Getting to the postseason and being recognized as one of the top 36 teams across the country is an extremely significant accomplishment, no matter if this is your first or fifth time getting to this point. For some teams, they have never missed a postseason, but, for others, getting to this point is not ‘once in a lifetime’ but may be something a team may not always have expected back in January.
Looking at the numbers, West Virginia may just be the comeback team of the year. After finding themselves as deep in the rankings as No. 53 in the first month and a half of the year, the Mountaineers have climbed significantly in the rankings rising to a position where regional competition was just within their reach.
“I always tell the team, you just have to believe in yourselves as much as I believe in you,” said head coach Jason Butts who is in his fourteenth year at West Virginia. That belief carried West Virginia through a competitive season, one filled with its share of highs and challenges, all leading to the opportunity to compete on the regional stage.
As the first competition of the regionals weekend, West Virginia faced Maryland in a play-in meet to determine who would move forward into the second session of Friday’s competition against LSU, Arkansas, and Michigan. The level of competition brought a great deal of pressure and potential anxiety, but knowing that the start of this regional journey or the end of the 2025 season could be decided in just the two short hours of a dual meet, maximizes this feeling greatly.
Butts shared his approach to getting the team to a point where they are at their most confident and consistent selves to be able to compete at this competition and make it out of the playoffs to compete in round two. “This is the first time this year that a win or loss actually matters,” Butts said ahead of the meet. “The team that’s going to win is the team that shows up the most intense, the one with the most swagger, and the one that is going to be the hardest to rattle.”
Though their regional run ended against Maryland, the Mountaineers’ path to this moment showcased the grit and determination that defined their year. “It’s not about ‘beating Maryland on Wednesday,’” shared graduate student Trinity Macy, “It’s about doing what we know how to do and having fun while we do it.”
A month ago, West Virginia’s chances of making the cut for regionals looked slim, but, no one outside of the gym truly knew what was going on within. “2024 was an unprecedented year for us in terms of injuries,” said Butts. “We had several injuries happen during the year, but also a lot of our freshmen came in with nagging injuries that kept them out of competition.”
Injuries meant the Mountaineers had to get creative with building lineups. “Half of the routines in our lineups now are coming from kids who had never competed in college or hadn’t competed in the last two years,” said Butts. “It took just as much time for them to learn how to compete as it did for them to be confident in their abilities.”
While there are certainly learning curves when it comes to figuring out the perfect lineup spot for each athlete and getting comfortable in these spots week after week, the work to grow a competition mindset begins in the gym.“Leading up to regionals, we have been practicing more under pressure, and we have been learning to stay calm in the gym to stay calm competing,” explained Macy.
“Our beam coach made us bracelets that say ‘pressure is a privilege’ and we started to internalize this mindset going into competitions,” said Macy. “The talent was there from the beginning, the change was a mental shift. Instead of the team saying ‘we are nervous to compete’ it became ‘it’s an opportunity to compete.’”
This journey to regionals didn’t just start with replacing team scores, the journey began in the gym each day, working on a new mindset, and making a mental shift to be more prepared, calm, and confident when heading into competitions. “I’m a big believer in if something is giving you anxiety, give it a big hug, have it sit on the couch next to you for a while so you can understand it and embrace it,” explained Butts.
Working through inevitable nerves or anxiety leading up to or during meet day and understanding what these feelings are and how to channel them into competition has been a driving force for the Mountaineers’ late-season success.
The mental aspect has not only had to be strong in the gym, during competitions but also every time the team has read something about themselves on social media leading up to this point. “Seeing all of the opinions on social media was definitely harder for the younger girls on the team, and they would say ‘Why don’t they believe in us? They don’t even know anything about us,” shared Macy.
West Virginia has had to overcome obstacles within the gym, but arguably, maybe even more from the outside as well. However, this has fueled the drive and motivated the team to prove the people who didn’t think they had it in them wrong. “I have been telling the team to embrace the social media hate. Let’s read the comments aloud, let’s make fun of it, let’s prove them wrong,” said Butts.
Throughout the season, the team has continued to lead into this, creating a story behind the ‘stick-plunger hat,’ and letting any doubt the gymnasts might be feeling not tear them down but fuel them to show why they deserve to be at the point they are.
This journey for the Mountaineers has been one with some bumps, but the team reached the top 36. “However this journey goes,” said Butts, “getting ready for the 2026 season has already started. I’m a big believer in legacy; part of the legacy you leave is going to be your own memories of this season and this competition. What are you going to bring to the table, what are you going to remember when this is done?”
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Article by Julianna Roland
