11 Dec Locked In and Ready to Lead – LSU Junior Haleigh Bryant Is Looking to Bring a Championship Back to Baton Rouge | Inside Gymnastics
“We will be as successful as our health and our minds dictate. We have the ability to go the distance. We must match that ability with a belief system that is unwavering. When we do that, the sky is the limit. I believe in this group and I am excited for this year.” Head Coach Jay Clark
Locked In and Ready to Lead – LSU Junior Haleigh Bryant Is Looking to Bring a Championship Back to Baton Rouge
By Christy Sandmaier
The owner of one of the best vaults in the business, LSU junior Haleigh Bryant is healthy again and ready to bring an NCAA Championship back to Baton Rouge. After a series of injuries and illnesses, and a somewhat shocking third place finish in round two of the 2022 NCAA Raleigh Regional, Bryant and the Tigers found themselves sitting on the sidelines at the regional final and out of the conversation for the national title. Finishing outside of the top 10 since 2011 was a setback for sure, but offered new perspective. The team talked about it and that was that. It was done and it was time to move forward.
This year, the Tigers are focused on getting one percent better every day, believing in themselves, and upping their mental and accountability game. The team graduated five super seniors last year (Reagan Campbell, Bridget Dean, Sami Durante, Christina Desiderio and Sarah Edwards) so the dynamic is different this time around, but Bryant says the team’s gelled well so far and are ready to go to work one step at a time, one day at a time.
“We want to get one percent better each day. Each meet, climb a little bit more,” she said of the team’s mentality and theme for this season.
Citing her growth as a person and all she’s overcome, and now locked in on the road ahead, Bryant is so ready to take the floor with her team and excited to show what they can do for real. Head Coach Jay Clark says her leadership and ability to be a team player is one of her greatest strengths: “Haleigh has been and continues to be a huge part of our success. Her character as a person and as a teammate is above reproach. I love being her coach.”
Bryant, the 2021 NCAA Vault Champion, scored three 10s alone on the event in 2022 and if she stays healthy, can challenge for the top spot on every event. But Bryant confirms her focus is always about the team and what she brings to the table as a leader and motivator for them. Both are roles she embraces so much and looks forward to honing as the Tigers, ranked No. 6 in the WCGA Preseason Poll, get started Monday night in the PMAC at Gymnastics 101.
There, we’ll see a preview. Come January, it’s Game On for real.
So I think the first thing that we want to know, and I think everybody wants to know, is how you’re feeling! How’s your foot, how’s everything been going and how are you feeling now?
I’m feeling really good. I actually told Jay this is the best I’ve felt in a preseason, so I’m really excited about that. I really took this past summer to let my body heal and not do too much gymnastics, and I really think that’s going to pay off for me this coming season.
Can you describe what the specific injury was, and the health issues you faced last season? It seemed like you couldn’t catch a break…
So I had two kinds of things at the beginning of the season. I tore my plantar fascia, and then it kind of turned into the other foot, having plantar fasciitis. So my feet were kind of a thing the whole season. And then right before Regionals, I had the stomach bug or whatever was going around. I hadn’t really done much, so I was feeling kind of weak. And then right before what would have been Nationals, I had my appendix taken out. So honestly, it was for the best. We didn’t go to Nationals and I wouldn’t be able to do anything in the first place. But it was just a long, hard year and I think for everyone on this team, we really learned from it, and I think we’re just excited for what’s to come this year.
That leads right into my next question… because it was a tough finish for the team all the way around and maybe even a little bit of a shock, I think, to a lot of people, that you didn’t go to NCAAs. So tell me a little bit about turning the page and how this fall has been for all of you moving forward…
I think, like you said, we’re turning the page, we’re starting new. We’re not going to dwell in the past. Like, it’s there. We do need to think about what happened, but we don’t want to focus too much on it. It’s just getting one percent better every single day, even if it’s just the little things, like getting enough sleep or feeding your body correctly, not just a gymnastics perspective, but outside of the gym, doing what’s right for you to be the best inside the gym, and just every single day getting one percent better. I think doing all those things correctly is going to lead us to where we all want to go.
Every time we think it couldn’t get more competitive in the SEC, it does. Is that part of the daily conversation for the team right now? Or again, is it more of a focus on yourself and what the team can do together…
A little bit of both. I think mostly it’s ourselves, but before every meet we go to, even if it’s not an SEC opponent, Jay says compete against everybody in the country, SEC or not. So I think that’s been a big thing for us. No matter what you’re doing in practice, just think, ‘this is going to pay off for the big meet, no matter who you’re competing against.’ I think we do think about it, but just being ourselves and doing what we do.
And now in your junior year, how much of a role model do you feel like for the incoming freshmen?
I love them! I feel like I want them to all come to me if they need anything. I want to be like the big sister, the mom, for the younger ones here – giving them all the ins and outs of what college is like and to not be too stressed about things because it’s going to get better. It’s a big adjustment coming from home and living at home, going to high school, because some of them were homeschooled and now coming to classes. So just helping them through the ins and outs of that, it’s just honestly really been fun for me because I was in that same situation. I’m letting them know everything they do now and everything they’ve been doing is going to all pay off in the long run.
As far as the dynamic in the gym, there were a lot of fifth-years last year for LSU – that was a huge class, a very legendary class! What’s the dynamic without that group?
It’s definitely different. We did lose five amazing girls, and we loved them so much. But I think it’s great this year, we have amazing seniors this year. We have a lot of them, too. And I think they really stepped up to that role – they’re the leaders of this team, the backbone. And now we have Cammy Hall, (a fifth-year transfer from Utah*), so she is bringing in some different things from a different program. She has two different perspectives. I think the dynamics are very good this year. We’re all super, super close, and I think that’s really going to pay off for us.
(*In a press conference Thursday, December 8, Jay Clark announced Hall was out for the season with an undisclosed injury suffered the day before leaving for Thanksgiving break.)
And do you feel like the freshmen have gelled so far with that dynamic?
They fit right in! They’re amazing.
Everybody talks about your vault being one of the most perfect pieces of gymnastics in the NCAA! Every commentator talks about it. We all wait for it. Do you feel pressure now to stick it every time?
Not really. No, I don’t really put extra pressure on myself. I don’t really try to look too much into the social media stuff, but I think just knowing what I do in practice and what I do every single day is what matters – [it’s] going back to the little details and not focusing on the big picture of the vault, but really breaking it down into little pieces. I know if I do that, I’m going to get the result I want.
Obviously, it’s split second timing, but do you know, and when do you know, that you’re going to stick it?
Not really, honestly. Somebody actually asked me that question the other day, but not really. I think I just go back to all the drills Garrett (assistant coach Garrett Griffeth) has me doing. Like, if it’s off the trampoline, off the Tumbl Trak, just standing off the vault table and just really focusing on those little details, then I know it’s going to be a good one.
The Podkopayeva (double front with a half twist) looked amazing on Instagram! How long have you been working it and are you hoping to get it into your routine this season?
I had it when I was in J.O., but I’ve never competed it, so I really started working on it again this summer and it’s still in the works. I’m still doing it outside of [the routine], but I am hoping to put it in. I’m not sure if it’ll be the beginning of the season or where I’ll put it in, but I’m really hoping to do that!
Are there other specific skills that you’re really focusing on this year, or new ones that you’re maybe hoping to add?
Not too many new skills, honestly, but I think just really focusing on the little details. On bars, it’s hitting my handstands, and my landings and just making sure my feet are pointed – the little things that go into your scores is really what I’m focusing on this season.
So shifting gears a little bit, obviously, NIL has become a huge piece of NCAA Gymnastics. Give me your perspective on that. Is it a positive? Can it be a distraction? As a team, is NIL ever part of the conversation?
We really don’t talk about it too much as a team, but I think it’s a great opportunity for people to use their name, image and likeness because I feel like it’s been in the works for so long. So now it’s just amazing that people get the opportunity to do this. So I don’t really think it’s a distraction. I think our team does very well at separating, like, school gymnastics and then NIL. I think it’s really a cool experience.
How do you feel you’ve changed balancing academics in your gymnastics from freshman year until now?
It’s a big adjustment or big difference, honestly, since freshman year to this year, because I came in during COVID, so everything was online. So it was all Zoom. Everything I had was online. So I’m honestly really enjoying it. Being able to go to the academic center, get tutoring in person, classes in person, it’s so much more helpful doing that now. And we have the best support staff here. They’re so helpful! Our academic advisors – amazing. All the tutors – it’s just absolutely amazing. We have everything we need right here.
Did you know the first time you stepped on campus that LSU was going to be the place?
Absolutely. I came here in 8th grade. I think it’s the only place I ever visited, and the only campus I’d really ever been on. Once I got here, I knew this is where I wanted to go, this is where I wanted to spend the next four years of my life, doing the sport that I love and getting my academics.
One of my favorite questions to ask everyone is in a letter to your younger self, what would you say?
I would just say that I’m so proud that she never gave up. There are so many hard days in the gym. Obviously, my gymnastics is different from everyone else’s and so many people said I wasn’t going to make it. I’m just so proud that I never gave up.
I know the injury was big last year, but at other points in your career, have you felt like you’ve really overcome a lot to get to this point?
Definitely. I think just from my past and what I said before, like, my gymnastics is definitely unique from everybody else’s. And I think even just looking around when I went to meet, I was like, ‘it’s different from everybody else’s. Am I still going to be able to accomplish the same scores as people who get a college scholarship?’ Not comparing yourself to others is a big thing that I really focused on and also doing your own thing because gymnastics, it’s kind of like half individual when you’re in a club and then half team, and then you come to college and it’s only about the team. So, I think the big thing was just that I never gave up.
What does success look like for the team and for you for this season? What are you hoping to do and what would make you feel happy at the end?
I think they really kind of go into each other, but I think for myself, it’s just doing what I need to do for this team. For the team to be the most successful and then just being a leader for the team and just keeping people accountable, making sure people are doing everything they need to do to have the best practice, the best competition, the best day in the gym and outside the gym.
Again, it’s just to get one percent better every day. We don’t need to be perfect coming right out of the season. We don’t need to be perfect every single day. As long as we’re working and working hard, and keeping the goals in the back of our minds and making sure everybody is on the same page really is a big thing. We all say what we want to do, but just making sure people, when they get tired, when they’re down, like, making sure they have that in the back of their mind, saying, that’s what we want to do. Obviously the biggest goal is definitely get to Nationals and get the National Championship, and then an SEC title would be amazing.
LSU is traditionally always right there on the verge of winning a National Championship. How bad do you all want it this year?
It would be literally a dream come true. I want to do it for every single one of these girls on this team and the coaches and for LSU. We want to leave a legacy here. We want to be that team that won a National Championship first for LSU. We’re best friends and sisters, so just doing it for each other and remembering that everybody’s going through the same thing and at the end we all did it for each other and we’re going to look back on those hard days and be like, it was all worth it.
So if you had to pick your own theme song for this year, what would it be?
I don’t know if this would be me just specifically, but one of our team’s songs is “Run This Town.” So I think something we’ve always listened to whenever we went to a meet, we’re like, ‘we’re running unaware. We’re going to run this town tonight.’ I think that song is one of our team favorites and honestly one of mine as well!
Finally, any predictions for this year you want to share?
I’m just really excited for the season. I’m really excited for what’s to come where the whole team’s putting in so much work this preseason. I really think we’re going to do something special this year.
LSU Gym 101 is Monday, December 12 at 7:30 p.m. ET on SEC+
Photos courtesy of LSU Athletics; Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics
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