Bernards High School added to sports that are offered in the fall with the addition of gymnastics. We have a new athletic sport to add to our top athletic program. Two girls, Jimena Muniz and Francesca Tannenbaum, have started the Bernards Gymnastics team. A small program that consists of only two team mates has high expectations from their vast knowledge and experience. The girls go to competitions and compete with the support of Bernards High School and their coach, athletic director Michael Hoppe. Mr. Hoppe jokes that he got chosen for the position because of his vast experience in gymnastics, he then explains, “I got approached over the summer when the proposal of the gymnastics team idea came around. No one volunteered to be the coach so I decided to.” Mr. Hoppe claims he had to do his homework before his first competition. “My role as a coach is to have the safety information and the score sheets. I go to the competitions but I don’t practice with them or help make up the routines. The girls are independent and do that themselves. The best part of coaching the girls is that I get to watch them flip around, which I don’t see everyday. I am still learning things about the sport of gymnastics at every competition.”
Francesca Tannenbaum, who makes up half of the team, has years of experience under her belt from her first competition at the age of 8. Jimena Muniz has stellar competition records which creates a powerful and high scoring team between the two of them. Both girls attend Paramount Gymnastics Gym in Hillsborough where they create their routines and train for competitions, they have been on the same recreational team for almost 5 years. The girls get along very well because of their passion of gymnastics and their friendship that has grown over years.
“The girls are very close and push each other to better themselves,” states Mr. Hoppe. Jimena and Francesca both can perform many different gymnastic stunts from tumbling on the floor, swinging from bar to bar, and even dancing upon the balance beam. Francesca Tannenbaum tells why she wanted to create a team for the school, “I know people who made a new team for their school and really enjoy it. Jimena and I thought the idea was a great one to expand our ability to compete.” Jimena, in her junior year at Bernards, has a short time to actually represent the school. “I hope that when I graduate that the gymnastics program continues to expand and get better. I hope to come back and see how the program has grown. I’m just happy I get to represent Bernards High School for even two years.” These girls came together to create an amazing program that will continue and expand throughout the Bernards athletic department for years.
