The perfect rattling present in Baton Rouge: LSU Gymnastics and the Return of the Champs

On the planet of school athletics, it’s laborious to attract a crowd throughout winter break. The ultimate exams for the autumn semester are over, college students are house for the vacations. However but in Baton Rouge on a Monday night time in mid-December, a sea of purple and gold flooded the entrances of the Pete Maravich Meeting Middle.

Face-painted kids cheer for his or her favourite athletes, holding up home made indicators stating, “I really like Haleigh!” and “It’s my eighth birthday!” 1000’s of followers file into seats in a fever pitch of pleasure, prepared to observe the one of many greatest exhibits in all of school sports activities – LSU gymnastics.

The annual Gymnastics 101 showcase has turn into a cherished custom, and returned this yr presenting Open Mike Night time: a preseason exhibition for followers forward of the season opener in January, providing a sneak peek of latest routines and lineups together with interactive interviews with the staff. It additionally serves as a gown rehearsal for the athletes, serving to them acclimate to performing in entrance of a roaring crowd.

Picture by Stephen Bayog/College Photos through Getty Photos

Free to the general public, the occasion attracts in a lot of locals, followers from all throughout Louisiana and past. The night time is centered round recognizing this system’s followers and skyrocketing help because of the staff’s latest accomplishments, together with final yr’s nationwide championship.

Coming into the 2025 season, they often is the No. 2 seed, however nothing can high the unparalleled spirit that encompasses LSU girls’s gymnastics.

Head coach Jay Clark begins his fifth season with the Tigers having already obtained three championship appearances and the latest nationwide title, emphasizes the significance of adjusting the athletes to the pressures of the stage.

“It’s essential to get out of that consolation zone,” mentioned Clark. “There’s loads of actually good, constant stuff occurring within the fitness center, however what does it appear like whenever you get into a special setting?”

Picture by Stephen Bayog/College Photos through Getty Photos

Crowds of over 12,000 might be formidable to the typical collegiate athlete, however the highlight is nothing new for Clark’s gymnasts.

A record-breaking 2024 season noticed this system with the biggest attendance numbers in school gymnastics, together with three sold-out meets on the PMAC and going undefeated at house altogether. Their achievements garnered the eye of thousands and thousands and, as a brand new season approaches, all eyes stay on LSU.

On Dec. 10, the Ladies’s Collegiate Gymnastics Affiliation introduced the 2025 preseason ballot, putting LSU at No. 2 behind No. 1 Oklahoma. Of their final matchup, LSU got here second to the Sooners within the Sprouts Farmers Market Collegiate Quad on impartial floor in West Valley Metropolis, Utah. The groups will reunite for a similar meet this season, assembly in Oklahoma for a showdown.

The 2 powerhouses will face off once more in a Valentine’s Day convention matchup that guarantees to be one of many season’s most anticipated occasions. This time round, the Tigers may have the benefit–in entrance of the house crowd made up of the die-hard, cult-like followers of LSU athletics. By far, the staff’s greatest ace is its supporters–nobody exhibits out like Baton Rouge.

Generations of Tigers “pack the PMAC” on Friday nights, as alumni share the extraordinary expertise with their kids and grandchildren as part of LSU household traditions. Identical to soccer, LSU gymnastics is not only a one-time factor for some, however a life-style, and lots of of those attendees make-up the big portion of followers which might be season ticket holders.

This fall’s preseason ticket gross sales smashed all earlier data with 8,680 season tickets offered, over 600 greater than final yr–it’s protected to say LSU may have one other yr of record-breaking crowds. The joy across the program is palpable and gymnastics on the PMAC stays incomparable now greater than ever, however the staff nonetheless has a frightening title to dwell as much as.

Final spring, followers bought to witness a decades-long journey come to an epic conclusion when the staff received their first NCAA championship. Hopes have been excessive for the Tigers forward of the 2024 season because the No. 3 seed and a blended lineup of expertise and high recruits. In essential moments through the common and postseason, the Tigers delivered when it mattered most. Within the NCAA championships’ 4 on the Flooring, they have been hailed the very best within the nation after an virtually flawless efficiency on beam by Aleah Finnegan within the closing rotation sealed the deal. LSU completed with a lead of just below 4 tenths over California, Florida and Utah.

Haleigh Bryant delivered breathtaking performances that earned her nationwide acclaim and the 2024 particular person all-around champion title, whereas Finnegan claimed the NCAA ground title.

The staff grew to become instantaneous native royalty, as celebrations ensued throughout campus: parades lasting miles and ceremonies lasting hours as followers continued to revel within the pleasure of the achievement.

Picture by Aric Becker/ISI Images/Getty Photos

“It’s such an emotional launch that occurred final yr and the celebration that has been protracted since then,” mentioned Clark. “It’s a blessing, nevertheless it’s probably a curse.”

Clark and the staff know the highway from right here doesn’t get any simpler, as recreating final season’s success below the eyes of the nation will show to be an excellent larger problem. Followers will pour into arenas across the nation to observe the reigning champs try to defend their title.

This summer time, Finnegan took her skills to the worldwide stage, competing for Workforce Philippines on the Olympics in Paris and additional cementing her star standing forward of her senior yr.

Following a yr of main accomplishments for the squad, 2025 appears stuffed with alternatives, and for some, it is going to be the final dance of their collegiate profession.

Most of the program’s fan-favorites can be returning to steer the staff for one final season, corresponding to Finnegan, Bryant and Olivia Dunne in her fifth and closing yr of eligibility. Regardless of the wealth of expertise, Clark is aware of that nothing is assured.

“We now have to protect towards pondering that this staff has performed something as a result of it hasn’t,” Clark defined. “It has the flexibility to do something that it units its thoughts to, however this isn’t that staff. We now have to guarantee that they perceive that.”

The glory of a nationwide championship and the celebrity that comes with the title can get to the pinnacle of any athlete. It’s the greatest achievement in all of school athletics and deserves the utmost respect, however complacency has turn into Clark’s greatest concern for the reason that second they grew to become champions.

Based on him, the championship title belongs to final yr’s staff, not this one. This staff should forge its personal identification, and solely then can they dwell as much as the large precedent set earlier than them.

“The primary hardest factor to do is recover from the hump and win one after which the following hardest factor is to be sure you don’t stroll round appearing such as you’ve arrived,” mentioned Clark.

In a do-or-die season, the highlight is firmly mounted on Baton Rouge, with the intangible hype surrounding LSU and the upcoming season taking on girls’s school gymnastics, proving they’re those to observe.

As a fan, you’ll by no means expertise the rest prefer it. From the raging crowds of the PMAC to the athletes who pour their hearts into each routine, LSU represents the very best of collegiate athletics. LSU gymnastics isn’t only a staff—it’s a phenomenon.