April 24, 2015

Championships Ended, Then Everything Broke

http://dehaanradcliffe.tumblr.com/post/67039693840/tom-what-rons-in-bloosh-donna-ron-is-in

"I'll take some time," I thought. Let the events of the season and that thoroughly thrilling Super Six sink in for a while, and then at some point I'll put together my final season thoughts and begin the way-too-early looking forward to next season. Surely there will be nothing major to talk about right away.

At that very moment, Rhonda Faehn swooped in going, "Mwahahahahahahahaha."

This is a big deal. Two of the most prominent coaches in NCAA gymnastics (and the #1 and #2 finishers at last weekend's championship) called it quits this week. Let's start with Greg Marsden, because that was the not-so-surprising one. Marsden has been the head coach at Utah for 1150 years, won 10 national championships, singlehandedly invented women's college gymnastics, and has been the sport's most vocal and influential advocate for growth and improvement. (One of the silliest things about that "Sarah and Suzanne" doc last year was the implication that Sarah and Suzanne created women's college gymnastics as a spectator sport. Everyone was like, "Um...Marsden?")

College gymnastics without Greg Marsden will be strange and unfamiliar land, but his retirement doesn't come as a shock because, over the last couple years, he had started scaling back some of his duties, with Megan taking on a lot more, and this year Tom Farden taking on more as well. A succession procedure had been put in place, and now Greg is stepping aside completely to allow Megan and Tom to be the new stars. Of all the recent major coaching changes, this should be the least disruptive to the team in the coming year. The only blip I would expect for Utah next season is the no-Dabritz blip. Otherwise, it really should be business as usual with the same group, style, and system.

But as one last tribute to Greg Marsden, the rest of college gymnastics really needs to pull itself together and finally adopt some of the good ideas he has been talking about for the last several centuries and that have never come to anything, like overhauling the postseason format and giving us a four-on-the-floor championship. Regardless of any live TV considerations, having four teams is just a better, more logical, and more fan-friendly format. The Marsden Cup. Get it done.

I also want to mention that I have tremendous respect for his decision to wait until the end of the season before making a public announcement about his retirement. He absolutely could have announced it before the year began and given himself a farewell tour with all the flowers and speeches and video tributes at every away meet. All of that would have been completely deserved, but I applaud his recognition that it's always about the team rather than him. He doesn't need to steal the limelight. Not a lot of coaches in his position would have made the same decision.

But now let's get to the WTF stuff. Today, just as the Marsden-retirement embers were dying out, Rhonda Faehn announced that she is leaving Florida to snatch the job of Senior VP of the Women's Program for USA Gymnastics. Cue the "Guuuu-waaaaaah?"

Yeah, so Rhonda is gone now. Which is bizarre. She got her three titles, and then adios! I don't even know what to do with that. We'll miss your white pants, Gator tank tops, general gymnastics nerdiness, and championships. And now she's heading into the belly of the elite beast.  One last chance to pull out this one.


It's going to get weird now, and this opens up a lot more questions than Marsden's retirement does. It's a much more dramatic scenario. Who's going to take over? Is Adrian (and/or Robert) getting a promotion? Which means you'll finally have to learn which one is which. Will they try to hook a successful head like Jeff Graba? Or will they strike out and pull a Georgia by trying to poach Cal's rising-star coaches? Let the speculation begin. It may be a shallow thought, but to try to keep some of these young elite verbals, I do think they'll need to go the "cool, young coach" route. You want someone who is potentially going to be there for a while (unless she leaves for USAG) to build something stable again, as well as someone who is going to be a believable, social media-savvy, emoji-using BFF-type to appeal to the ever-younger commits.   

And what will happen to all these verbal commitments for future classes? Rhonda herself has been the huge factor in the success Florida has experienced over the last several years in attracting so many elites to Florida. Wouldn't you want to be coached by Rhonda? I'm very interested to see if these gymnasts still want to come to Florida if they're not coming for Rhonda. Watch for a potential exodus. If one NT domino falls, the rest will follow. Which could be gold for some of the other top programs.

Regardless of who takes over or what happens to some of these future commits, Florida still has an incredibly talented and accomplished roster for 2016. They should be able to continue their prosperity under someone else (Bridget Sloan is still Bridget Sloan), but how much of the luster is gone now? Will there be some degree of hitting restart, reputation-wise?


9 comments:

  1. this whole thing kind of takes the fun out of winning the title to me. apparently the florida girls were just done taking their national championship photo shoot when rhonda decided to tell them she was leaving. not good timing imo.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not that she can compete obviously, but Dabritz is going to be the team manager for Utah next year. She said she'd be pulling mats around. At least it will ease the pain a bit to still see her around!

    ReplyDelete
  3. In addition to Graba and the Cal duo, the other current college head coaches I can see them maybe considering are Kim Landrus from Illinois and Larissa Libby from Iowa. I think Aimee Goodman would be an awesome college coaching she's not leaving elite anytime soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1. Sad to see that Rhonda's leaving. She's done amazing things at UF and has made college gymnastics so exciting to watch over the past couple of seasons. Wish her the absolute best at USAG and I hope she has a similar impact there.

    2. Your comment about our needing to tell the difference between Adrian and Robert now cracked me up- they don't look alike, but I can't remember which name goes with whom.

    3. Kim Landrus is a really underrated coach and has done a great job. However, I don't think she has the media/interview experience to take over at a place like UF. Yet, if for some crazy reason UF can steal KJ, Kim Landrus would be a good fit for OU. She's a fabulous beam coach who could maintain it as OU's marquee event.

    ReplyDelete
  5. With Rhonda and Greg gone this year, Sarah gone last year, and Suzanne back in 2009, pretty much all of the legendary and well known coaches are gone besides Miss Val. And with the rise of teams like OU, LSU, and Auburn, it looks like we are seeing a new NCAA gymnastics and I kind of like it. I think things are going to really be shaken up next season and it should be interesting and refreshing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. To be fair, the "Sarah and Suzanne" special was right, while Greg basically invented the thing, those ladies dialed it up to 11 in terms of interest and elevating the SEC into the powerhouse it's been for the past decade (ie, SEC Network).

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Marsden Cup - I LOVE it. Thanks for this great coaching change wrap up.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Let's be fair: the Sarah and Suzanne special thinking they invented college gym is due to the fact that the SEC thinks they have invented EVERYTHING. Up to and including Greg Marsden.

    ReplyDelete