An old home with a new purpose

What’s old is new again. Owatonna High School gymnastics has a new home, which was once their old home. The Huskies are in the old high school in the Owatonna Public Schools Gymnastics Center.

Years ago, the Indians moved to the fairgrounds after sharing gym space with other sports at 333 E School St. Coach Evan Moe says they loved being at the gymnastics center but having the larger space offers many options.

“Truly someplace that’s ours. We have no restrictions on scheduling or when we want to be in here. We can pop in and do practices early, later if we need to, hold meets in here… And also the freedom of how we wanted it set up, how everything flows with practices and the locker rooms. Way more freedom,” he said.

Senior captain Halle Theis appreciates the change. “I think we’re all really thankful for it. Just having our own space, not having to worry about other people being in the gym. And being able to do our own thing and doing our own events at whatever time we want to,” said Theis.

Averie Roush, another senior captain, awaits the home opener. “I definitely think we’ll get a lot more people to come in just because we have this amazing big space, and the seating area is a lot better for viewing each event.” The Huskies host meets on Thursday, Dec. 12 and Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m.

Moe said it’s great to be meet-ready. “Roll the bleachers out, welcome the fans. Have the girls march out and we’re ready to go.”

The program hosted a showcase/open house on Monday. “Having all the youth kids come in after their practices to enjoy watching some practices…We can give the new kids a little taste of what it’s going to look like for a meet. But then also give us a chance to do a march out and see how we like it.”

Moe said the equipment was purchased as “lightly used” from a Minnesota-based company. “We were able to get a great amount of equipment for a relatively good price. If you look at anything, you wouldn’t be able to tell it was used before we got it.”