2007 Gymnastics Media Guidefinalworkingcopy.indd - Central ...

Coach Reighard Q & AWhat is your coaching philosophy?I love coaching and believe God hasgiven me an ability to understand andwork with young people. Coaching isabout motivating and encouraging. Iwant my athletes to reach their greatestpotential, to be their very best individually,but what is most important and reallyexciting is what can be achieved when ateam works together to reach its goals.CMU gymnastics has won more Mid-American Conference titles than anyother school. Why is that?We have 10 MAC titles, and I attributethose championships to terrifi c work ethicand dedicated athletes with heart. Werecruit athletes whowant to learn, and weencourage and guidethem to compete at alevel they didn’t thinkthey were capable of.We challenge themto stretch themselvesand dream a little.Our team goal eachand every year is towin the MAC title.Is there a keyword to describeyour program?“Perseverance”is the key wordto describe CMUgymnastics. Ourgymnasts mustwork very hard tomaster new skills. They must take risks,overcome fears, and remain diligent intheir pursuit of excellence. Meets are wonby hundredths of a point. That’s a bentknee or fl exed foot. Gymnasts are toughand overcome many obstacles. I tell myathletes that there is nothing they can’tattain if they persevere through adversity.Winners have perseverance, in the gymand in life.Why are your gymnasts assuccessful in the classroom as theyare in the gym?Complete concentration is a key factorto successful gymnastics competition.Mental training is essential. We prideourselves on being one of the topacademic gymnastics teams in the nation.Every season we have academic All-Americans and all-conference academicwinners. We’ve had Rhodes Scholarhonorees. We recruit athletes with highacademic expectations. Add that to thementoring programs of our NCAA awardwinningacademic center at CMU and webecome as competitive in the classroomas we are on the apparatus.After 21 years of coaching, whatdo your alumnae say about CMUgymnastics?There are two things I hear mostoften. The fi rst being how much theyappreciated the family atmosphere ofCMU gymnastics. And secondly, howtheir experience with CMU gymnasticsprepared them for real life, to work hardat a job and raise a family with values.I’ve always said that athletics mirrors reallife.What are the goals for the team in2007?As always, the fi rst and most importantgoal for this season is to win the Mid-American Conference championship. Inorder to achieve other goals that we set,we need to be the best team in the MAC.Another signifi cant goal is to qualify forand compete at an NCAA Regional meet.We intend for this team to be ranked inthe top 15 in the nation and to qualify forthe NCAA Championships.What is the most important qualityyou pass on to your gymnasts as ahead coach?My teams learn that their work ethicdefi nes them inthe competitivearena and willshape their futurein their careers.Champions aremade, not born,and our gymnastshave seen theirupperclassmenrise to the top asa result of whatthey do each andevery day.How and whydo you recruitinternationally?We comb thenation, as wellas Canada, foronly the bestgymnasts. We look near and far becausemy goal is to bring in better athletes thanare presently in the program. That is theonly way to continuously raise the levelof CMU gymnastics. If a recruit gets aninvitation to make an offi cial visit here toCentral Michigan University, she shouldfeel very proud.Central Michigan University Womenʼs Gymnastics1910-time Mid-American Conference Champions