Contrary to popular belief, there is one college athletic team happy with its current ranking: the Arizona gymnastics squad.
The Gymcats enter the season at No. 17, after finishing last season with a No. 19 ranking and a 17-19 record (1-5, Pacific 10 Conference). The preseason poll, voted on by the coaches, is the only ranking tabulated by voting. During the year, each team's score from week to week determines the national poll standings.
"I think it's a fair assessment based on the knowledge that's out there within the community. We finished 19th last year. We have good freshmen coming in," said UA head coach Bill Ryden. "The preseason ranking is just sort of like a guessing game. We'll take that. I'm not upset with that ranking at all."
The Gymcats, who were ranked No. 10 in the preseason poll last year, lost only one senior and fell to No. 19 after a rash of injuries, in which almost everyone ended up hurt at some point. Ryden said he didn't feel the UA was underrated, adding the voted polls will be thrown out right away.
"People just don't know what's going on. We were so hurt last year, not many of the other teams know our health. Is Katie Johnson all the way back? Is Andi (McCabe) all the way back? Is Jamie Schell?" Ryden said. "No one knows that but us, and if they weren't back, then we wouldn't even be ranked in the top 20 to be real honest, so it's kind of a guesstimate. I wasn't at all shocked."
Ryden said junior Monica Bisordi, one of the top gymnasts in the country, has just gotten back from a broken foot which sidelined her 10 weeks this semester. Junior Katie Johnson, the 2002 Pac-10 freshman of the year, has also come back nicely from her torn ACL.
"We actually have everyone in here doing some sort of real gymnastics. Is everyone totally healthy? No," Ryden said.
He also said that the ankles of senior Andi McCabe, a first team all Pac-10 honoree before being hurt last year, and junior Jamie Schell are doing well.
"Our team is healthier than last year," said junior Jamie Duce, who is coming back from shin splints.
In the Gymcats' 11 regular-season meets, they face ranked foes in No. 1 UCLA, No. 6 Stanford, No. 7 Florida, No. 9 ASU, No. 10 Louisiana State (twice), No. 11 Oregon State, No. 15 Washington and No. 21 California
"Once again, we have a really difficult schedule. Part of that is because we're in the Pac-10, where every team is typically in the top 25, and that in and of itself makes our schedule really hard," Ryden said.
All seven Pac-10 schools that have women's gymnastics teams are ranked, just like they finished last season. The "Conference of Champions" also had all seven in the NCAA Regionals last year.
"Our schedule's always really challenging just because the Pac-10 - I think it's the best conference in gymnastics," Schell said. "It's a hard schedule, but it challenges us. I mean, we like it hard."
Arizona's first meet is Jan. 9 in East Lansing, Mich., against Michigan State, LSU and Western Michigan. Their first home meet is Jan. 16, against the top-ranked Bruins.
After that, the UA has three more home meets - the Golden Bears on Feb. 6, the Huskies on Feb. 20 and Arkansas on March 12. But the home schedule doesn't end there.
The Gymcats hosts the Pac-10 Championships and will host an NCAA Regional Meet a couple weeks later if they qualify. Arizona has been to the postseason 17 years in a row.
"It's a great advantage to us simply because our team has a bunch of loyal followers and our gymnasts really enjoy performing for them, and so to be able to bring those high-quality meets and perform in front of our own crowd is really a great thing," Ryden said.
Ryden said that Schell, McCabe and Bisordi have done well in the preseason, adding that sophomore Jessamyn Salter has really improved, junior Stevie Fanning is looking "as good as she's ever looked" and true freshman Aubrey Taylor is a threat to compete in the all-around.
"We actually should do really well this year," Schell said.