being held April 29th in Long Beach. For more details, please contact Jack Carter, RECC, at jcarter453@aol.com or 480- 461-8464.

1/24/07

There is a great educational opportunity for recreational coaches being held in Tucson on January 28th. Strengthen your entire program by sending your recreational and birthday party staff to this clinic! Click here for more information!

Click here to read the latest Region I Newsletter

12/7/06

To view a copy of the latest newsletter, click here. This newsletter was also mailed to all professional members but will be the last newsletter distributed in print. In the future, all news will be communicated solely through this web site.

Due to Neela’s recent appointment as Regional Technical Director, she has had to step down as State Judging Director. Dianne Grayson has accepted the position of SJD for Arizona and will be handling all NAWGJ meet assignments. Dianne can be reached at dgrayson@azgym.net.

Judges - please contact Dianne as soon as possible with any changes to your availability.

Meet Directors – please contact Dianne as soon as possible with any new meet requests or changes to meet schedules.

12/1/06

Congratulations to all compulsory athletes who competed in the Arizona State Gymnastics Championships and additional congratulations to our team champions in each level! There were lots of beautiful gymnastics on display at the State Championships – all of the athletes and coaches should be very proud of their hard work!!

Level 4 Team Champions
1st place – Flagstaff Gymnastics
2nd place – Universal Gymnastics
3rd place – Phoenix Gymnastics Academy (PGA)

Level 5 Team Champions
1st place – Phoenix Gymnastics Academy (PGA)
2nd place – Flagstaff Gymnastics
3rd place – Desert Lights Gymnastics

Level 6 Team Champions
1st place – Desert Lights Gymnastics
2nd place – Phoenix Gymnastics Academy (PGA)
3rd place – Team Dynamics

For complete results, visit www.meetscoresonline.com

A huge congratulations goes out to Neela Nelson who has been appointed as the Regional Technical Chairman. Arizona is very proud of Neela’s accomplishments and wishes her the best in this new position!

There will not be an organized Optional Critique Meet this year. If you’re interested in having your optional team members evaluated, it is suggested that you put together an intrasquad or join another team’s intrasquad.

State Committee meeting minutes from the 11/28/06 meeting have been added

Two new clubs have been added to Club Directory page – Biltmore Gymnastics & Flip City Gymnastics

Join forces with the Phoenix Suns for a chance to raise funds for your booster club through group tickets sales – click here for more information.

11/6/06

New information has been added to the Graduating Seniors page again.

There is a new link on the Links Page with regard to college recruiting profiles.

Updates have been made to the Club Directory - please check your club's listing to make sure all information is current.

A MapQuest function has been added to all event locations within the Event Calendar.

10/24/06 – Just a few new updates today!

New information has been added to the Graduating Seniors page. Please don’t forget to email information on your Arizona high school juniors and seniors to dcullins@azgym.net!!

Information about the Winter Symposium hosted by NAWGJ-SC has been posted to the Judge’s Page.

The Region 1 clinic held in Phoenix, on October 15 and 16 was a great success. There were 160 athletes and 120 of those were levels 7 thru 10! Our regional coaching staff did a great job with all the gymnasts, coaches and judges in attendance. The staff included:

• Patty Resnick of Flip’s Gymnastics in Reno. Elite Coach and coach of World Championship team member.

• Justin Howell, Elite coach from Airborne in Northern California.

• Shane and Carol McIntyre, coaches of many JO National qualifiers from AGA in Long Beach.

• Aladinne Nammou, international competitor and coach from Gym Jam in Southern California.

• Elizabeth Crandall, Elite judge and former National Team member now from Gym Cats in Nevada.

• Pam Evans, Elite judge and coach from AZ Sunrays in Phoenix.

• Vassil “Vasko” Vetzev, 2 time Bulgarian Olympian, and now a coach from AZ Sunrays.

The gyms attending were from Arizona and Utah. These gyms have all qualified their level 10’s for regional apparel packages upon qualifying for JO Nationals: American Elite, Aspire, Arizona Dynamics, Arizona Sunrays, Carter’s, Desert Lights, Flames, Oasis, Olympic Gymnastics, Olympus, PGA, Southwest GTC, Springs & Tumbleweeds.

10/6/06 – Many new updates today!

• Web addresses for all clubs have been added to the Club Directory page

• Information about the judge’s testing date on the Judges page

• Latest SAC meeting minutes are posted on the SAC page

• New link added to the Links page (www.arizonatops.com)

Rotation Draws for Compulsory State Meets
Level 4 – November 1st, 12pm at Arizona Dynamics Gym
Level 5/6 – November 8th, 12pm at Arizona Dynamics Gym

Region I Clinic
Any clubs planning to attend the Region I Clinic need to submit entry forms to Dan Witenstein ASAP so that he can have an accurate count of athletes to prepare the clinicians and organizers of the event. The clinic is being held at Arizona Sunrays’ gym and the schedule is as follows:

Saturday, October 14
Compulsory levels - Registration at 10:45am and the clinic will end at 2:45pm
Optional levels - Registration at 3:30pm and the clinic will end at 7:30pm

Sunday, October 15
Compulsory levels - warm up 8:00am
Optional levels - warm up 1:00pm
There will also be a roundtable discussion with coaches and clinicians from 12:00 to 1:30 on Sunday.

Any questions about the Region I Clinic should be directed to:
Dan Witenstein - ph 602-992-5790 - dan@arizonasunrays.com

9/18/06

Attention Gym owners - we will be adding club web sites to the Club Directory page. Please email your club's web address to dcullins@azgym.net as soon as possible.

9/17/06

Request from Regional Committee Meeting: Any questions regarding the FIG Elite program in regards to qualifying or rules/codes should be directed to Julie Bowse, RTCC (jbowse@fullerton.edu) or Jack Carter, RECC (jcarter453@aol.com). They will often have information that is more up-to-date than the USAG web site. There is also a page on the Region 1 web site dedicated to the Elite Program: www.region-one-gymnastics.com

9/14/06

Web site is officially launched! Please enter your email address on the home page to receive important communication throughout the year from your AZ State Administrative Committee. Any web site questions or suggestions should be sent to Danica Cullins at dcullins@azgym.net.