One mark of a great gymnast lies in the ability to win
championships. The same holds true for coaches. This past weekend
in Lincoln, Neb., the UCLA women’s gymnastics team, led by
five seniors, captured its third title in four years.
It was not the first UCLA gymnastics championship, but for
first-year coaches Chris Waller and Carly Raab, it was the first
title of their UCLA coaching careers.
In 1987, Chris Waller was a starry-eyed freshman competing as
part of a powerful and talented UCLA men’s gymnastics team.
The Bruins captured the NCAA title that year, and he has been on
the championship bandwagon ever since, capturing either a U.S. or
NCAA title every year from 1989 to 1993.
Fast forward to 2002, when an assistant coaching position opened
up for the UCLA women’s team. Head coach Valorie Kondos Field
approached Waller, who again became a starry-eyed freshman involved
with a powerful and talented UCLA gymnastics team. Only this time
he was coaching instead of competing.
Alongside Waller was another first-year coach ““
undergraduate assistant Carly Raab ““ a member of UCLA’s
renowned Fab Five. Both were given the privilege of working with a
talented UCLA team.
“When you are a freshman in anything, if you just focus on
your job there are fewer distractions,” Waller said. “I
think it’s important when you come in as a new coach that you
don’t force your style or your coaching on the gymnasts. You
have to get to know them and their gymnastics, and watch and listen
more than coach for a while.”
For Raab, the task of getting to know each gymnast was not
difficult. As a freshman, Raab was part of the Fab Five recruiting
class that would elevate UCLA gymnastics to the best in the nation
for the next four years. However, Raab’s path to her senior
season differs from that of the other four members of the Fab
Five.
Last year, multiple knee injuries throughout her collegiate
career forced Raab to make a decision on whether to persevere and
risk permanent injury or give up the sport she loved and move
on.
“The hardest thing was having to put a value on my health
and my knee versus the value of my passion for the sport,”
Raab said. “How do I choose my knee over something I love to
do every day? Ultimately you say “˜Well, I want to have a knee
when I’m 40.'”
Raab was forced to injury-retire, a fate every college gymnast
fears. But she took the fork in the road that led to the world of
coaching, lending her experience to a staff that included Kondos
Field and second-year assistant Milo Johnson.
“There’s no one who loves the sport more than Carly.
I wish that I was able to give her my knee so that she would be
able to compete again,” junior Jamie Dantzscher said.
“When I found out that she was going to stay around and
coach I was extremely happy, because if Carly wasn’t there
this year, there definitely would have been a huge piece
missing.”
The two first-year coaches are quick to acknowledge how lucky
they are to be given the opportunity of molding and shaping some of
the most talented gymnasts in the world.
“I’m just fortunate altogether,” Waller said.
“I’m a lucky person. For one, I’m a Bruin;
I’ve already been there. Secondly, I’m an Olympian, and
they know me from being an Olympian. I walked in with probably more
respect than a lot of other people would have, so that
helped.”
“(Kondos Field) allowed me to have this opportunity, and I
am so lucky that she did that,” Raab said. “She
didn’t need to give me this opportunity at all.”
While Raab had spent the previous three years of her life as a
member of the UCLA gymnastics family, Waller would have to gain the
trust and respect of both gymnasts and coaches. If anyone was up to
the task, it was Waller, who said that coaching gymnastics is his
calling in life.
“Once you know the athlete you can say things that make
sense to them and affect them, and that will make them
listen,” Waller said. “That is how you gain their
respect. Once they know that you have taken the time to listen and
understand them and respond to their technical and emotional needs,
they gain trust in you.”
Acceptance came quickly and easily for Waller, who has become so
involved in UCLA gymnastics one would think he has been coaching
the Bruins for years.
And that suits him just fine.
“I hope to be here for a long time,” Waller said.
“It’s my family, it’s where I became an athlete.
It is just unbelievable that I get the opportunity to come back to
where I became an Olympian and an NCAA champion.”
As for Raab, when she considers the fact that she can wear three
NCAA championship rings on one hand, she knows she has been a part
of something special.
“This was the most rewarding national championship
I’ve ever been a part of because I’m so close to
everybody on this team,” Raab said.
“I love being a part of this sport from a different
perspective. It’s been so much more rewarding than I thought
it was going to be,” Raab said.
With new rings on their fingers, each UCLA gymnast fortunate
enough to be mentored by the two freshmen phenom coaches feels just
as lucky as Raab and Waller.