Last Friday night was senior night for the LSU gymnastics team. Only one gymnast received a bouquet and recognition before the meet, senior Brooke Cazeaux.
After former LSU gymnast Rebecca Lightsey decided not to return to the LSU gymnastics team, Cazeaux was left as the lone member of her class.
“Last year when Rebby decided she was done, I knew it was going to be rough for Brooke because they’ve been together,” said junior Chelsea Richard. “They fed off each other and were there for each other.”
During the beginning of the season, Cazeaux said she allowed herself to be overcome with the pressure of being the only senior.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a good role model, and I just wound up stressing myself out way too much,” Cazeaux said.
She said this stress caused her gymnastic performances to suffer for sometime, but she feels that she has begun to get back to the way she was performing last year.
“Last year was my best year,” Cazeaux said. “But the hardest was probably this year. It was kind of hard being the only senior. I got in a really big slump that I’m finally getting out of now.”
Cazeaux’s teammates and coaches have nothing but praise for the way she has handled her senior status this year.
“As being one of the seven freshman that came in here and her being the only senior, she had a very big situation on her hands to be a leader to all seven of us without help from anybody else, and she’s done an excellent job,” said freshman Kelly Lea.
Student coach and former teammate Nicki Arnstad said she thinks the upperclassmen have a very important role to fill, and Cazeaux has done that.
“It’s the role of the seniors and juniors to control the nerves because it’s a different environment,” Arnstad said. “She gives them this emotional support definitely.”
Lea competes with Cazeaux on bars and is grateful for her help.
“Every single meet she is there to tell me what I need to do, think about and stay calm,” Lea said. “She knows from experience.”
Cazeaux believes her main task is to keep the team focused and calm during meets.
“I really just have to calm the team down in competition,” she said. “Just helping them experience more, I think I help them out.”
The two juniors on the team, Lindsay Beddow and Richard, see Cazeaux more as a friend and peer than as the senior leader.
“We really don’t think about age difference in the gym,” Beddow said. “She’s been more of a peer to me, and I feel like we’ve gone through a lot of it together.”
She had to face other challenges other than being the lone senior. Cazeaux has been plagued by arthritis in her ankle since high school, and this year it got much worse.
“There’s really no rehab or treatment for arthritis,” said gymnastics athletic trainer Greg Penczek. “Once you’ve got it, you got it.”
While she was not competing, she was still expected to be a leader on the team.
“Even though she wasn’t competing, she was more of a leader, and all the girls looked up to her,” Penczek said.
Cazeaux is determined to compete through her arthritis and return to competing in her three events: uneven bars, beam and floor.
She had to work much harder than others to keep herself in good physical condition and spent countless hours in the training room.
“She was really diligent about coming in every day and doing what she needed to do,” Penczek said. “She was very good about taking care of herself.”
Last week she competed on bars and expects to return to all three events by the end of the season.
Cazeaux is excited to return to competition and said bars is her favorite event.
“I really like bars because it’s my best,” she said.
Head coach D-D Breaux said Cazeaux has maintained pretty good physical condition throughout her four years despite her ankle problem, and she has found a way to contribute her entire four years.
“She’s paced herself well and has been a contributor all four years,” Breaux said. “I don’t know of any meet that we’ve had and that she’s not been a contributor in.”
Cazeaux says she has enjoyed her LSU gymnastics experience, and she will miss being on the team, but she will miss her teammates most.
“I’ll miss coming to gym and having 17 friends here,” she said. “I feed off them.”
Not only will she miss them, but the team will have to adjust to her absence.
“She’s definitely made her niche, and she’s going to be missed,” Breaux said.