Meet Preview: No. 4 Florida at No. 6 Georgia

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Junior All-American Danie Ferris spent her childhood dreaming of being a Florida Gator. A Florida native, Ferris attended Gator meets and gymnastics camps when she was younger, and she instantly knew it was something she wanted to do.

Ferris started gymnastics when she was 7 and committed to it in middle school, when she switched to homeschooling to focus more on gymnastics. Still, she didn’t understand much about the recruiting process until she got to high school and realized she could fulfill her dream of competing collegiately for the Gators.

“I was still just having fun [in middle school],” Ferris said. “It wasn’t really till I got to high school, like level 9-10-ish, I was like, ‘I need to lock this in and figure it out.’ But before, it was just a way to get my energy out and just be with my friends.”

Ferris certainly “locked in” on her dream after realizing it was a possibility for her, boasting an impressive club career that earned her five-star recruit status and the title of No. 3 recruit in the country for the Class of 2024.

As a Level 10, she earned perfect 10s on her vault and floor exercises. In 2022, she was crowned the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise champions in the Women’s Development Program National Championships Junior E, as well as all-around, vault and uneven bars champion at the Level 10 Florida State Championships.

Outside of gymnastics, Ferris took accelerated classes throughout high school so that she could enroll a year early. She received many offers to different gymnastics programs but decided to fulfill her childhood dream of being a Gator.

“It was mainly the Gators. I got other options, and it was super interesting and stuff, but I grew up watching the Gators. I lived in Florida my whole life … and that was just my dream to be here,” Ferris said.

Ferris choosing to stay in state is something head coach Jenny Rowland openly strives for: keeping Florida gymnasts in Florida. Seven out of the Gators’ 18 gymnasts are Florida natives.

“We were extremely grateful and surprised that [Ferris] didn’t want to look anywhere else,” Rowland said. “We didn’t know that, and it was very quick. It was very instant; it was, ‘Yes, this has always been my dream school.’ [I’m] grateful that she could stay in her state and allow her friends and family to come watch her every weekend in the O’Dome.”

The Gators expressed interest in Ferris after noting she possessed the qualities they typically look for in recruiting gymnasts: competitiveness, talent and passion. As typical recruits will still be competing in gymnastics for roughly six more years, Florida seeks gymnasts who find joy and love in the sport and constantly strive for improvement.

“That’s definitely something that we saw in Danie when recruiting her … [I’m] just really thankful for Danie’s presence, resilience, her passion, her focus and dedication,” Rowland said.

Ferris has been undoubtedly one of the most consistent on the Gators gymnastics team, leading floor and vault scores with teammate Selena Harris-Miranda during their Feb. 6 loss against No. 8 Missouri. Ferris again carried vault a week later against No. 1 Oklahoma on Feb. 13, despite an otherwise shaky performance, as the only Gator to reach a 9.90 in the event.

Her success these past few weeks, even as the Gators have struggled, has been “crucial” to the team, according to Rowland. It highlights the team’s ability to rely on and trust her, which allows them to focus on their own performances.

Ferris largely credits her mental strength for her consistent performance despite losses or dings in others’ scores.

“I just try my best … I feel like it personally helps me a lot, just focusing on that one moment and that one vault I have to do and knowing that I’m in control of what I do,” she said. “Nobody else can control that. Nothing that happens before me matters. It’s just the approach I have going into that vault, so I think that’s just been helping me grow my mental game.”

Lately, Ferris has found herself lying on the floor before she is set to compete to ground herself and focus on the task ahead, as it helps her feel “really grounded into the ground, feeling the moment.” She often puts in headphones to distract herself, typically listening to “All The Stars” by SZA and Kendrick Lamar to get her in the zone right before she competes.

She notes that it is the biggest part of her growth in her junior year. She tapped into the team’s resources and worked on different techniques the team uses to strengthen its mental resilience, including visualization and keywords. She has experimented, trial and error, every week to figure out what works to ground her.

Ferris also often finds herself talking to or sharing a head nod with teammate Skye Blakeley before she is set to compete to ground herself before she performs on vault.

“I think it’s super easy with competitions to get ahead of yourself,” Ferris said. “‘What if I make this mistake? How is this landing going to be?’ So, just really focusing on the present moment and my technique, being like, ‘Hey, I need to do X, Y and Z to perform a good vault’ – that’s what’s going to help me, not focusing on what’s going to happen next.”

Despite Ferris’ immense mental growth this year with the Gators, she has also shown physical improvement, upgrading the full-twisting layout in her past floor routines to a double layout.

“My past years, I’ve been trying to get the … double layout,” Ferris said. “I’ve been doing the full for longer, so it was just more comfortable for me, and I just needed more time to fully get the double out there … I think it was the most improving I needed to do, from the full into the double layout. There was a difference there, but I feel like with all the training and stuff, I trust that I can do it, and [associate head coach] Adrian [Burke] trusts as well.”

Ferris has worked hard to improve her vault and floor routines, the two events she specializes in for the Gators. She earned a 9.975 and 10.0 vault last season as a sophomore, earning her two Southeastern Conference Specialist of the Week honors.

However, even behind the scenes, Ferris is constantly seeking improvement. Despite exclusively competing in vault and floor, she trains on uneven bars and beam every day. This allows her to be ready if she were ever needed in the lineup for either event, due to the unpredictability of illness or injury that may affect gymnasts’ ability to perform.

“A coach dreams to have someone like Danie come in and just pour everything that she has – whatever it is that day – show up and give her best. She is so hungry. Every turn, every moment, it’s, ‘Was that better? Were my legs straight? What else do I need to do?’ She just wants to do everything she can to help this Gator team,” Rowland said.

Florida is set to compete against long-time rival No. 6 Georgia on Friday night. The Gators hope to overcome their recent struggles for a win on the road, and Ferris is ready to help in any way she can.