Athens gymnastics combines with Avondale; Troy high welcomes new coach

By Sue Teggart
C & G Sports Writer

ROCHESTER HILLS — For the gymnasts from Auburn Hills Avondale, the start of the new season offered a new opportunity.

For the first time in school history, Avondale gymnasts will be able to suit up and compete at the prep level thanks to the cooperation between the athletic directors from Avondale and Troy Athens, who have agreed to create a unified team.

“The kids from Avondale have never had the opportunity to do gymnastics in high school, so they are just pumped about it,” coach Deanna Fakhouri said about combining the programs. “They’re really motivated, which helps motivate the Athens kids.”

Four Avondale gymnasts have joined eight gymnasts from Athens — four of whom return from last year’s squad, including Division 2 all-around state champion senior Brooke Madzia.

Madzia said the new additions offer the team more depth than it’s had in recent years.
“It’s nice, because without the Avondale girls, we’d be so small,” Madzia said. “Now that we’ve expanded, there’s more depth. Now we can put up more people for events.”

Other teams in the Oakland Activities Association should take note that although Avondale didn’t have a team prior to this season, its athletes are not starting from scratch. In fact, sophomore Ashley Moskal is a Level 9 club gymnast — an elite level that is physically and technically demanding — and should be a great addition as an all-around gymnast for the unified squad.

“A lot of the girls have done gymnastics before, so they’re pretty talented coming into the program,” Fakhouri said. “The weakness is, however, that it’s an (inexperienced) team. We don’t know if they have the developed competitive mentality.”
Although competitions are in full swing, Fakhouri said the squad is still putting the pieces together.

“We’re still just getting our skills together,” Madzia said. “A lot of our gymnasts haven’t competed in two years, so we’re all still getting back into it. The rest of us haven’t competed since states last year. There’s time where you lose some of your skills, so there’s that transition period where we’re getting all of our skills back.”

“The new gymnasts are finally seeing results of the basic training and are moving onto bigger skills,” Fakhouri added.

With Fakhouri busy with the combined team, the search was on for a coach to take over the Troy program. School administrators found one in Cynthia Tan.

“We’ve known each other for a long time,” Tan said about her familiarity with Fakhouri and Athens assistant coach Sue Mussat.

Even through they’re not officially one big team, the two squads do practice together at the Gymnastics Training Center of Rochester.

“The three of us (Fakhouri, Mussat and Tan) have all known each other for years … because we’re all in the OAA, and we all get along really well,” said Tan, who also had a coaching stint at Rochester Adams. “We practice together and we always just help each other out.”

After taking a two-year hiatus from coaching, Tan was eager to take the reins.

 “There’s a lot of differences between the beginner gymnasts and the higher level gymnasts, so it’s been good to come back and help out,” Tan said.

Troy features 10 gymnasts on its roster; the majority are sophomores and freshmen.

“They’re getting better with each practice,” Tan said. “We still have a lot of kinks to work out, but we’re getting there. The girls are hard workers, and they really put their best foot forward practicing.”

Tan said bars is Troy’s weakest event, which is also the hardest because it involves all arm strength.

“We have three strong gymnasts on bars, and we have two or three than can help out,” Tan said.

Tan said she will look to sophomore Sara Lin and freshman Brenna O’Brien, who are all-around gymnasts, to lead the squad.

“I call this year the ‘real learning experience year,’ and then next year we’ll really break out,” Tan said. “I can see us doing well by the end of the season. We’ll be ready by next year.”

Fans can catch the Red Hawks/Avondale unified and Troy High squads in action next at the Haslett Invitational at 10 a.m. Jan 16.

You can reach Sports Writer Sue Teggart at steggart@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1107.