By SCOTT HARTMAN
Staff Writer

Not only is Saturday’s meet with Kentucky the final regular season home meet of the year, but the event will also mark the close of an epoch in the lives of Gym Dog seniors Kim Arnold and Julie Ballard, as the pair will compete at Stegeman Coliseum in a non-postseason affair for the last time.

“It’s pretty emotional,” Ballard said. “I’ve been anticipating this moment for four years.”

Arnold said she feels her time at Georgia has passed in a flash.

“It’s so weird,” she said. “I can’t believe it’s gone by this fast. It’s going to be hard knowing that it’s the last time I’ll have all those people cheering for me.”

Saturday at 7 p.m., the two competitors will take the floor for the final time in front of a decidedly Bulldog-biased crowd, causing both gymnasts to remember their first march into the coliseum.

“It was wild, like nothing I was anticipating,” Ballard said. “The lights are out, and you’ve got fans screaming ‘Georgia.’ It was like an electric rush through my body.”

Arnold vividly recalls marveling at the size of the crowd that turned out for that first meet. “We were standing in the tunnel, and I saw all these people,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, all these people are here to watch us.’”

Before Saturday’s meet, the two veterans will be honored in the annual Senior Night ceremony that will make head coach Suzanne Yoculan reminisce.

“I can’t believe they’re seniors already,” Yoculan said. “It’s like they just got here. That’s the worst part about coaching, everybody leaving.”

The seniors took two distinctly different paths on their journey to the Gym Dog program.

Ballard, a Mandeville, La., native, attended camps at Georgia before she enrolled as a student, making her a familiar face around the program.

“She’d come to some of our camps, so we already knew her,” Yoculan said. “It was sort of a different kind of relationship with her. In a lot of ways we felt like we were recruiting a personality, not just a gymnast. We felt like we knew Julie even before she got here.”

Arnold, meanwhile, came to the team after moving from her native Portland, Ore., to train in Phoenix, Ariz.

“To be able to go from a situation like that, to move even further away from home, and be able to adjust to Georgia and make this her home away from home and be as successful as she has is a tribute to her strength,” Yoculan said.

Whereas some gymnasts tend to burn out in their programs, Yoculan said her seniors prove that at Georgia, gymnasts get better with time.

“I think the two of them both demonstrate the fact that in Georgia gymnastics you get better, you don’t burn out,” Yoculan said. “I don’t think there are two happier gymnasts on our team than Kim and Julie. They just radiate, and you can see it when they compete.”

Now in the twilight of their collegiate careers, Arnold and Ballard said the fans’ support and the team camaraderie are what they will miss most.

“I think I’m going to miss the fans and the atmosphere of what goes into a meet,” Ballard said. “Being able to do what I love for people who enjoy watching, that’s what I’ll miss most.”

Ballard feels that fun, hard work and complete devotion to the program defined her career.

Echoing that sentiment, Arnold said performing for the fans is one of the rewards of sports.

“It’s just so much fun going out there and trying to do your best, not only for yourself, but for the fans watching you,” she said. “I feel like I’ve achieved a lot and had a great time being on a team like this.”