From Club Gymnastics to College: The 'Unique Sisterhood' of Ella Burgess and Lilly Hudson

For two Alabama gymnasts, this season is the realization of a dream years in the making.

The first person to greet Ella Burgess right after she dismounts from the beam is Lilly Hudson. Every single meet when Burgess concludes her routine in the leadoff spot in Alabama's powerful beam lineup, Hudson is right there for a hug.

In the sport of college gymnastics, there is generally a lot more hugging and celebrating than you see in other sports, but for Burgess and Hudson, it's a little more special.

"She’s my best friend," Hudson said about Burgess. "She's my go-to. I would tell her anything. She's been there for me throughout this whole journey, and so to finally be here with her and live out our dreams together is… there's no greater feeling than that.”

Let's just say, the feeling is mutual.

"She is my best friend, my sister," Burgess said about Hudson. "We trained together for probably two years before we came here. So when I got here, we were away from each other, and now she’s finally here with me. It’s awesome to be together every single day to live out our dreams together."

Alabama Athletics

Their relationship dates back to their days training together at Florida Elite Gymnastics in St. Augustine, Florida where they were coached by Valentin Buse, or Coach Vali as he's known to the gymnasts.

Buse has been involved with gymnastics in some capacity for nearly 40 years coaching hundreds of gymnasts beginning in Romania, where he coached seven members of the Romanian national team, to the United States where he now trains the Level 8-10 gymnasts at Florida Elite Gymnastics.

He moved to Florida from Minnesota in 2012 when he first saw Hudson competing at the Level 8 State Championships in Florida. Her parents got in contact with Buse and after a tryout, they started working together in 2013 and never looked back.

Hudson's talent was evident early on, and it wasn't too long after that she started getting recruited. By eighth grade, she had committed to Alabama after falling in love with the campus and the program.

Alabama Athletics

"When I describe Lilly, she is a gamer," said Alabama head coach Dana Duckworth. "She loves to compete. She loves the sport of gymnastics. When she first started the sport, her dream was the Olympics. She was an elite athlete, and then after training and getting that experience she had some injuries. So to see her overcome adversity, to not quit, to continue to find a new path. She committed to Alabama in the eighth grade. She has wanted this for herself for a very long time."

Burgess had a different journey. According to Burgess, she and Hudson trained together for two years in Florida before she moved to Tuscaloosa to join the Crimson Tide. Even though they came into the gym as strangers, they quickly formed a natural bond according to Buse.

"They came in with different timelines, and they don't know each other at the beginning, and in a few weeks naturally they started kind of getting closer," Buse said. "I think it was just attraction from like persons.

"After they created this bonding, they actually make my life easier because it’s easier when you have multiple people with the same mindset. They helped me take the responsibility of encouragement from my shoulder, and they start encouraging each other and helping each other and believing in their little team there, and it was very helpful."

Even though she is the younger of the two, Hudson was already committed to the Crimson Tide while Burgess was still in the recruiting process. Burgess continued to improve her craft and committed to Alabama in 2019. Along with Luisa Blanco, she jumped in as an early enrollee in the spring 2020 semester and competed within two weeks of arriving on campus.

According to Buse, Hudson didn't convince or influence Burgess to come to Alabama because at the end of the day, it wasn't dependent on her. However, as a teammate, she was able to inspire Burgess to reach a level where Alabama was now a possibility.

"Lilly was able to inspire Ella to raise herself to work out at the Alabama standard and to put herself in position to be recruitable," Buse said. "I don’t think it was really for sure, ‘OK, we will do this together.’ But Ella following the path of quality and getting inspired by Lilly, she raised herself to the point where Alabama says, ‘Oh OK, good quality.’”

Alabama Athletics

Both gymnasts have turned how to be more than good quality for the Crimson Tide and made immediate impacts at Alabama. As a freshman in 2020, Burgess competed in the vault lineup in all seven meets of the COVID-shortened season plus six different times on beam. Unfortunately for Burgess, she tore her Achilles prior to the 2021 season which was a major setback.

She has found a spot back in the lineups as the leadoff spot on beam where she has led off the Crimson Tide's strong beam rotation with a 9.9 six meets in a row most recently at regionals in Seattle on Thursday. But it's not just her performance in the gym that has made Buse proud, it's the way Burgess had to fight back to get to that place after missing all of the 2021 season with the injury. 

When asked what it’s like for him to watch his former gymnasts now competing in college, Buse said it was hard to find the right words in English. 

"It’s so rewarding," Buse said. "It gives you a lot of endorphins. Just looking at Ella for example, how she managed having an injury. Using the knowledge I gave her in the past, she went and took steps, even if it wasn’t easy, and solved a puzzle because that injury was a puzzle, had multiple aspects. It’s not just put cream on the booboo and then next day you will be back. She was patient and diligently took the steps, did not rush the process, trusted the process, her ability not to give up— those are the things that excite me.”

From week one this season, Hudson hopped into the lineups for the Crimson Tide as a true freshman. With various teammates dealing with injuries, she's often been plugged in all four rotations, competing in the all-around six times this season, including a 39.500 in Thursday's regional. 

Buse was watching on from Florida and has been following along all season, and none of Hudson's success as a freshman is surprising to him.

"I’m not trying to brag, but I wasn’t surprised," Buse said. "To some extent, it was an expectation. If you know how to do something, do it. There’s no reason to hold yourself back or to be in the kids’ terms, ‘scared about it.’ If you can, do it, enjoy it and do it to the best of your ability."

Buse said he still talks to the girls when they have something good to say or when they just need to share frustrations. Hudson called him to tell him about the team’s scary experience with the plane’s emergency landing on the flight out to Seattle. But he also knows his boundaries at this point and respects the job of the Alabama coaching staff. He is no longer there to hold them accountable, but to listen.

"My job is done from a technical perspective," Buse said. "Now what remains is the humanity.”

Duckworth said she sees a special bond between the two where they hold each other accountable and push each other to be the best for themselves and for Alabama. 

"They have a very unique sisterhood in my opinion," Duckworth said. "They love each other. They're there for each other. They want to see each other thrive. And I think what I see is they have a great deal of trust in one another, and that takes years to develop. It’s special to see how it makes them confident, how they help each other, lift each other up."

And now both gymnasts are major contributors on Alabama's current team that will be fighting for a trip to nationals in Saturday's regional final in Seattle against Utah, Michigan State and Stanford. Hudson will likely compete in the all-around again, and Burgess will almost assuredly be in the leadoff spot on beam. 

Alabama Athletics

It will be another opportunity to compete together and live out the dream that's been years in the making. 

"Seeing her live out her dream of being an Alabama gymnast is honestly almost as good as me living out my dream of being an Alabama gymnast," Burgess said about Hudson. "I kind of feel her excitement for her. It’s a dream come true watching her do that."