In only her first year with the Wolfpack, freshman Brooke Barr has been a major piece of the Gymnastics team’s run to the 2009 EAGL Championship this season. Completing 36 routines in competition, three events in all 12 meets, her consistency has helped keep the Pack be in contention throughout the year. According to assistant coach Todd Henry, Barr’s reliability has made her invaluable to the team.
“[Barr] has been our most consistent kid, and in my opinion she might be our most valuable kid this year. She has really stepped up as a freshman,” Henry said. “She has just been one of those go to kids and it has really worked out well for us.”
As Barr was recruited, there was some concern about her consistency, but it was known she was an athlete with great possibilities. Coming out of high school the coaches knew they were getting an athlete who had great potential on vault and floor.
“When I recruited her, I knew she was talented but I was a little worried about her consistency. You just never know what you are going to get sometimes with a freshman,” Henry said. “I knew that floor and vault were going to be potentially very strong for her, and that has been accurate. But balance beam has been a big surprise.”
Coming into her freshman season, Barr’s goals were to make the lineup and in doing so help the team in any way. To do this, she knew she needed to build her confidence and learn to compete on the collegiate level. According to Barr, she had to get routines under her belt.
“I just wanted to make sure that I made line up, and I was able to help the team as much as possible,” Barr said. “I had to get my confidence up, that was a major goal for me, to learn how to compete like a real gymnast at the collegiate level. It is a lot of numbers and once you get to the point where you are comfortable with things, it becomes quality over quantity.”
According to assistant coach Karen Pleasants, Barr was able to receive help from her teammates when it came to her confidence level. Barr was able to take in what her teammates were saying and use it to boost her confidence.
“She has been really good about absorbing what the team has encouraged her with,” Pleasants said. “She has used the tools that her teammates have given her to give her confidence. Her teammates have really helped her along in that regard.”
Barr has been able to use this confidence to perform on the mat, beam and vaulting table. She has the team’s second highest regional qualifying average on vault and the second highest on the floor. She has also been named the EAGL Rookie of the Week five of the 10 weeks this season.
Carrying all of this into next year, Barr will look to add bars to her repertoire making her an all-around competitor. According to Henry, with work thorough the off-season she can be solid on all four events.
“She needs to keep doing what she is doing,” Henry said. “She has the potential to be really good on bars. And if she can get bars she is going to be a very strong all arounder.”
