University of Georgia Athletics
The Gym Dogs Come Back 4 More
May 04, 2008 | Gymnastics
On April 25th the University of Georgia hosted and won their fourth consecutive, and ninth overall, NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship. The University of Utah, the only other team with nine Championships finished second. That’s right, FOUR straight...”Back 4 More”...get it (wink, nudge)? Next year, what? “ReFive...SurFive...Drive for Five...and...High Five.”
Wow! Four in a row! In other words, Megan Dowlen, Katie Heenan, Nikki Childs and Audrey Bowers all seniors - have never known anything in their college career but NCAA Championships. Ladies, say hello to Kareem and Bill Walton. Coaches Wooden and Gable, meet Coach Suzanne Yoculan.
After winning three in a row, you might think the fourth would be easy. Anything but! The 2008 Gym Dogs literally limped into this season. Six off-season surgeries for Megan, Audrey, Paige Burns, Tiffany Tolnay and Marcia Newby, curtailed summer workout and fall practices. And then sophomore sensation Grace Taylor and Katie Heenan, arguably the greatest gymnast in UGA’s history, suffered ankle and back injuries respectively, limiting their availability through the first half of the season.
Hey, playing hurt is nothing new to “elite” gymnasts. They’ve been spinning, jumping and flipping along a narrow wooden beam, 4 feet above the floor, since they were six. No shoulder pads. No helmets. Their only protection is a very hard head and about eight grams of leotard.
Ouch!! Ya think that’ll leave a bruise? I swear, if these gals didn’t smear on flesh colored paint before a meet, they’d look like leopards.
At the end of each meet they have so much ice wrapped around knees, ankles and shoulders, they look like they’ve been bubble wrapped for shipment to the next meet.
It’s hard to think of gymnastics as a team sport. I mean, there’s no Tinkers to Evers to Chance... or, “Belue fakes to Hershel, gets a block from behind and throws to...run Lindsey run!” But if support and sacrifice are themes that turn a group of individual athletes into a team? Well, the Gym Dogs get it! Because, these themes thread themselves more richly though the fabric of this team, than do skill and talent.
This season, Courtney Kupets and Courtney McCool made tough decisions. Both are 2004 Olympic silver medalists with a good shot at making the 2008 Olympics team. Yet both chose to be Gym Dog teammates, “Back 4 More.” Then Megan Dowlen, a 2007 First Team All-American in the vault, gave up her spot to sophomore Lauren Sessler. Why? Megan says, “Because she’s better.” All chose TEAM over self.
At the last home meet of the season, four weeks before the NCAA championships, Courtney Kupets, the best All-Around NCAA gymnast for the past two years, ruptured her Achilles tendon. I swear, it sounded like a rifle shot and seemed just as fatal to the Gym Dogs’ hopes for a fourth straight championship. After all, when you lose the nation’s all-around champion, can you still be considered “The Team to Beat?”
Well, irreplaceable as Kupets is, the Gym Dogs’ most valuable asset is depth. No one can replace the 9.90+ scores that Courtney routinely earned on all four events, but every UGA gymnast was capable of improving their best event by an .05. It would take a TEAM to replace Courtney Kupets.
The question was, could these athletes emotionally overcome the loss of their team’s best gymnast? Could they, literally, pick themselves up off the canvas, take their opponents’ best shot and deliver their own? Were they warriors?!
Associate Head Coach Jay Clark, is already a great coach, who will go on to be one of the sport’s great Head Coaches. But Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan will always be the standard against which coaches measure their ability to connect with their athlete, their ability to find the words, the actions...the “whatever it takes,” that calms, inspires and motivates an athlete to perform at his or her very best. That is Suzanne’s gift. And that will be her legacy.
If anyone were going to unearth the warrior in each of these Gym Dogs, it would be Suzanne. “How’s she do it,” you ask? I have no idea. I’m a guy, so any communication requiring more than grunts or hand signals, and I’m lost.
The TEAM’S victory march through their remaining dual meets and into the NCAA Finals attest to the coach’s success. Marcia Newby threw a career best 9.95 in the vault. Courtney McCool, delivered a career best 9.925 on the bars. Freshman Cassidy McComb and Tiffany Tolnay a pair of 9.00s on floor exercise, and Katie Heenan after falling from the uneven bars for the first time in...like FOREVER, “picked herself up off the canvas,” moved to the beam and nailed a 9.95 stake through the hearts of Utah, Stanford, Florida and Alabama.
It was the perfect ending to a championship season, won by the TEAM with the heart of a warrior.
Bill Dudley
Wow! Four in a row! In other words, Megan Dowlen, Katie Heenan, Nikki Childs and Audrey Bowers all seniors - have never known anything in their college career but NCAA Championships. Ladies, say hello to Kareem and Bill Walton. Coaches Wooden and Gable, meet Coach Suzanne Yoculan.
After winning three in a row, you might think the fourth would be easy. Anything but! The 2008 Gym Dogs literally limped into this season. Six off-season surgeries for Megan, Audrey, Paige Burns, Tiffany Tolnay and Marcia Newby, curtailed summer workout and fall practices. And then sophomore sensation Grace Taylor and Katie Heenan, arguably the greatest gymnast in UGA’s history, suffered ankle and back injuries respectively, limiting their availability through the first half of the season.
Hey, playing hurt is nothing new to “elite” gymnasts. They’ve been spinning, jumping and flipping along a narrow wooden beam, 4 feet above the floor, since they were six. No shoulder pads. No helmets. Their only protection is a very hard head and about eight grams of leotard.
Ouch!! Ya think that’ll leave a bruise? I swear, if these gals didn’t smear on flesh colored paint before a meet, they’d look like leopards.
At the end of each meet they have so much ice wrapped around knees, ankles and shoulders, they look like they’ve been bubble wrapped for shipment to the next meet.
It’s hard to think of gymnastics as a team sport. I mean, there’s no Tinkers to Evers to Chance... or, “Belue fakes to Hershel, gets a block from behind and throws to...run Lindsey run!” But if support and sacrifice are themes that turn a group of individual athletes into a team? Well, the Gym Dogs get it! Because, these themes thread themselves more richly though the fabric of this team, than do skill and talent.
This season, Courtney Kupets and Courtney McCool made tough decisions. Both are 2004 Olympic silver medalists with a good shot at making the 2008 Olympics team. Yet both chose to be Gym Dog teammates, “Back 4 More.” Then Megan Dowlen, a 2007 First Team All-American in the vault, gave up her spot to sophomore Lauren Sessler. Why? Megan says, “Because she’s better.” All chose TEAM over self.
At the last home meet of the season, four weeks before the NCAA championships, Courtney Kupets, the best All-Around NCAA gymnast for the past two years, ruptured her Achilles tendon. I swear, it sounded like a rifle shot and seemed just as fatal to the Gym Dogs’ hopes for a fourth straight championship. After all, when you lose the nation’s all-around champion, can you still be considered “The Team to Beat?”
Well, irreplaceable as Kupets is, the Gym Dogs’ most valuable asset is depth. No one can replace the 9.90+ scores that Courtney routinely earned on all four events, but every UGA gymnast was capable of improving their best event by an .05. It would take a TEAM to replace Courtney Kupets.
The question was, could these athletes emotionally overcome the loss of their team’s best gymnast? Could they, literally, pick themselves up off the canvas, take their opponents’ best shot and deliver their own? Were they warriors?!
Associate Head Coach Jay Clark, is already a great coach, who will go on to be one of the sport’s great Head Coaches. But Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan will always be the standard against which coaches measure their ability to connect with their athlete, their ability to find the words, the actions...the “whatever it takes,” that calms, inspires and motivates an athlete to perform at his or her very best. That is Suzanne’s gift. And that will be her legacy.
If anyone were going to unearth the warrior in each of these Gym Dogs, it would be Suzanne. “How’s she do it,” you ask? I have no idea. I’m a guy, so any communication requiring more than grunts or hand signals, and I’m lost.
The TEAM’S victory march through their remaining dual meets and into the NCAA Finals attest to the coach’s success. Marcia Newby threw a career best 9.95 in the vault. Courtney McCool, delivered a career best 9.925 on the bars. Freshman Cassidy McComb and Tiffany Tolnay a pair of 9.00s on floor exercise, and Katie Heenan after falling from the uneven bars for the first time in...like FOREVER, “picked herself up off the canvas,” moved to the beam and nailed a 9.95 stake through the hearts of Utah, Stanford, Florida and Alabama.
It was the perfect ending to a championship season, won by the TEAM with the heart of a warrior.
Bill Dudley
Georgia Gymnastics Pre NCAAs Presser - Co-Head Coaches Cécile Canqueteau-Landi and Ryan Roberts
Tuesday, April 14
Georgia Gymnastics Pre NCAAs Presser - Nyla Aquino and Ady Wahl
Tuesday, April 14
GymDogs Punch Ticket to Nationals
Sunday, April 05
Gym NCAA Regional - Nyla Aquino - Floor
Thursday, April 02