Wednesday brought the news that Cal women's gymnastics coach Cari DuBois would step down after the conclusion of the NCAA season. In the university's press release, DuBois cited her summer wedding and "changing priorities" as factors in why she would not be returning.
Hmm. The bigger issue is who will replace her and what he or she will do differently. Now that the Cal women's program has been brought back from the dead (while the men's program was remorselessly cut) the women's team and coaching staff owe it to the guys to, well, perform a little better. Step it up, to employ an overused phrase in NCAA gymnastics.
Head coach Tim McNeill included, the men's program has a few potential Olympians and a very good shot at a top three NCAA finish. The women's program does not.
The men's program has won four national titles and could challenge to be top three this season. The women's program has been the worst in the Pac-10 for years. The Cal women last qualified for regionals in 2004, the year after DuBois took over as head coach.
During her nine-year tenure at Cal -- surprisingly the longest run anyone has had in her position -- Cal has sent only one gymnast, former elite My-Lan Dodd -- to the NCAA Championships.
When the news about Berkeley's Athletic Department crisis broke in September, Cal men's alumni and supporters banded together and formed a fundraising group that pushed hard for people to donate to the Save Cal Gymnastics effort. And it was men's program supporters who sent out e-mails and Facebook messages keeping people abreast of what was happening.
Maybe DuBois and her staff were smarter than the Cal administration and figured out early on that the university could not eliminate lacrosse and women's gymnastics and still be Title IX compliant.
However, the Cal women's best score this season has been 192.7, not impressive for a Division I women's team. Berkeley is an attractive school. Why it does not do a better job of recruiting elite gymnasts, or making competitive NCAA gymnasts out of level 10s, is a mystery.
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Comments
I'm a woman, but I believe Title IX needs to be done away with, period. To reward a program that is obviously at the BOTTOM of its game, while cutting one that is at the top, is totally outrageous.
if you knew anything at all,which you clearly don't, many factors contributed to Cal women's gymnastics progam. First, the weight training behind the program has alot to do with it. These girls don't need to push weights as if they are football players and that is what is happening! More cardio is needed. Second, someone on the coaching staff needs to understand the concept of "recruiting". Some of these girls have bad attitudes and no respect for the coaching staff and feel that everything is owed to them -- wrong! I pray that the Cal Athletics Dept does the school and these girls justice by getting someone in who can turn things around, clean house -- team as well as coaching staff, and who knows the correct way to train a gymnast, not a football player!
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