February 4, 2007

Shire learning what it takes

By Lya Wodraska
Salt Lake Tribune

After a rude awakening, the heralded freshman is thriving thanks to some veteran leadership from Nicolle Ford

Sarah Shire doubted her decision to come to the University of Utah.

"It hurt me," she said of coach Greg Marsden's public lambasting of his freshman class for being out of shape and ill-prepared. "I thought, 'Whoa, this isn't what I signed up for.' ”

Turns out, being a Ute is exactly what Shire wanted, even if she didn't know it at first.

Marsden's challenge to the freshmen has encouraged her to tap into a new level of gymnastics, she said. On Friday, she scored a 9.85 on the vault and a 9.8 on the beam in Utah's win over three other teams. It's the start of what she hopes will be a great career.

"I'm finally starting to do gymnastics for myself," she said. "When I stopped fighting Greg and started listening to him, I realized he was right about everything he was saying. All of a sudden, I started doing much better than I thought I could do."

When most gymnasts join college teams, they say it's the first time they've competed for teams and not for themselves. Shire said her process has been a little different. "I was always competing for my parents or my coaches, even here," she said. "I finally said, 'You know, I'm 19 years old, I'm going to compete for myself.' ”

Shire's attitude and the way she responded to Marsden's challenge reminded the coach of another Utah gymnast, senior Nicolle Ford.

"She's at her best in adversity," Marsden said. "Sarah was excited and upbeat for this meet and I told her she needed to find another place or challenge and act like she had something to prove. The harder you push her, the harder she pushes back."

The same could be said of Ford. Not surprisingly, Shire has gravitated to Ford and often goes to the upperclassman for advice in key moments, such as when she was thrown into the beam lineup at the last minute in Minnesota last week. She went in Ford's place because the senior was struggling.

Ford gave her a pep talk before she went, and gave her more advice on Friday before Shire went up, after teammates Kristina Baskett and Annie DiLuzio fell off the beam.

"I'm a lot like Queenie," she said. "We have the same kind of mentality. When we're focused, we get this mentality that 'We have to do this, and we have to do it now.' ”

Marsden often describes Ford as "hard-headed, in a good way," for the way she likes adversity. Is he willing to put up with someone who is so outward with her emotions for another four years in Shire?

"If she can be what Queenie has been to this team over the last four years, you bet," he said. "Absolutely."

So far, she is off to a great start.