By Ashley Pavlakis
Cover credit – Melissa Valentino
The Middle Country Varsity Girls Gymnastics team capped off the 2024 regular season with their third consecutive League One championship. On their way to the title, they went undefeated in the regular season, posting a record of 10-0-0.
The team is led by head coach Melissa Valentino, who is in her eleventh year of coaching gymnastics for Middle Country. The team consists of Centereach and Newfield High School gymnasts, as well as a few middle school girls. Valentino has helped Middle Country Varsity Gymnastics rise from the bottom up. When she took over the reins, they were competing in League III; now they’re dominating in League I.
“I love it, if I could quit teaching and just coach gymnastics that would be a dream,” said Valentino who is also a teacher at Longwood.
Valentino stressed the dedication her team has shown to be the best every day they enter the gym.
“It’s exciting, we have a pretty big team and a lot of depth. We have some really strong seniors, and it doesn’t stop with them. They keep pushing these goals and limits, and each year they break the year before goals. It’s exciting just to see them want this, it’s something that they want and they’re striving for. Then they get to achieve it so it’s awesome to be able to support them and accomplish that together,” said Valentino.
The team has three experienced seniors on their roster, Hannah Hughes (4th year), Madisyn Rodriguez (5th year), and Lily Sharrock (6th year). Of the senior trio, Hannah Hughes has committed to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to compete in Division III gymnastics for the Titans.
“They pretty much keep breaking their team [overall] score record. We posted a high score last year at the Suffolk County Championship meet, which was the highest the school has seen. This season we broke that, and we beat that record [again]. Their goal is to hopefully go further with that at our last meet next Tuesday at the County Championship,” said Valentino.
The girls headed into the postseason looking to repeat as Suffolk County Champions after winning the title in 2023 for the first time since 2003.
“Right now, we’re just working on consistency and staying focused. We’ve had a week and a half where we are trying to stay as a team and make sure we’re together for that meet because it’s a lot of downtime. We’re making it happen, and I think we have some great competition. As much as we won the league, we won by three-tenths, and in gymnastics three-tenths is a bent knee. That’s what made the difference, so Smithtown who was right below us, who is strong and a very deep-depth team, probably are feeling the same feeling,” said Valentino.
The girls competed in the Suffolk County Championship on Tuesday afternoon at Walt Whitman high school. While they didn’t capture the title, they finished as the runner-up and achieved a new overall best team score. Six Middle Country Gymnasts will compete in the individual meet on Friday.
“There’s a lot of excitement to want to hold onto the title and I think, especially from the seniors, they want to walk away with it still. They want to graduate celebrating their hard work in a second way, they’re making sure each practice is productive and successful.”
