POULSBO — The Vikings gymnastics team may be younger than usual this season, but that doesn’t translate into a lack of experience by any stretch of the imagination, said coach Kris Goodfellow.

“It’s exciting to be back in the gym again,” she said during the second practice of the season Tuesday at Zero Gravity Athletics in Poulsbo. “We’re a pretty young team. We lost five seniors from last year who were good, but we have seven seniors this year who will step up.”

Goodfellow said the majority of the 24 girls currently on the roster have extensive time on the mat. Sophomore Melissa Kunold competed in the Class 4A state meet last year while seniors Alice Pittack, Julie Rencher, bring their extensive gymnastics expertise with them into the gym.

“I expect Alice and Julie to be role models this season,” Goodfellow said. “They’re hard workers. I’m glad we have seniors who possess that kind of work ethic. The other athletes will rally around them.”

She said success goes beyond the marks her team will achieve at competitions throughout the season.

“We want to get as many of our athletes qualified for the postseason,” Goodfellow said. “But the overall goal is to promote self esteem, improve their strength and flexibility, and to build confidence in all of the girls on the team.”

Gymnastics is different than other high school sports. Each athlete has to have 15 practices in before they can compete (majority of winter sports need require just 10 practices),” she said. “That’s why we start a week before any other sport does.”

Rencher said she’s looking forward to this season.

“This year is all about team bonding. We’re going to complement each other the whole time,” she said. “We’re an enthusiastic group. When someone falls off the beam this year we’re going to say, ‘Its OK. It happens to everybody’. We’re going to take the so what if you fail during a competition approach.”

Kunold, who competed in vault and bars at the state meet last season, is likewise excited.

“I’m hoping to do as good as I did last year,” she said. “You never know how you will do and never know how things will turn out. I know more of what to expect this year. I trained a little bit over the summer to help get myself prepared for this year.”