posted Oct 8th, 2010 - Two US teams are currently tied in 1st place for the honor of the busiest Rookie Class team in 2010. The regular season is over for the ArchRivals in the Midwest Skydiving League, while the Miami Dropouts have one more opportunity to get meet practice before the NSL Championship concludes the 2010 season at SkyQuest in November.

The ArchRivals will win the unofficial title of the Rookie Class season of the year, whether the Dropouts will attend another meet or not. The Miami team has scored a little bit higher and and surely deserves the same recognition, but there is one little difference that needs to be considered.

The Dropouts had the privilege of a player coach in the team, while the ArchRivals worked themselves up from scratch. Teiwaz member Bob Byrne guided the Dropouts through the first three meets, and Pam Manos helped her home team at the last FSL meet in Miami.

Rank	Team	League	Averages	Best 3
1	Miami Dropouts	FSL	5.3 - 5.8 - 4.0 -6.5	5.9
2	ArchRivals	MWSL	4.0 - 3.7 - 5.2 -5.0	4.7

The NSL News introduced the ArchRivals before the 2010 season of the Midwest Skydiving League began:

The Arch Rivals from the Archway Skydiving Center are a new team from the St. Louis area and will be competing in the MWSL Rookie Class of 2010. Team members are Kork Doll (Center Outside), Michelle Kerns (Center Inside), Michael Gamble (Tail), Bredina Haden (Point), with Michael Murphy on camera. Bredina Haden shared with MWSL Director Alan Butt that the team goal is to "learn, learn, learn and have a ton of fun doing it". She added that the new team is very excited to get the season started:

"We are planning to compete at all MWSL meets this season and are extremely excited about it!!! We are entering as a Rookie Class team with plans to move to the A Class after a few meets, as we are planning to compete at the USPA Nationals this year."

The ArchRivals surely followed up on the plan and competed at each of the four MWSL meets this year. The June meet actually brought the two Rookie Class teams from Florida and the Midwest together on the same scoreboard, together with three other US Rookie Class teams. The Dropouts ended up on the top.

The NSL News now introduces the members of the Rookie Class team of the year, and MWSL Director Alan Butt provided some competition videos of the MWSL August 14 meet, which show the ArchRivals in action.

Michelle Kerns is the Center Inside of the team. She has a total of approx. 300+ jumps and remembered the very beginning: "My first jump was in June of 08 because I couldn't find enough adrenaline on the ground. It was the first thing I had done in a while that actually scared me, so I went back again for jump number 2! I got into 4-way because I wanted to get great at something rather than being mediocre at a lot of things."

June 19th, 2010			Round1	Round2	Round3	Round4	Round5	Round6	Total	Avg
Rank	Rookie Class		N,K,F	H,J,E	B,G,P	D,A,N	L,O,Q	M,C,H	Total	Avg
1	Miami Dropouts	FSL	6	6	6	3	6	5	32	5.3
2	Raeford Brainlock	CASL	2	6	6	6	-	-	20	5.0
3	ArchRivals	MWSL	4	5	3	5	4	3	24	4.0
4	4seTs	MWSL	3	3	0	4	3	2	15	2.5
5	Pogmothoin	NPSL	3	1	2	0	5	1	12	2.0

Kork Doll works with Michelle Kern in the center. He has 600+ jumps and started jumping after seeing his daughter Carrie’s video of her first tandem, which was a college graduation gift.

He participated in some big-way camps and became more interested in 4-way more after flying in the wind tunnel and getting coaching from the Paraclete XP staff. Bredina Haden, ArchRivals Point, asked him about putting together a team from Archway Skydiving, and he was excited before the season had even begun:

"We've been having a ball practicing together since. We only have about 15 jumps together and we're really learning a lot. The staff at Archway has been a big big help. We're looking forward to our first competition."

Tail Michael Gamble had 200+ jumps and years of of aviation experience when the ArchRivals were formed. He is a licensed pilot, powered paraglider pilot and always wanted to jump. But he was afraid, as he remembered:

"I did my first jump in April of 2008 in Florida. It was a tandem jump, and I was really heavy, ended up breaking my tailbone. But I was hooked. So I made the decision to drop the weight and started jumping at Archway on static line on February 7th, 2009."

Jumping has ever since been an inspiration for him to continue improve and get a healthy lifestyle: "I have dropped nearly 100 lbs while accumulating about 200 jumps to date. I've had incredible experiences in my short time skydiving, including involvement in the organization and planning for the Rainbow Skydivers annual boogie, USPA Coach Rating, tunnel training with Kirk Verner at Paraclete XP, and P3 Big Way Camp. Now, flying Tail for the ArchRivals, I am having the time of my life and learning how much I can learn!"

Arch Rivals at the August 14 meet of the Midwest Skydiving League

Bredina Haden is the Point with 300+ jumps. She had a friend who talked about wanting to skydive, and she had her own story how it all started:

"I always thought she was crazy until literally one day I woke up and thought it was a good idea. I started jumping at Archway Skydiving Center in August 2007 and haven’t looked back. I had trouble getting through my coached jumps but kept going back to Archway because I knew I was on to something. It helped that everyone was so friendly and actually remembered my name AND pronounced it correctly!"

She was also inspired to do 4-way after flying in the wind tunnel and watching SDC Rhythm XP train: "I remember sitting on the bleachers watching. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, they were amazing! I knew that some day I wanted to play like that with my friends!"

Three staff members at Archway also took her on 4-way jumps quite often, which added to her excitement: "I remember screaming during and after the dives because I was pumped. I can’t explain it, it just felt awesome!"

She went back to Paraclete XP the following year with some friends and made some 4-ways with Kirk Verner and John D’Annunzio. She said that she was still on a high months later after that experience:

"After returning home from that trip I really wanted to get something started at Archway. So I asked around, and bam, we had a team, Archway ArchRivals! BOOM BOOM POW! Even after only 15 team jumps I feel that I have grown as a skydiver and as a person. I love being part of a team, trusting and having full confidence in my teammates as well as myself. This has been an incredible experience so far, we are having a blast both on the ground and in the air."

Michael Murphy has been filming the ArchRivals. He has 300+ jumps and is the President of the Falling Illini Skydiving Club at the University of Illinois.

The ArchRivals are the Rookie Class team of the year, however, the NSL championship title will be awarded at SkyQuest in November.