Five Blue Devil girls’ gymnasts are enjoying a great experience as members of the newly combined Harborfields-Huntington varsity team.
Junior Kaitlyn Sansiviero, sophomore Lizzy James and seventh graders Grace Bartasi, Olivia Koiyet and Taylor Ranft have seamlessly fit in with their Harborfields counterparts. The team meets every afternoon at Haborfields for practice sessions in a gym set aside just for gymnastics. The location avoids the need to breakdown the extensive equipment following every daily practice.
“It is going well,” James said. “We just had our second meet yesterday. We have our first away meet on Friday, which is exciting.”
All five of the gymnasts are experienced in the sport. The three seventh graders qualified for participation by successfully going through the state’s Athletic Placement Process program.
The team has been highly competitive in its first two meets. James has been a standout. Harborfields director of athletics Robert Franco ordered new pieces of equipment for the team and it is due to arrive soon.
“It’s going great,” Sansiviero said. “I love it so hard. The whole team is working so hard.”
Upcoming meets are scheduled with Sachem, Middle Country, Babylon, Hampton Bays/Southampton, Lindenhurst, Hauppauge, Copiague and Walt Whitman.
Harborfields reached out to Huntington last year and invited the Blue Devils to join forces with them to field a strengthened program in the sport. Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky quickly indicated his support if there was enough student interest. Students soon indicated they wanted to participate.
Huntington’s coach is new district health teacher Jackie Lazzarini, who is an experienced gymnast and coach of many years. Send her a message at jlazzarini@hufsd.edu for more information about the Harborfields-Huntington girls’ gymnastics program.