2024-2025 MINNESOTA GymACT CAMPAIGN GETS UNDERWAY WITH LOTS OF TRAVELING TO TRAIN
The process of defending our National Team Title started in earnest as soon as the new school year got underway on September 3, 2024. Because we departed from Cooke Hall this summer, our training situation is quite fluid now. But the greater Minnesota gymnastics community has stepped up and provided us with several amazing gyms to train in!!
Our schedule looks something like this:
Mini Hops Gymnastics in Plymouth, MN
T & Th: 8:00 am – 11:00 am & 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
M, W, F: 12:30 pm – 3:30 pm
North Shore Gymnastics in Maple Plain, MN
M & W: 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm
F: 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Twin City Twisters in Champlin, MN
Saturday: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Cooke Hall 308 on campus (the old women’s gymnastics training area on the 3rd floor of Cooke Hall)
T & Th: 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm.
Club president Jack Gagamov brokered a deal with the RecWell to allow us to set up Pommel Horse and Parallel Bars two days a week in a set-up & tear-down scenario!
Peik Gym on campus (women’s current training facility)
T & Th: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
F: 4:15 pm – 5:45 pm. Floor Exercise and Vault availability.
So, as you can see, we’ve been able to get enough space on campus to train four events (FX, PH, V, & PB). If there’s a way to get SR & HB figured out, we’ll have all 6 events available within walking distance for the team. In the meantime, we’re still traveling to the west metro to get our pre-season training in for a team with great aspirations this season.
We are also exploring warehouse space close to campus as a temporary solution to create a new ‘Home Base’ facility for Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics. Hope we’ll have more to report in subsequent newsletters.
The guys have been stepping up and accepting the challenge of a less-than-stellar situation, but they are not deterred and after tasting victory last year, they want more of it this year!!
Thankfully we have several team members with cars, and they’ve been able to transport team members to the various training sites. Special thanks to them!!!
MEET THE TEAM
Front Row: Anthony Nicholas, Leo Feuer, Caleb Gurman, Joey Pennell. Second Row: Justin Lancisi, David Grossman, Ben Letvin. Third Row: Jack Gagamov, Noah Wills, Aaron Novick, Zach Smollin. Fourth Row: Christian Abran, Cris Lilligren, Warren Strootman, Owen Frank, Kai Louie-Badua, Kekoa ‘Koa’ Taylor. Top Row: Haden Paravecino, Paul Acker, Luke Pedersen.
FRESHMAN CLASS MAKING AN IMPACT IN THE GYM
Three new team members are with us this Fall and are looking like they’ll be solid additions to our program. Caleb Gurman (Clovis, CA), Warren Strootman (Minneapolis, MN), and Leo Feuer (Colts Neck, NJ) arrived on campus in late August and have been getting integrated into the team and program throughout the fall preparation phase.
Caleb Gurman, Warren Strootman, & Leo Feuer
MINNESOTA MEN’S GYMNASTICS WILL BE CHALLENGED FINANCIALLY THIS SEASON
This year we will need to deal with some facility costs that we didn’t have last year. Because of that, we’ll need our generous donors to think of us again and provide our much-needed funding to keep this program alive. Our annual budget has been hovering around $125,000 but this year it is projected to be closer to $140,000.
We will once again be running the Minnesota GymACT Invitational in February where we historically have raised around $20,000. However, in the last two years we also hosted the USAG Boy’s State Meet which also raised approximately $20,000. However, we won’t be hosting the State Meet this year so we’ll be short $20k in meet profits this season. So, we’ll need our alumni and supporters to dig a little deeper this year and help us to make up the difference. We do have both of the Girl’s State Meet setups and tear downs already scheduled for a $4,500 payout for each meet but that’s still going to leave us well short of our needs this season. We are currently exploring a few revenue streams that might help us out this year, but the lifeblood of our survival comes from you – those who have been so generous these past three years and helped us achieve a high level of performance and existence!!!
One thing we all can consider doing is setting up a Facebook Fundraiser. It’s a very easy process where you set up the fundraiser with proceeds going to your favorite non-profit organization. The Friends of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics may very well be your favorite non-profit organization and if you set the Fundraiser up and spread the word to your network of friends and family, we very well may be able to supplement our current fundraising campaign.
I created a very simple fundraising page on Facebook that can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/donate/896022459292887/896022482626218
You can also go directly to the Friends of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics donation page and donate there as well.
https://minnesotagymnastics.org/donate-to-the-fmmg
WE HOPE WE CAN COUNT ON ALL OF YOU AGAIN THIS SEASON!!!
2025 MINNESOTA MEN’S GYMNASTICS SCHEDULE
* Home Meets in Red Font *
Dec 8 Sun - Maroon & Gold Intrasquad - Orono Activities Center - 12:30 pm
Jan 4 Sat - Intrasquad Meet - Location TBD - Time TBD
Jan 11 Sat - Iowa GymACT Invite - West Des Moines, IA - Time TBD
Jan 18 Sat - WINDY CITY INVITE - Chicago, IL - 7 pm
Jan 25 Sat - KC Co-Ed meet - Kansas City, MO - 6 pm
Feb 1 Sat - Roethlisberger/Iceberg Invite Concordia College - St Paul, MN - 7 pm
Feb 15 Sat - MN GymACT (Ski-U-Mah) Inv. - Luminare, Mpls, MN - 7 pm
Feb 21 & 23 - Winter Cup - Louisville, KY - Time TBD - Fri & Sun (qualified gymnasts)
Mar 1 Sat - MIGSP Meet (2 full teams) - St Paul, MN - 7 pm
March 8 Sat - NIU Invitational - DuPage County Fairgrounds Wheaton, IL - 7 pm
April 4 Fri - GymACT All Star Meet @ NAIGC Nationals - Pittsburgh, PA (David Lawrence Convention Center) - Time TBD
April 26 Sat - GymACT Conference Meet - Ft Lauderdale, FL - 7 pm @ USAG Eastern Nationals
May 10 Sat - GymACT Nationals - St Lake City - 7 pm @USAG JD Nationals
We have an exciting meet schedule in store for the Minnesota GymACT defending National Champions this season. I hope you’ll be able to support us through the bulk of our schedule either on the road or right here in the Twin Cities. Our big fundraising meet (The MN GymACT Invite) will be held at a very unique venue called the Luminare (https://www.theluminare.com/)
We’ll be needing assistance with both set up and tear down of the equipment for both the MN GymACT meet and Bob Wuornos’s MIGS Program Meet. Be on the lookout for more outreach for assistance as we get closer!!
TWO BIG OPPORTUNITIES TO HELP OUT WITH OUR SWEAT EQUITY FUNDRAISERS
On Thursday, December 12th and Sunday, December 15th we’ll be setting up and tearing down two full truckloads of women’s equipment at the Warner Coliseum at the State Fairgrounds in St Paul. This will be one of our big equipment setup fundraisers and we can always use a little extra help with these events.
If you’d like to help out, please drop Mike Burns an email at mike@minnesotagymnastics.org and let him know you’d be willing to help out. The Thursday (12/12) set up will take place around 1 pm and the Sunday (12/15) teardown will take place around 9 pm. Again, this is an area we can always use a few more hands on deck to assist with the labor involved.
The other opportunity is one week prior to that weekend (December 7 & 8, 2024) where we will be renting a truckload of equipment to Dale Bullivant at North Shore Gymnastics so he can host the Minnesota Kickoff Invitational at the Orono Activities Center in Orono, MN (795 N Old Crystal Bay Rd, Long Lake, MN 55336).
Set up will occur at 6 pm on Saturday December 7th and tear down will take place at around 5 pm on Sunday December 8th, after the Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics team competes in the 2024 Maroon & Gold Invitational. This will be the first rental event as FMMG is now getting into the equipment rental business. This is a new revenue stream for FMMG and we’ll be getting this off the ground next month.
SO PLEASE, IF YOU CAN SWING BY TO HELP WITH EITHER THE SET UP OR THE TEAR DOWN, PLEASE HELP OUT!!!
MINNESOTA GYMNASTICS REKINDLES PARTICIPATION AT THE HOMECOMING PARADE
The 2024 Homecoming Parade was held on the 25th of October and Club President Jack Gagamov decided back in August that it was time to get our team back out onto the parade route again after several years of not being in the parade. With a few more restrictions in the Parade Manual to deal with, we decided a pommel horse on a flat bed trailer was the best bet for this year’s float! Unbeknownst to us all, pommel horse turned out to be a parade-goers favorite!!! Only a couple of short months after Stepehen Nedoroscik wowed the world with his “Clark Kent/Pommel Horse Guy” fame at the Paris Olympics, the Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics Team created their own “Pommel Horse Guy” fame at the Homecoming Parade! We owned the entire parade route with the work we did up on the pommels but also with the guys doing back flips down University Ave as well as one hearty soul (Aaron Novick) breaking out the Thomas Flairs on the asphalt!
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