By Judith Dorato O’Gara

Congratulations to the Franklin High School Panthers Gymnastics team! On March 12th, the FHS team completed its season with a big win at the New England Championships in Connecticut. The team’s journey to that championship began with an undefeated regular season followed by a division win, then a league win on February 6th, sectionals win on February 26th and a snag of second place at state finals on March 5th.

“Our girls actually had a tremendous season,” said Paula Lupien, head coach of the Division 1 Varsity High School team, who works with Assistant Coach Beth Hurley. “They won three championships!”

Last year, says Lupien, the team, which has been gaining momentum over the six years since it began, won the league championship. 

“This group of girls, with an additional senior last year, were really responsible for building the program,” says Lupien. “We were able to see all of our hard work come to fruition. We were undefeated last year, won the league, but we couldn’t go beyond that (due to COVID). Being able to realize our full potential this year was the icing on the cake, you can’t go beyond that.”

This year’s roster of 23 gymnasts includes 15 varsity athletes, among them three senior captains, Kate Rudolph, Elizabeth Shirduan and Caroliine Woelfel.

“These girls are incredible leaders, not only incredible athletes, but they really care about the success of the team, and they all play a significant role of leading the team to the goals we set out for ourselves. Kate Rudolph, an all-around athlete is one of the captains. Also, Emma White also won the all-around competition for the New England championship with a score of 39 out of 40.”

The competition level is fierce, says Lupien.

“Once you get to the New England level, you truly are competing against the best athletes among the states in New England. A lot of teams had to fall. Once you get into state competition, those top 6-8 teams are usually the toughest in the state. We fell to a very strong MASCO Gymnastics (Masconomet HS Varsity Gymnastics) at the state championship, and they elected not to go to New England, which enabled Franklin to get the first-place seed.”

Lupien knew Connecticut had some strong teams, but, she says, “It was the first time we’d made it to that level of competition. We weren’t really prepared or understood how this was going to fall out. We stayed in our lane and continued to do what we did all year, and we came out really strong on beam, which set the tone. We were just trying to do our job.”

Although FHS gymnastics is a winter sport, Lupien, who coaches club gymnastics as well as the high school team, explains that “these girls have to be in the gym all year round. The majority of these gymnasts competing at the high level are in the gym year-round.” That amounts to over 20 hours in each week. “They’re competing at level 9 competition. We’re striving to be a good contender in the league and beyond,” says Lupien.

Lupien initiated the program six years ago. 

“As a club coach, where I was coaching gymnastics, I was seeing a lot of 8th graders start to quit the sport and I couldn’t understand why,” says Lupien. “A lot of these athletes wanted to be able to compete for their high school, so a lot of them left gymnastics to do cheer, or track or cross country. That bothered me, and I just started on this path of working with the previous administration to get the program started. It was a challenge at the time.” Six years ago, Franklin’s new A.D., Tom Angelo, “was instantly supportive of the program,” says Lupien. “He has been 100 percent supportive from day one, really helped me get it off the ground. Six years later, we’re champs. We’re anticipating having a strong team and a great followup season and looking forward to a great upcoming year in 2022-23.”