Old Mill's Holly Firebaugh is back. So are Broadneck's Dawn McAteer, Chesapeake's Kim Johnson and Mandy Hart, and Arundel's Karen Newhard and Michelle Gagnier.
You want quality gymnasts? Anne Arundel County has cornered the market.
But the athletes themselves can't take all of the credit, no matter how gifted they are. There just isn't much competition out there, making them the big fish in a drying pond.
Besides Anne Arundel, the only county that still offers the sport in the metro area is Harford, and it has one school participating. North Harford will compete against Anne Arundel's teams next month.
This means the season will end with Anne Arundel County tournaments -- the girls at Chesapeake, the boys at Arundel. No regionals, no states.
And like last year, just six schools in the county are fielding teams: Annapolis, Arundel, Broadneck, Chesapeake, Old Mill and Severna Park.
"It's very unfortunate that more people don't have a more thorough knowledge of how gymnastics contributes to overall athletic safety, and the value of using the body more efficiently," said Broadneck coach Judy Svec. "There's a fear factor we've been fighting for years. I feel badly about it."
Last year, the Arundel girls won both the county and state/regional meets. They set a school record for points (130.15) in the county event while placing ahead of runner-up Old Mill and dethroning defending-champion Severna Park.
Debbie Chute completed her fourth year on the varsity, but coach Carol Nutt still has sophomores Newhard and Gagnier.
Newhard -- voted the Baltimore Sun's Female Gymnast of the Year for Anne Arundel County -- placed second in the all-around in both the county and state/regional meets. Gagnier was seventh at the county meet and 16th at the state/regional competition.
No seniors can be found on the girls side this year. The oldest competitors are juniors Erin Kupstas, Megan Glaze, Linda Tate, Julie Scott and April Anderson. Tate, whose specialty is the balance beam, missed last season with a knee injury.
"Losing Debbie hurts us. She was an all-arounder and pretty solid," said Nutt, whose girls defeated Chesapeake and Broadneck in last Wednesday's season-opening tri-meet. "But I expect by the time we get to the end, we'll hopefully be back to where we were team score-wise."
On the boys' side, "we're very thin," Nutt said, "but we'll probably be OK."
Freshman James Mlynarski is a nice addition. He won five events and took first in all-around last Wednesday.
Sophomore Andre Garland, juniors Vince Fauntleroy, Matt Lipphard and Byron Patrick, and senior Michael Perry also compete.
At Severna Park, the return of senior Jesse Whyte was supposed make the Falcons the team to beat on the boys' side.
A two-time selection as the Baltimore Sun's Male Gymnast of the Year for Anne Arundel County, Whyte was the all-around champion at the county/regional meet, won by Severna Park.
But Whyte injured his thumb during a recent practice, and though he took part in last Wednesday's tri-meet with Old Mill and Annapolis -- competing in every event except the high bar -- coach Bonnie Habicht said he most likely would have surgery to repair a damaged ligament and would miss the rest of the season.
Another senior all-arounder, Ben Jones, is out with a hand injury, and Habicht said, "If Ben doesn't come back, we won't be such a threat anymore."
Other members of the boys team are seniors Jason Erwin, Mike Henry, Jon Henry and Chris DeBeer, sophomores Grayson Jones and Mike Wright and freshmen Jacob Hildebrand and Ray Perry.
On the girls' squad, Habicht will call on seniors Jen Conner and Tara Bogel, juniors Michelle Force, Erin Hoisington, Sonia Rippert and Kellie Saperstein, sophomores Casey Moore, Jenny Tipton, Michele Bine, Amy Baikauskas, Tracy Delp and Kim Roesch, and freshmen Laura Fischetti, Beth Murphy, Alison Jernigan, Mary Jacokes, Melissa Lawson and Erin Corkhill. Hoisington competed a freshman, but not as a sophomore.
"I think we'll be a little stronger than last year," Habicht said.
After two consecutive years of sweeping both the county and state/regional championships, the Annapolis boys slipped to fourth in the county/regional competition last spring.
Can they regroup?
"We're all new," said coach Neill Russell. "I'm starting from scratch. It's one of those rebuilding things."
Senior Angela Cheatham, who placed fifth in the all-around at the county meet, didn't return to school, leaving Russell with sophomores Beth Zimmer and Erin Gottshalk. They both specialize in the balance beam, floor exercise and vault.
Together, they hope to make up for the loss of standout Karen Thompson, who graduated.
The boys' team doesn't offer any varsity experience, either. But senior Ole Jakebson, an exchange student from Norway, was drawing raves from Russell even before taking first in all-around last Wednesday.
"He's phenomenal," Russell said. "He's capable of being one of the top boys gymnasts this year."
Junior Ranard DeLeon, another all-around competitor, was named captain.
"As far as the future goes, it looks bright," Russell said.
Broadneck lost its No. 1 gymnast, Todd Keyser, to graduation. Last year, he took second in the all-around at the county/regional meet, winning three events.
The previous year, as the Bruins' lone representative at the county meet, he took second on the high bar and third on the rings and pommel horse, then placed first on the pommel horse and second on the high bar at the state/regionals.
He isn't the only Bruin who left. No one from the boys' team has returned, but Svec calls the newcomers "a very nice building group."
Junior Jeremy Webb "shows great potential," and freshman Jeffery Bernia has an extensive background on the club level. They join senior Donald Sparrow and sophomore Adam Daniels.
McAteer, a senior, is back after placing fourth in the all-around at the girls' county meet. She will be teamed with sophomores Jennifer Porto and Kisha Black-Gallagher and senior Taryn Barbour. Black-Gallagher also competes in the all-around.
"It's definitely going to be a building year," Svec said, "but this is one of the hardest-working, overall positive teams I've worked with in a long time."
Chesapeake first-year coach Tony Tyler knows his girls team will stay in the hunt because of seniors Johnson and Hart.
They are part of a deep squad that includes senior Tracy Richter, juniors Amy Harsanyi, Jamie Suski and Valerie Walker and freshmen Melissa Powell, Kelli Fox, Rachel Santora, Allison Coffman, Rebecca Jacobs, Cathy Mahan, Lauren Shupp-Ettlin and Mindy Pelletier. Jacobs is recovering from a broken finger.
"Mandy and Kim will take us about as far as we'll go," Tyler said. "They'll point us in the right direction."
Tyler's boys team, which includes five seniors, placed first last Wednesday despite not having anyone in all-around. The roster is made up of seniors Chris Hite, Chris Coffman, John Hein, Tom Wargo and Sean Daugherty, junior Matt Pirone and sophomores Paul Thomas, Fran Cavanaugh and Nick Clulow.
Few gymnasts are better on the girls' side than Old Mill's Firebaugh, a sophomore who last year took first in all-around at the county meet, edging Newhard, 36.25-36.05. She dropped to sixth in the state/regional competition.
"We hope she can bounce back and have a big year," said coach Jack Bliss. "She should do real well."
She's off to a good start, taking first in all-around last Wednesday.
Bliss also mentioned seniors Jen Klines and Cindy Hickton and junior all-around competitor Shannon Slay, then said, "The rest are unknown quantities."
The boys' team includes all-arounders Scott Roddy, Mike Goninan and William Stokes, and senior Jason Athanas, who is recovering from an injured finger.
Stokes is a freshman who should offer immediate help, as the Patriots try to make up for the loss of Travis Corbett to graduation. Corbett placed third in all-around at last season's county/regional meet.
"All of our kids are basically new," Bliss said. "We'll have to see what we can do with them."