Suzanne Yoculan looked around for someone to hug.

She immediately found six (at least) of her gymnasts. Some were crying, some laughing, some both.

They had done it. They had given Yoculan, the 26-year architect of the Georgia gymnastics program, a national championship in her final year as their coach.

They had clinched their fifth NCAA title in a row, a record 10th all-time for Yoculan. They had sent her out as the winningest collegiate gymnastics coach in history.

They had sent her out on top, just like she was used to being.

“This is just a magical team,” Yoculan said then.

And the Gym Dogs’ 2009 team was a magical one, especially on that April weekend.

Well after her Olympic career was over, senior Courtney Kupets had likely secured her spot as the greatest NCAA gymnast ever, posting three perfect 10s on three different events in those championships in Lincoln, Neb.

The always-flamboyant Yoculan called her “the Muhammad Ali of gymnastics – The Greatest.” Kupets would win the Honda Award’s Broderick Cup, given to the best collegiate athlete in the country, in the coming months.

Senior Tiffany Tolnay fought through injuries all season to finish second in the Super Six all-around, just behind Kupets.

Then juniors and already individual national champions, Courtney McCool and Grace Taylor continued building for a strong senior class all season despite battling injuries.

Freshmen Kat Ding and Gina Nuccio were coming into form.

But this one was all about their magical coach, the one with the most storied, decorated and colorful (if not reviled) career in gymnastics history.

“It wasn’t just a championship,” Taylor said. “It couldn’t get better than this. God blessed Suzanne. It was beautiful.”

Several minutes into the Gym Dogs’ April celebration in Nebraska, longtime Yoculan protégé and now-head coach Jay Clark found himself alone and contemplative, watching jubilation as he had so many times before.

But it was a little different this time. He had a lot to think about.

As Georgia Athletic Director Damon Evans told him in that moment, with a smile, “You’ve got some big shoes to fill now, buddy.”