All it took for LSU gymnastics coach D-D Breaux to say the team’s 2016 season was “legit” was a season-opening upset win against then-No. 1 Oklahoma.
But, the upset couldn’t have transpired without the composition of the nation’s No. 1 overall recruiting class — five stalwart freshman and a sophomore transfer.
The incomers may not have chosen LSU as their new home if not for its new, 30,000-square-foot, multi-million dollar practice facility, a new neighbor to the PMAC and Tiger Stadium. 
Regardless of the converging process, the new batch of gymnasts, alongside a fury of talent from last season’s run to the NCAA semifinals in Fort Worth, Texas, are now in Baton Rouge and have made their presence known and admired as week one of the competition portion of the Tigers season kicked off.
“This team is legit,” Breaux said after then-No. 5 LSU’s 196.950-196.725 win against the Sooners on Saturday.
When asked to elaborate about what makes LSU so established this season, Breaux didn’t hesitate.
“This team is the real deal,” she said. “They have to continue to act maturely in the gym and conduct themselves maturely in the community and in the classroom. Everything matters. Everything counts. Our level of difficulty is going as high as anybody’s in the country. Be able to have that eye of the tiger, have that focus in the performance when it counts the most.”
Interestingly enough for a team led by seasoned veteran performers, the nation’s top freshmen gymnasts and a coach diving into her 39th season, Breaux’s comments were directed outside of the gym, beyond the sleek mats, mushy foam pits and comforting environment.
She said what makes these Tigers special stretches beyond the new million-dollar practice palace.
Breaux wasn’t alone in her direction about what makes the team “legit,” multiple gymnasts concurred.
“It’s been a cohesive effort from all of us just trying to bond and form together,” junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat said. “Having that kind of bond with a team really creates depth, relationships and genuine love between a bunch of girls — which is sometimes hard to get … because girls.”
Well, girls can be girls. 
On the mat, those gymnasts can’t help but smile, laugh and mimic their teammate’s routines from the sidelines. Their cohesiveness, as a group, highlights what makes the 2016 team the most special team in Breaux’s recent memory, she said.
The team spends hours upon hours each day training for competition, but when their time to relax and socialize away from gymnastics mats or foam pit approaches, they don’t separate from one another.
Even as their heads hit their pillows, the team sticks together.
“Most of us live together,” sophomore all-arounder and SEC co-Gymnast of the Week Myia Hambrick said. “It’s about four of us to a house. You learn a lot about someone when you live with them. After practice, we’ll go get dinner and go to someone’s house and hangout or something. Just to kind of get away from gymnastics. We don’t talk about gymnastics too much outside of the gym.”
The Tigers, as dialed-in and focused as any team may be, must continue to grow and develop as a group to remain successful this season. “Togetherness” the gymnasts call it.
It’s their team motto.
“I don’t know,” junior specialist and SEC Specialist of the Week Shae Zamardi said. “I’ve been on the team for two years, and this is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. This team really does embody togetherness, like our motto says. That’s what the difference maker is this year. Friendship and a team chemistry that we’ve never had before. You know, sometimes that does outweigh talent a little bit. In our first meet, we showed that.”
In the first meet, the Tigers fulfilled their preseason promise with a win against the nation’s best. The victory bumped them into the No. 1 spot for the seventh time in program history, which the Tigers acknowledge and “hold in reverence,” Breaux said.
LSU completed the victory without its lineup at full throttle, too.
Senior all-arounder Jessica Savona and Lexie Priessman, the “No. 1 freshman in the nation,” Breaux said, were limited on Saturday because of preseason ankle injuries.
But, the limitation couldn’t cage the Tigers, a smile-worthy note from Zamardi to a pleasing, beginning result of the 2016 season.
“It’s awesome,” Zamardi said with a sigh and a smile.