22 Jan Ready For More: eMjae Frazier is Prepared to Take on 2025 Season
By Nate Salsman
The Rise
Since her freshman year, eMjae Frazier has been a standout for the California Bears. A breakout star, she became the first Bear to ever earn a 10.0 on floor in her freshman year. In her sophomore year her achievements only grew. She earned a perfect 10.0 on beam, scored an All-Around score of 39.700 or better seven times, including a program high 39.825 and executed 49 routines that earned a 9.900 or better. Frazier’s individual success has helped lead Cal to a seventh place finish at the NCAA National Championships in 2023 and a second place finish in 2024. She cites one of the reasons she committed to Cal was to help make history and that is exactly what she has accomplished.
“After my freshman year, I really didn’t know how much more we could continue building like, other than a National Championship, we just went in and broke our team record, again, broke an All-Around record, broke PAC 12 honors,” Frazier said. “And it’s quite unbelievable to just realize how big of an impact you can have on somewhere, in the little amount of time that you have in a place.”
Frazier has greatly enjoyed being a part of the success at Cal and knows she and the rest of her team will leave an impact for years to come.
“It’s just so cool to see how Cal continues to rise, like, a little bit and a little and a little and a little more,” Frazier said. “The fact that we’re national runners up, it shows like, hey, we’re just at that top, like, we’re right there, just with everyone else. And it’s so cool to continue to be like now here’s our next goal. Here’s the next thing we want to accomplish, and we’re just taking it one step, one day at a time, and to be able to be here and, like, Oh, yeah. I saw that happen. I was team 50. It’s just really an honor to be able to be a part of all of that.”
One way the Bears continue to see success is by staying focused on themselves even when you are in the midst of chaos at a National Championships.
“For us we have our bear bubble,” Frazier said. “I know a lot of teams have their bubble, and for me personally, by the time the meet is over, I actually have no clue where we stand. I’m just in my own thing. I’m watching my team, and a majority of my team is like that as well.”
At last year’s Nationals, it was the first time Cal had qualified for day two of the competition. That in itself was a success for the Bears.
“Even though it was so hectic around us, it was just so quiet, because we were just focused on each other,” Frazier said. “It’s the first time ever, so it’s kind of a celebration.”
Becoming a Bear
For Frazier, choosing a college was finding a school that had the perfect balance of academics and gymnastics.
“What I did was, I looked up the top 10 schools for gymnastics, and then I looked up the top schools education-wise, and I realized Cal was in there,” Frazier said. “I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. They’re in the top 10, they’re on the rise.’”
Originally Frazier didn’t realize how strong of a team the Bears were. Noticing that former National teammate Gabby Perea was on the team helped her understand Cal’s talent.
“I talked to the coaches, they reached out to me, and I was like, oh, Cal. That’s where I could go,” Frazier said. “Then I came out to campus one day during COVID on my own, and I just kind of looked around, and I was like, I like this, The school is a part of the city, and it was just that feeling I got when I was like, oh my god, this is where I want to be.”
Sisterly Love
Another reason for choosing a California school was to be close to her sister Margzetta Frazier. While the former UCLA gymnast could not convince her sister to become a Bruin, eMjae knew she still wanted to be just a short flight away from her sister.
“I love my sister, but everyone mixes us up already,” Frazier said. “It was kind of like, I want to go on my own path, but I still want to go to a really good school with really good gymnastics. And what’s better than the sister school!”
While they didn’t end up at the same school, eMjae always considers Margzetta her biggest inspiration.
“I will tell everyone that my sister is my biggest role model,” Frazier said. “She actually is the reason I am where I am in gymnastics. “She has influenced everything I have done from starting gymnastics, to being on national team, to being a college gymnast.”
In 2023 and 2024, eMjae and Margzetta had the opportunity to compete against each other in the Cal versus UCLA dual meets. Competing together is something that the sibling duo has never had the opportunity to do until college. While they were up against one another, they still gave each other that sister support. The same support that eMjae has gotten from Margzetta since the start of their gymnastics careers.
“People would be like, ‘Oh, who’s a better gymnast?’ and Margzetta would be like, ‘oh, eMjae’,” Frazier said. “She’s just the sister that’s been there the whole time and has just made me into who I am. Having her and her support and her confidence in me, is so awesome.”
More to Accomplish
In the offseason Cal has been working on improving routines with goals of getting back to Nationals and once again contending for the National title. They have been working with the new rule changes in order to find the routines that will score the best. While as a team the Bears want to win Nationals, Frazier also has individual goals.
“I would like to go out there and continue to do better, like, beat my all around score. Kind of just try to beat me,” Frazier said.
As I pointed out in our interview, beating herself is no easy task. Frazier has a massive career high All-Around score of 39.825. A score that seems nearly impossible to break, but if someone can it’s eMjae.
“I want to go out there and just have the best day that I possibly can have, it’s in there somewhere,” Frazier said.
Other goals Frazier would like to accomplish is getting a perfect 10.0 on bars, winning an event title at Nationals, winning the all-around at Nationals and of course, being herself.
One way Frazier continues to be herself in gymnastics is by bringing in an extremely unique skill set to competition. Skills such as a double twisting Yurchenko on vault, front aerial + layout step-out on beam and double layout on floor help her stand out.
“I love having the opportunity to keep those skills,” Frazier said. “I learned a double when I was 15. Why would I stop at this point? I’ve already competed for four years. I can do it. Of course, every summer I’ll go, and I’m like, ‘oh, okay, I’m gonna go play with a new vault’ and then I still end up just doing a double. It’s my comfort.”
Frazier also has multiple floor routines that she could compete this year. She didn’t start tumbling again until after Christmas. Due to different rule changes she has worked on different tumbling passes including a double layout, front tuck + double tuck, 1.5 + front layout and 1.5 + front full. She hopes to keep fans on their toes throughout the season.
More Changes
Changes to rules and routines is not the only thing that will be different for Cal this season, they also have switched conferences from the Pac-12 to the ACC. As Frazier enters her junior year season, she feels she has gotten the best of both worlds, two years in the Pac-12 and two years in the ACC.
“I’m actually from the East Coast, so for me this is awesome,” Frazier said. “It’s a better opportunity for me seeing my parents, better opportunity for my friends to come and watch me at my competitions”
Frazier also gets to be a part of history and hopefully see snow again.
“We’re the end of Pac-12 and beginning of the ACC with gymnastics,” Frazier said. “Who else gets to say that? I just love it because, again, not everyone gets that opportunity. I get a chance to see snow again. I love that. My teammates from California, who aren’t used to snow, they’re like, ‘oh my god, snow.’ I love it.”
Frazier has already began her Junior season in her signature style and is ready for more. Catch Frazier and the rest of the Bears at their ACC debut on Jan. 26 against Clemson.
Here is more from our conversation with eMjae!
How are you feeling about the potentially tighter scoring this season?
For us, we talk about how you feel that routine went, versus what you see score-wise. Of course, you’re going to look at the scores, and that’s something we try to avoid. But, as a gymnast, you want to know how you did. You want to know how the judges thought you did. And I think the biggest thing that we’ve taken away from that is, how did you feel? What did you think that routine was like? Did you feel like that was a 9.9 plus? Did you feel like it was a 9.7? How did you feel? It was okay. We’ll work on it. We’ll see what the summary is. We’ll see what they took, and then we’ll see if that’s something that we believe is doable, or we believe is something that might only get taken that one competition. From there, our coaches went through and showed us all the deductions that could be taken on every single skill from one to five tenths in deduction. And we kind of looked at everything to see, like, hey, what did they take? What could they take? What’s possible. My coach said it’s a way to pick out extraordinary from ordinary.
Aly Raisman describes the Sprouts Session 2 as a National Championship. Did it feel that way?
I think it was just a great opportunity, because you don’t see them all the time. We were with OU, LSU and Utah, and since I’ve been here, I don’t think I’ve had a meet so early in the season with all those teams. It’s really great to see where everyone starts and see where they finish towards the end of the year. Just being able to see where our team stands at the end of that, along with what we’ve been doing after last season, versus what we were working with in this preseason to now, I think it really just shows kind of where everyone stands. It’s so cool, because right now, people are getting their feet wet, and you can get a little glimpse of what each team is going to be like four weeks from now, because everyone builds and builds and builds.
It’s so fun because all of my friends are on the team. I don’t see those girls until postseason, and you know, I have a lot of my closest friends from national team on those teams. It’s really cool to be able to see everyone. Because it’s throwing me all the way back to when I was in high school on national team with all my friends. Even though we’re in our own bubble, we are cheering for each other individually as well. So I think it’s just a lot of fun. And then we’re like, ‘Okay, well, see you in postseason,’and, it’s kind of a reminder. Like, you guys got it, we want to see you there, we want to be there with you at the end of season.
One of the things that makes you so entertaining to watch is that you have such a unique skill set that you bring to the sport. So how did you guys decide, with your huge skill set, what routines to construct?
I think my freshman year, I changed my routine a couple times, but then I just ended up going to like the Maloney + Pak and then ending with the double layout. My coaches like to keep things clean and simple. I finished my assignment so fast, because at this point, it’s just like, I can do it on the first turn or second turn, and I just go, because I’m like, it’s so easy. It’s like a third of my bar team that it used to be. So sometimes, they’ll be like, okay, just do like two bar routines, sometimes three, then they’ll let me go play. So I’ve just been doing Church giants into Tkatchev, and just the things I used to do. And it’s just really funny. I actually was training Church overshoot for a little bit and just playing with all these different bar things, but at the end of the day, Okay, let’s just go back to the clean one, clean and simple one, you know, you can hit. And then, like, maybe my senior year, on senior night, I can whip out a Church + Pak! I remember freshman year, and I came in and they were like, ‘Oh, can you go round off one and a half’ [on beam]? And ‘I was like, if I do a round off, can I do a double back’? And then they were like, ‘Okay, let’s try a cartwheel’. I feel like I have too much power to do any type of twisting because I even walked into my double back. I didn’t have a hurdle for my round off. On floor, I have three different routines. The first meet, I did a double layout, and then I changed my leaps, because I’m doing a one half + front layout last, which I was training to do a one and a half front full. So we have, either I’m gonna go double layout with a one and a half front layout, or I’m gonna go double layout with a one half front full, and my leaps will change. Or, I’ll go front tuck through to double back, one and a half front layout, or front tuck through to double back, one half front full. Or, I don’t know, there’s just so many different combos going on! We’re just trying to figure out, like, which ones would score better? And I’m like, ‘okay, but for our first home meet, can I please do my double lay out again?’
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