Josh Fields/Arizona Daily Wildcat From left, Gymcats Assistant Coach Colleen Johnson and her fellow Canadian gymnasts, freshman Rachelle Silberg and sophomore Aubrey Taylor. Second row, junior Abby Pearson and freshman Danielle Hicks. The Canadian athletes make up four of the total 15 girls.

While hockey is usually the first sport that comes to mind when one thinks of Canadian sports, the Arizona gymnastics team is proof that gymnastics is just as popular to our neighbors to the north.

Arizona is under a Canadian invasion, as four out of 15 athletes on the UA roster and one coach are from the Great White North.

What's going on, eh?

The Wildcats are getting an influx in Canadian athletes because in Canada, universities do not award athletic scholarships for gymnastics.

Accordingly, all scholarship-worthy athletes come to the United States to compete.

"If you want to continue your gymnastics career on a scholarship level, you come down to the States," said

UA assistant coach Colleen Johnson, who hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, and competed at the University of Florida.

Not only are gymnastics scholarships not awarded in Canada, but most colleges and high schools don't even have gymnastics teams.

As a result, most Canadian collegiate gymnasts originate from club teams. At high schools where gymnastics is offered, programs are designed so that athletes are allowed to miss class time to train and receive credit for participating in the sport.

"I started gymnastics in second grade. Since I was an 11-year-old, I have been training 40 hours a week. Here we only train 20 hours a week," said Danielle Hicks, who is from Oshawa, Ontario.

In addition to the change in training regimen, scoring under the Canadian Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique rules is more stringent than the NCAA rules used in the United States.

A gymnast used to the strict rules used in Canada can come to the United States and produce a higher score because judges are more lenient here. Therefore, scouts are sent to Canada to recruit the best to come and compete in the United States.

That's not the only reason Canadian gymnasts are flocking to the United States in large proportions.

All of the Canadians on the team agreed that weather was another deciding factor.

"It was minus 40 in Calgary today with wind chill," said Silberg, a freshman from Calgary, Alberta.

"The team, the coaches - it is a family atmosphere. It's a home away from home," said Aubrey Taylor, who reigns from Burlington, Ontario.

A family atmosphere it is, all the way down to the teasing.

All of the Canadian women are picked on for the way they say things and use unexpected words.

"One thing that they always get me with is when I say 'washroom' instead of bathroom," said Hicks.

"In the gym, I say that I am 'skipping rope' instead of jumping rope," said Silberg.

All of them get caught using the most infamous Canadian term, "eh?"

"It's normal for us to say it," said Abby Pearson, who is from Sarnia, Ontario. "We're used to being made fun of for it."