There is a room between the east and the west gyms at Bronx Science. There, the gymnasts take the tumbling mats and place them on carts in order to bring them to the west gym. When the mats unravel, clouds of dust bloom, and the mat has a faint smell of sweat.

The west gym’s entrance from the east gym is an opening just wide enough to allow the crash mats through. Several girls lift the mat from all sides as they reach the entrance, and they drop off the right side so the mat leans at a diagonal. All the gymnasts rush back to squeeze and push it through the door before lifting it flat once more, placing it next to the beams. Each of the crash mats they carry, some light and others heavy, have a name.

A pair of gymnasts head to the back of the room, take wooden flatboards from the stack, and lay them out in a vertical line that just barely covers the length of the west gym. Other gymnasts help roll a tall, heavy balance beam to the center of the west gym. The gymnasts are now ready to start practicing their aerials, triple-tucks, pikes, and back handsprings. 

The coach, Ms. Konstantakakos (known as Coach K) is encouraging and cautious. She is easygoing when listening and offering advice to her gymnasts. She stretches her gymnasts’ skills within the limits of their safety, which always comes first. Sometimes, she is wary when she sees a team member attempting a back handspring and their legs buckle as they try to finish, stumbling to the floor on their knees.

“Patience is so important as a coach, and I never want to force a gymnast to do a skill that they are nervous to do,” Coach K said.

Coach Konstantakakos felt destined to become a gymnastics coach — she grew up doing gymnastics and acrobatics, and joined her high school’s gymnastics team in order to compete in the PSAL.

“It was a no-brainer that at some point in my life, I wanted to coach Girls’ Varsity Gymnastics for high school. Even to this day, it carries some of the most happiest memories of my high school life, and I want to give the students here at Bronx Science those same happy memories to look back on, when they’re older.”

The first competition of the 2021-2022 season was held at Columbus High School on Thursday, December 9th, 2021. The Bronx Science Girls’ Varsity Gymnastics team currently holds a 17-2 record, and they beat their rival Stuyvesant High School at the most recent competition.

As Emma Covey ’22 guides Maya Jowata ’25 and Jadyn Sinclair ’25 on their beam routines, she sits on the floor outlining and revising their routines for the small beam. A contemporary remix of classical music plays as Nora Cassetta ’25 starts her floor routine. 

Pep talks are an essential part of encouraging the team to perform at its highest level. The gymnasts are constantly giving each other congratulatory or motivating praise, hoping to encourage their teammates to strive for success. There are groans, laughing, and wailing as they repeat skills that on occasion will cause bruised toes, bloody nails, and splinters from grabbing the edges of the springboard too hard.

Mistakes happen — weird roundoffs, legs too bent during the back handspring, a gymnast cartwheeling off the path of the balance beam, and awkward finishes, but they push through and come out stronger in the end. When Caren Koo ’24 perfects a double tuck, flipping to such a height that Coach K can walk under her while she’s a energetic ball spinning in the air, the girls are ecstatic. When Jowata does a one-and-a-half turn (or even a double turn) instead of just a single turn, the crowd of the girls on the sideline break into celebration. The tricks are deceptively effortless — the muscles in their bodies need to be tightly clenched in order for them to fight air resistance. 

“There is no greater feeling than watching one of my gymnasts learn a new skill and see their eyes light up in disbelief and excitement when they execute it. One of the common challenges in the sport of gymnastics is that gymnasts tend to have mental blocks when it comes to trying to do a skill. It is a wonderful feeling to see the relief and excitement in their eyes when they finally complete the skill that’s been challenging them, and observe their confidence build from there,” said Coach K.

The three seniors on the team — Emma Covey ’22, Kristen Ho ’22, and Lauren Walsh ’22 — “have done an excellent job at helping transition our new gymnasts into our program.” Gymnastics does not require that one starts at a young age. “There have been gymnasts who make the team who have had either little to no experience, but they are strong and pick up skills easily or have a dancer’s background and learn basic gymnastics skills and then incorporate their dance background into their routines,” said Coach K.

Jowata practices cartwheels on the short balance beam, while Coach K spots Cassetta doing back handsprings on the taller balance beam. Cassetta extends her arms forward, swooshes them back while bending her legs like she is about to sit down, and propels herself backward with the upward momentum of her legs, arms flying over her head as her hands rush to meet the ground, causing her legs to launch in the air and roll in front of her torso. She comes back up into a standing position. Then, the process repeats; she’s like a spring with a lot of energy, and leaping backwards repeatedly wears away some of its tension, each time.

Practice ends at 5:45 p.m., but the gymnasts get an extra fifteen minutes of informal weight training by returning the mats to the back of the room between the east and west gym. Moving the heavy springboards is an arduous task. In pairs of two — one lifts the board flat side up and another lifts the board spring side up — they interlock the springs of the board with each other. That way, when it is carried, it is a neat slab of wood, and it is easy for everything to go on the top.

Hamstrings, quadriceps, biceps, and deltoids are pulsating and sore but they “do it for the gains,” as Jadyn Sinclair ’25 said. Emma Covey ’22 points to the sweat stains on the lower half of her shirt. The work is hard and gritty, but rewarding. The Girls’ Varsity Gymnastics Team is ready to dominate another season, showing their aptness in flexibility, motion, and aerodynamics, while having a tremendous amount of fun. 

“There is no greater feeling than watching one of my gymnasts learn a new skill and see their eyes light up in disbelief and excitement when they execute it. One of the common challenges in the sport of gymnastics is that gymnasts tend to have mental blocks when it comes to trying to do a skill. It is a wonderful feeling to see the relief and excitement in their eyes when they finally complete the skill that’s been challenging them, and observe their confidence build from there,” said Coach K.