Alabama Claims NCAA Women's Gymnastics Title
As much as I hate to see our biggest historic gymnastics rival win a national championship, it probably is best for Georgia that the club did not grow any larger this year. Alabama edged UCLA for the honor; the Crimson Tide and the Bruins are two of the four teams to have captured NCAA gymnastics championships in the history of the sport. Georgia and Utah are the other two.
Oklahoma and Nebraska finished third and fourth, respectively, and Florida finished fourth in its opening session, failing to advance to the Super Six. While the Gators' disappointing finish in their session likely provides cover for Jay Clark after Georgia's similar finish in the earlier preliminary heat, the Sooners' failure to make the grade probably increases the likelihood that Oklahoma's K.J. Kindler could be pried away from Norman, since her prospects for winning a national title in Athens would appear to be better. I just hope we don't hang onto Coach Clark a year too long and lose our chance of landing Coach Kindler when, as inevitably will occur, Greg McGarity must make a change.
Go 'Dawgs!
about 1 year ago
T Kyle King
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KJ has a better gig in Norman. She has more talent in Norman. Why come to Athens where there is half the talent and unreasonable expectations? So she can have people claim she should be fired after two seasons?
Would be a terrible move on her part.
If she can recruit gymnasts to Oklahoma, which has no history in the sport . . .
. . . and is located in Norman, Okla., think of the kind of talent she could bring to Georgia, which is one of the great powers in the history of the sport and is located in Athens, Ga. Given that she was willing to leave her alma mater to take over in Norman, it’s certainly worth the phone call to offer her one of the premiere positions in her field. She has shown a willingness to trade up.
As for calling for her to be fired after two seasons, it is highly doubtful that she would underachieve to the level Jay Clark has, and, even if she had a rough first couple of seasons, we would give her time, in light of the fact that she didn’t recruit the gymnasts she inherited. Jay Clark, who was in charge of recruiting under Suzanne Yoculan, cannot make such a claim.
Go 'Dawgs!
If the Oklahoma SBNation blog is any indication...
They don’t care about women’s gymnastics at ALL in Norman. Sure, their team has never won the NCAA championship, but I didn’t even see a promoted FanShot talking about them competing for a national title. It’s nothing but football and basketball with the occasional baseball/softball post. There’s something to say about going to a job, even if it’s a “lateral” move (which UGA certainly ain’t; pure step up), where the fans actually care about the team.
That’s one thing I love about DawgSports, it knows what the major sports are, but it gives coverage to EVERY sport. I know my friends and I at UGA similarly cared about doing well in everything. Many fans I meet couldn’t care less about their schools’ sports outside of football, basketball, and maybe baseball.
by The984 on Apr 17, 2011 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Good observation. Oklahoma brings in just over 1,600 fans per home meet – which places them about 20th in the country in attendance. There are countless programs who can’t even come close to comparing to the success Oklahoma has had the past 2 seasons who bring in vastly more fans for gymnastic meets.
Norman
Norman does has one huge recruiting edge, which is the presence of Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci and their highly-regarded training program. I talked this weekend to the grandmother (a relative of my wife) of one their students whose granddaughter just finished second in the state at a high school meet (at age 14) and trains with them. She’s a virtual lock to go to OU along with some of her most promising training mates.
Gymnasts will go anywhere if they like the coaches, the facilities, the university, and the other gymnasts on the team. Texas produces the most top gymnasts, and they have no gymnastic programs in the state (other than TWU, which isn’t a top program), so heading off to school is not a big deal in this sport.
by Skeptic99 on Apr 19, 2011 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
When I first read the title of this post...
I thought Alabama must have figured out some way to claim titles that they didn’t actually win the same way they do in football. Is there a Century Football Index-type poll for gymnastics?
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