John Macready and John Roethlisberger's Flip Fest

Buckeye Classic

JMAC | 02/18/2008

The Buckeye classic was a huge success this year. We helped celebrate their 25th anniversary, which was a huge honor. I actually performed for the first time since the Internet was invented and it was cool to have a TV in every room. Ok it hasn’t been that long but it felt like it had. I pulled out the double layout and everything. My ankles are feeling it today but it was all worth it. I got to hang out with the Buckeye gymnastics team, which was a lot of fun. I would like to thank the Buckeye Gymnastics Booster club for making my visit so enjoyable. You guys really work hard to put on a great meet and it shows. I would also like to thank my buddy Luke Wasson for all his help and support with Flip Fest. I hope everyone is training hard and camp is coming up fast so we will see you soon!

Crazy January

JROE | 02/12/2008

Its hard to believe that January has already come and gone. What an exciting and exhausting month. I, Johnny r, spent the first weekend with the Lubkings, from Gymquest, in Richmond, Virginia at the Jerrell Steele. It was a great time. Steve Butcher was there as well judging the boys. While there, I had the chance to hang out with Todd Henry, the assistant coach from NC State. Johnny Mac and I have talked to him about coming for a number of weeks, so keep an eye on the website for which weeks Todd will be at camp.

The weekend after Jerrell Steele, I was at the Queen City Meet up in Cinninati, Ohio. The meet wasn't held in their gym, but if any of you ever have the chance to see their facility, it's amazing. Its actually called Kids First, and it has everything. Basketball, soccer, a pool, a place ot get your haircut, and of course gymnastics. It's pretty cool.

Their meet, the Queen City Classic, was a very good meet with a number of good teams. It wasn't huge but it was run well and was in a great facility. It was nice to see a lot of familiar faces, including some coaches and gymnasts from Gymquest, OH, Gold Medal Gymnastics, and Geist Sports to name a few.

From there it was on to the big weekend at the Flip Fest Invitational. This was the biggest Flip Fest Invite to date. There was about 2100 gymnasts, including boys, girls, trampoline and power tumblers. Butcher and everyone from Premier did a great job running the meet. John and I had so much fun catching up with all the gymnasts and coaches throughout the weekend. I want to shout out to all the coaches that came to the first annual trip to Tennessee Mountain Wrestling. Talk about a taste of Tennessee. Hilarious!

Tyson was also there and they had the Tyson Gold Medal Mom booth on site. Close to 200 gymmasts made one minute videos descrbing why their mom should be the Gold Medal Mom. John and I also had our videos playing on site, which was pretty funny. Good luck to all the contestants.

Thanks to everyone who came to Knoxville for the meet. We love having you in town for the weeekend and appreciate you making the trip. We hope to see you all again soon.

The next weekend John and I both had the chance to go south. Warmth! Florida! I spent a couple days at the Sanddollar/Whitlow Invitational. Check out John's bog, "Florida Tour". We had a great time and I loved getting a chance to hang out at Disney's Wide World of Sports, and Downtown Disney. Great place to have a meet.

While we were at the Flip Fest Invite, Randy was representing well at the St. Judes Meet in Peoria, IL. We were bummed we could not attend but we hope to be back there again next year. Its an awesome meet, and a great cause.

Camp is filling up fast and we are getting very excited to see you all. Well, January is over and it's on to Fabulous February. I hope to see you all soon.

Florida Tour

JMAC | 02/04/2008

Camp is coming up fast! John and I have been touring the country trying to say hello to as many of you as we can. Last week we were in Florida and went to the Sand Dollar Invitational and then went by Universal Gymnastics in Port Charlotte. John R headed up to Jacksonville where he visited North Florida Gymnastics, TNT Gymnastics, and Gymnastics Unlimited then back down to Lafleur’s Tampa and Lafleur’s Largo. Lacy and I have been in Florida for the last 2 weeks and we have visited Funtastic Gymnastics, Sun Country Gymnastics, Venice YMCA, Balcony Gymnastics, Apollo Gymnastics and I stopped by the Thomasville YMCA’s competition called “The Rose Classic”. Lacy and I have the kids with us so we made time to stop by and visit Lacy’s family in Wildwood. You can see a few pictures of Ella and Hudson on the farm enjoying life. It’s been great seeing everyone and we can’t wait to see you at camp. John R and I will be in Chicago next weekend at Chicago Style so if you are there come say hi to us. Who knows we may just pop up in your gym and surprise you. Keep working hard and we’ll see you soon!

The Season Begins

JROE | 01/07/2008

Well the competition season is under way and the crazy travels of John, John and Randy are under way. I, Johnny R, spent the weekend at the Jerrell Steele meet in Richmond, Virginia which is run by Doug and Colleen Lubking. It was a great time and there was a lot of good gymnastics, especially for early in the season. There were a lot of familiar Flip fest faces in attendance as well. River City, Classics, Gymstrada, Gym Quest and All-American to name a few.

Randy spent the weekend in Las Vegas at the Lady Luck Invitational. He had a great time and saw a lot of new faces. We may see some new faces at camp this summer.

Johnny Mac is in Florida visiting some gyms down there, so if you're from Florida, keep your eyes open for the Mac. Like most of you competing, we have a busy schedule coming up. John and I will be at Flip fest Invitational, along with Stephanie Hovda and Brian Jones, next weekend. Following the Flip Fest meet, we will be heading down to Florida for a gym visit and a meet. After that, I will be going to St. Louis for the Gateway meet, followed by John and I going to the Chicago Style meet. Next Johnny Mac will be at the Buckeye Classic and I will be at my meet in Minnesota, the John Roethlisberger Iceberg Invitational. I will be at the Circle of Stars meet again this year, and then John and I will both be going to the American Cup in New York City. This is just the start.

Randy will also be all over the place including the Dragon Meet in Kansas City, the second weekend in February with Stephanie. Make sure you come up and say Hi to us if you see us at any meets. We are sure you all have been working hard and we look forward to seeing some good gymnastics.

2007 World Championships

JROE | 09/24/2007

Well camp has been over for about a month now and seems like just yesterday we were in full swing. Macready and I have had a chance to catch our breath, although we both seem to find a away to keep ourselves busy. There have been a few church camps out at Lake Fraces as well as the Tennessee State Clinic for boys and girls. They were all a blast. After USA Championships I was fortunate to have the opportunity to go to the World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.

Both the men and the women were awesome. The women won back their world title that they had lost to the Chinese last year in dramatic style. They looked to have the meet in the palms of their hands until beam (their second to last event). Their last two gymnasts up had major breaks. Shawn Johnson fell and Nastia Liukin's foot slipped on her dismount and she only did a tuck back off. Suddenly they werre trailing by one tenth with one event to go, floor. They came through big time. Shayla Worley started off with a solid routine. Then Shawn and Alicia Sacramone both went and rocked. They sealed the win for the US by over a point. They were a lot of fun to watch. They seemed like a close knit team and they looked like they had a lot of fun competing on the floor together. Look out Beijing.

As for the guys, they did outstanding as well. They came into this Worlds off of very disappointing 13th place finish at the 2006 World Championships. This year the stakes were much higher as they needed to be in the top 12 in order to qualify the United States to Olympic Games next year in Beijing. They couldn't have a repeat of last year. As it turned out, they let the world know that last year was a fluke. Not only did they qualify for the Olympics, they were one routine away from winning a medal. They finished fourth.

They qualified into team finals in 4th and were on the brink of the top three until their second to last event, high bar. They had two falls. They came back on floor with three amazing routines,but it wasn't quite enough, they finished right behind the host team, Germany, in fourth.

Fourth place seemed to be the magic number for the US guys as they ended the competition with four fourth place finishes. Jonathan Horton did an amazing job in the All-around by finishing two tenths out of the medals in fourth and Guillermo Alvarez, yes, from Minnesota, and Kevin Tan both finished fourth on Floor and rings respectively. Even though they didn't come home with any medals, they let the world know they are going to be contenders next summer in Beijing.

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