< Back | Home

Gym Dogs coach Suzanne Yoculan (center) poses for a photo with Georgia's four senior gymnasts (clockwise from top right): Courtney Kupets, Abby Stack, Tiffany Tolnay and Paige Burns. The gymnasts made Yoculan an honorary senior for her 26th and final season as head coach.

Suzanne Yoculan, the fifth senior

By: TYLER ESTEP

Posted: 12/4/08

When the four-time defending national champion Gym Dogs take the floor for their Sneak-A-Peek exhibition Sunday, it will begin the final season for a coach that has created a gymnastics juggernaut from nothing.

Suzanne Yoculan has coached Georgia gymnastics to nine national titles and 16 SEC crowns during her 26 years in Athens, promoting Georgia and her sport along the way. She announced last year that the 2009 season would be her final one, giving her four-gymnast senior class an honorary fifth member.

"She doesn't want all the attention on her, but she created the program, she is the program, she needs that attention," said senior Tiffany Tolnay. "We definitely want to contribute everything for her."

On the eve of her quest for a fifth straight national title, and still in her 50s, Yoculan's impending retirement may seem oddly timed.

She began building her Georgia program from a time when there weren't big-name gymnastics programs in the Southeast, or anywhere for that matter. From famine to feast, she now has her own weekly TV show and DVDs, has written a book and hosts meets that are some of the only times that Stegeman Coliseum ever sells out.

It's a time when even she will admit she still has her A-game.

"Most coaches are either burned out, fired or they retire because they're too old to coach and collecting retirement," she said smiling.

"And I'm not going to be collecting any money ... I really believe that I am at the top of my game right now. I believe I have never been a better coach than I am right now. That's the ironic part."

Georgia's freshly-christened gymnastics practice facility bears the Yoculan name, and the Erie, Penn. native has seen unparalleled success. During 18 of her 26 seasons, Georgia has won an NCAA or SEC title, or both - more than 70 percent of her tenure.

"Her name is on this gym. It will be here forever," said senior Courtney Kupets. "She's done so much for this program and I don't think anyone around the country will forget her as a Georgia gymnastics coach."

Yoculan's pre-determined retirement date fits in well with her personality and reputation as a master planner, something not lost on associate head coach Jay Clark, who will take over Yoculan's role next season.

"I think her greatest asset is her relentless, undying pursuit of what's next," Clark said.

"It's always OK, we're here, now how do we get to the next level ... Not only has she been this program for 26 years, she has probably been the greatest single influence on our sport over the last 30 years."

As far as what is next, Yoculan said she'd just like to have time to spend with her family, including her aging parents and two children.

"In terms of personal challenges, I just don't have anything left on the bucket list," she said.

***

What is left to pursue in 2009, however, is a record 10th national championship, and fifth title in a row.

The Gym Dogs will be without now-graduated all-time Georgia points leader Katie Heenan during their drive for five, but not without ample replacement.

Kupets, a two-time NCAA All-Around champ, will be back for her senior season after tearing her Achilles tendon last year, and juniors Grace Taylor and Courtney McCool will be defending individual NCAA titles on beam and floor exercise, respectively.

Add that to last year's emergence of sophomore Cassidy McComb and a beat up but strong freshman class, and the argument could be made that this season's Gym Dogs could be better than they were in 2008.

"There's a big adjustment time," Yoculan said. "You can't just say we're better than we were because it's the intangibles that you can't measure. And the intangibles are the reason that we won four championships in a row.

"Two of the four years we were the best team in the country. But two of the four years we had no business winning the national championship."

Georgia will host its three biggest rivals (Utah on Jan. 19, Alabama on Jan. 23, Florida on Feb. 28), but that doesn't make the task at hand any easier.

"I don't care if you're playing checkers, winning two, three, four in a row is not easy to do," Clark said. "And to do what has happened here over the past four years, I don't know if you'll ever see it again."

***

When Yoculan steps down, Clark will be ready.

Now an associate head coach, he has been groomed and prepared for the head position over the last 17 years he's spent in Athens.

"It's one of those jobs that you've got to be careful what you wish for, because it's a dream job but you never envision it coming on the heels of one of the most successful runs that has ever been in this sport," Clark said. "But I'm that guy that's going to take that on."

Clark's chief responsibilities now are coaching the Gym Dogs on uneven bars and recruiting, something's he's had more than a little success at. With Tolnay, Heenan and Taylor earning All-American honors on bars in 2008, a total of 47 Gym Dogs have been All-Americans on the event under Clark's watch.

A male in a woman's world, the Georgia grad has undoubtedly done a lot of learning during his tenure in Athens, picking up a lot of things from his mentor. If nothing else, Clark, who had an opportunity to leave for the head job at Ohio State several years ago, has learned how to think like a woman.

"There's mostly men coaches for women's teams in this country, and the one thing that they miss or that they don't understand is the emotions of a woman," Yoculan said. "And Jay has a really good handle on that. A phenomenal handle on that."

That said, his fiery personality hasn't been completely masked by emotional sensitivity.

"Some things he's almost too masculine," Taylor said laughing.

"He'll start screaming at us and we're like, 'Jay, this is not football. We don't take that in a positive way.' He's like throwing springboards and stuff and we're like, 'Calm down.' And people start crying like, 'This is not football.'"

That sounded a little familiar to Yoculan, who admitted she's matured greatly over the years.

"He's more reactive now, but less reactive than I was at that age," she said.

"I was off-the-wall reactive, throwing shoes and getting mad and raising my voice. I see how he handles frustrating situations and just sort of laugh because I see myself."

Clark said he and Yoculan are very similar philosophically, and it would be hard not to be after spending so much time together. But one things for sure - he's not looking to replace a gymnastics icon. At least physically.

"On meet day, you're not going to have a coach that walks out in stilleto heels and fishnet hose anymore," he said.