College Fantasy Gymnastics: Camie

Kesley Cofsky of U of Maryland
Credit: Christian Jenkins/The Diamondback

A new series on College Fantasy Gymnastics. This review is brought to you by Camie.

Why did you sign up for fantasy gymnastics?
Some friends of mine had always been into fantasy football, soccer, baseball... I thought those things were pretty cool. When I heard about a gymnastics one, I decided I totally had to do it. Also I've always wanted to be more into NCAA, I knew that a game like that would make me keep up with college gymnastics.

What was your thought process in picking your gymnasts? 
I got about 8 gymnasts from my original draft. Back then I knew almost nothing about NCAA, I just kept up with my favorite gymnasts (most former elites) and most famous schools (UCLA, Florida, Georgia...). So what I did was to try to pick my favorite gymnasts, I didn't think "make a team." It was a mistake.

When I got to know my real team, there were about 10 gymnasts I had never heard about (even some colleges I had never heard about)! Doing the research was pretty fun, though. Then I searched and learned about their strongest and weakest events and I started making spreadsheets to guide my line-ups. The tricky thing is that you have to think about their position in your team and her school's team. Sometimes your 'anchor' on some event is not as essential for her school line up as she is to yours.



Tell us a little bit about your lineups
My most reliable gymnasts were my top 3 AA: Kesley Cofsky, Emma Willis and Alyssa Nocella. I wouldn't be able to put a line up without them.

The event where I changed my line up the most was vault. I had a lot of great vaulters and every week they were scoring higher and higher and I was always changing to the ones that were getting better. The event where I barely changed my line up was beam, I pretty much just had 8 "beamers", I had nowhere to go, some weeks I just lined 7 or 6, when some schools were not competing.

The gymnast that moved the most around my line up was Alyssa Straub. First few weeks she was AA, then I just lined her on VT for some weeks, end of the season she was on BB and FX line ups.

MVP - most valuable player
This is easy: Kesley Cofsky - Maryland.
KC is a senior. She was rock solid all season, going up on all events and I usually got to count all her four scores into my final team score. This season she set new career records on all events and AA and she was EAGL outstanding senior of the year. She surely is going to be missed next season.

Kesley's 9.125 on FX (fall on last pass)



MIP - most improved player
Alyssa Nocella, a freshman at BGSU, came from an 8.75 on week 2 to be my 'anchor' on floor with a 9.9 on week 8.

Alyssa's 9.85 on BB - front aerial-pike jump and front aerial to 2 feet!


Gymnasts or schools that surprised you
Rachel Guida, senior at Kent State.
Rachel surprised me with her consistency. Even though she only did VT and UB, I always counted her scores on both events. She is particularly good on bars, scoring, sometimes, even higher than Mackenzie Caquatto, who was also on my team. She sticks her double layout dismount everytime.

Rachel's 9.875 on UB


What was the most difficult part of College Fantasy Gymnastics for you?
Finding the scores! Even though the girls put it up on the site I wanted to know the scores during the meetings. Not all schools put their scores live. Also, finding some gymnast' information pre-season was difficult - not all school have a great roster page on their website. But nothing that didn't make the whole process fun!

Any other routines or gymnasts the gymternet should know about?
Emma Willis, a sophomore at Iowa. She's a great AA, but I really love her floor routine.

Emma's 9.825 on FX


Do you think you'll do it again next year?
For sure! Fantasy Gym is one of the coolest thing I have ever done so I am already thinking about who to draft for next year and I will not repeat my mistakes. ;)

Thank you, Camie! twitter | tumblr

If you're interested in talking about College Fantasy Gymnastics or just writing a post for APF, email me at arabianpunchfront[at]gmail[.]com. You can view the CGF website here and can sign up for a reminder when the next season starts!

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