Gymnast propels program to new heights

Bisordi's path to stardom reached new heights this past season as a member of the University of Arizona gymnastics team. Bisordi, after a fifth-place finish in the floor event at the NCAA Championships in April, earned second-team All-America honors.

Bisordi's accomplishments are not foreign to her family. Nineteen-year-old brother Matt, a sophomore diver at the University of Texas, is on track for a 2008 Olympic berth. James Bisordi, a senior at St. Francis High, is drawing attention from college scouts for his basketball play and Notre Dame-Belmont freshman Jaclyn Bisordi has a real good chance of making the varsity basketball squad.

The accolades and praise for Monica Bisordi are coming in with the force of a tsunami. Some say Bisordi has already done enough to be considered one of the greatest gymnasts in the university's history. Her recently completed junior season included 14 individual titles and a team high 44 top-5 finishes. At the championships, she posted marks of 9.990 on the floor, 9.850 on vault, 9.750 on bars and 9.725 on beam to finish with an overall score of 39.225.

"Monica certainly increased her status as one of the best gymnasts in the country," Wildcats coach Bill Ryden said on the school's athletic website. "Her performance on the floor was probably her best floor routine of the year."

Added Bisordi: "I was so excited with my performance. Everything seemed to go right - it was like magic."

Bisordi was even more elated that the 2004 Wildcats established themselves as arguably the greatest gymnastics team in program history. Arizona finished the season as the No. 14th-ranked team in the nation and reached as high as No. 6 on Jan. 19.

"A lot of people around campus are saying we're the best," Bisordi said. "We're all so close that it made the experience that much more enjoyable."

Bisordi's year got off to a rocky start. She broke her left foot in September after stepping into a pothole, which forced her to miss most of the team's rigorous practices leading up to the start of the season in January.

"That was definitely tough," Bisordi said. "It was very frustrating not being able to work out and knowing that it might affect how your season might go. But it motivated me and really put me in a state of mind to do well. I'm glad everything turned out fine. The injury was kind of a running joke. Here we are performing all these athletic things and yet most of us end up doing clumsy stuff on the outside."

Bisordi, 21, graduated from Notre Dame-Belmont in 2001. Her alma mater didn't have a gymnastics team, but that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. The best high school gymnasts usually compete for traveling clubs, and Bisordi was no exception.

As a member of the Santa Clara-based Airborne Gymnastics team, Bisordi gained recognition competing in national showcase events. She actually took her first recruiting trip to Arizona State, but didn't like the atmosphere, coaches or team.

"I had my heart set on ASU," Bisordi said. "Nothing went right and for a while I was upset. But then I took my trip to Tucson and I fell in love."

Bisordi said her size (5-1) has contributed to her success. It helps with her "air sense," her ability to get off the ground and her strong leg power boosts her performance in every event. Bisordi trains up to five hours a day and maintains a strict diet - free of hamburgers, pizza and fried foods.

"The food you put into your mouth is going to define how you get off the floor," Bisordi said. "I'll splurge maybe once a week, but with all the cardio we do, it's better to eat healthy."

Bisordi has two years of school left (one year of athletic eligibility) and hopes that her final year as a gymnast is her best yet. After she graduates in '06 she plans on becoming a Pilates instructor and open her own studio. For now, the lifelong San Mateo resident reflects on how far gymnastics has taken her.

"When I was 8 or 9, I never thought gymnastics could take me into college and pay for it at the same time," she said. "Knowing this will be my last year competing, I just hope it can be my best year ever. Everything so far has been a dream come true."