Alabama Crimson Tide gymnastics

The Alabama Crimson Tide Gymnastics team represents the University of Alabama and is a member of the Southeastern Conference. The Tide compete in Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Crimson Tide have won 5 NCAA Women's Gymnastics national championships, 7 SEC championships, and an NCAA-record 26 Regional championships. The team is coached by Sarah Patterson.

History

The Early Years

The University of Alabama's first gymnastic team debuted in 1975 and began with a loss to Georgia College. The team moved along in relative obscurity until the summer of 1978 when Sarah Campbell was announced as the fifth head coach of the Crimson Tide. Among her first moves was the hiring of David Patterson, now her husband, as an assistant coach. Her first team finished the year 7-7 and she followed up in 1980 with the first winning season in school history. In 1983, the Crimson Tide made its first championship appearance in Salt Lake City, Utah after winning the South Region, defeating the Florida Gators.

The Eighties

Alabama blossomed into a perennial contender under Sarah Patterson (née Campbell) and continued to qualify for nationals as well as producing All-Americans. Penney Hauschild became the Tide's first NCAA Champion in 1985 when she won the uneven bars as well as capturing the All-Around title, becoming the first non-Utah gymnast to do so. She would defend her All-Around title in 1986 while also winning the floor title.

The Crimson Tide continued to advance throughout the decade and finally won their first NCAA title in 1988. The Tide marched into Salt Lake City and defeated host Utah (189.5) and defending champion Georgia (186.8) with a commanding 190.05. 1988 also marked the Tide's first SEC title, which was hosted in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

The Nineties

The 1990s began with a bang for the Tide as Alabama, led by senior Marie Robbins, was crowned the 1990 SEC Champions. The team would finish second at nationals that year, but showed signs of things to come as freshmen Dee Foster captured the All Around title. Tuscaloosa played host to the 1991 NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship and the Tide, led by Gina Basile, Dana Dobransky, Dee Foster, and Kim Masters, emerged victorious for the second time and produced an NCAA record team score of 195.125. Senior, Gina Basile won the balance beam title,while Sophomore, Dana Dobransky would go on to win the balance beam in 1992 and 1993.

In 1995, the Tide won their third SEC Title in Gainesville. Alabama went into their final rotation in fourth place before scoring the highest vault total in NCAA history as all their gymnasts scored 9.9 or higher with Junior Kim Kelly capping off the night with a perfect 10.

The next year, Nationals were again hosted in Tuscaloosa and the Crimson Tide responded with yet another title win. The Tide's stars at the time were Kim Kelly, Danielle McAdams, Stephanie Woods, Merritt Booth, Meredith Willard as well as freshman Gwen Spidle. The title became a race between Alabama and UCLA. Alabama headed into their final rotation only 00.05 ahead of the Bruins who were headed to their strongest event, floor. The Tide caught fire, replicating their 1995 SEC performance and scoring 9.9s or better until finishing UCLA off with two back-to-back 10s from McAdams and Kelly. Alabama finished the night with another NCAA record team score of 198.025.

1997 marked a sour year in Crimson Tide Gymnastics as the team failed to reach the Super Six for the first time since the Patterson's first class graduated in 1983.

The New Millenium

Alabama began the 2000s by capturing their fourth SEC title in Gainesville. The team could only manage a fifth place finish at nationals and improved to 4th in 2001. The Tide looked dangerous once again in 2002 as Andreé Pickens, Raegan Tomasek, Alexis Brion, Kristin Sterner, and freshman Jeana Rice led the Tide to a fourth national championship at home in Tuscaloosa. The Tide defeated two-time national champion from the Pac-10, UCLA and closed out Georgia on the final event, balance beam.

2003 marked the beginning of another era in Alabama Gymnastics history as freshman Ashley Miles became a new star. The 2003 Alabama squad was the youngest in program history with seven freshman, three sophomores, three juniors and one senior. Despite their youth, the Tide would go on to win their fifth SEC title. Nationally, Rice won the All Around in 2004 while Miles would capture a program record-tying four titles for vault and floor.

In 2005, the Crimson Tide added their first Olympian. Terin Humphrey, a 2004 silver medalist on the uneven bars, joined Alabama and ended her career with two uneven bar titles. Despite the individual efforts of Ashley Miles, Terin Humphrey and newcomer Morgan Dennis, the Tide failed to win either an SEC or National title until the end of the decade. In 2007, the Tide marked their first absence from the Super Six since 1997.

The 2009 season began with a below par performance of five losses, yet ended with a snap of their SEC drought. The Tide, featuring stars such as Morgan Dennis, Kayla Hoffman, Geralen Stack-Eaton, and Ashley Priess, lost 5 meets before rebounding towards the end of the season and winning their final three meets as well as regionals. The Tide came to the SEC championships as decided underdogs. The Tide would face the Georgia Gym Dogs who came in as the four-time national champions. Alabama proceeded to upset the Gymdogs after Georgia faltered on their first event, balance beam. The Tide put on a stellar performance at nationals but could not unseat Courtney Kupets and Georgia again and finished second in the nation, their best result since 2005.

The 2010s

Alabama began the 2010 season by avenging all but one of their 2009 losses (LSU) and were the top ranked team in the land throughout the regular season, despite a loss to No. 2 Oklahoma in Norman. The Tide struggled at the SEC championships but finished the night as runners up. Despite putting on one of the top performances of the preliminaries, Alabama stumbled in their first rotation at Nationals. The Tide sunk as low as sixth place during the final competition before fighting all the way back to finish 3rd.

The Tide began the 2011 season with eight freshmen on the team, making it the largest class in school history and accounting for nearly half the roster. The Tide's newcomers had to step in for the previous year's All-American senior class - Morgan Dennis, Ricki Lebegern, Kassi Price and Casey Overton. Despite the young team the Crimson Tide was ranked #2 in the preseason poll. On February 11, 2011, in front of a sellout crowd, Alabama defeated Auburn for the 101st consecutive time. The Tide finished the regular season at 11–1, and won the 2011 SEC Championship, taking down #1 Florida in the process. The Tide entered the Super Six that year as the #1 seed and drew the Olympic rotation. Alabama and #2 seed, UCLA, turned the finals into a dual meet and were tied by the midway point. Alabama broke away on balance beam and sealed their fifth national championship on the floor exercise with Floor Champion Geralen Stack-Eaton followed by Kayla Hoffman. Alabama's final score of 197.650 was their highest Super Six score since 1996.

The Power of Pink

The Power of Pink is the name given to one of the Crimson Tide's home meets each season in which all the participants and fans show up wearing pink to show support for breast cancer awareness. The first Power of Pink meet was in February 2005 at Alabama's home meet against Auburn. Coach Patterson named the meet "Drive 4 the Cause" and requested all fans showing up, to wearing pink. The meet became a sell out and an annual crowd favorite with each following "Pink Meet" selling out. The movement spread within the year to other woman's sports in the NCAA and eventually spilled over into the men's sports and pros. By the end of the decade the MLB used pink bats on Mother's Day and the NFL donned pink gloves for the cause.

Among Patterson's early supporters was the local DCH Regional Medical Center, which created the DCH Breast Cancer Fund. The fund was set up to provide disadvantaged women with means for early detection and treatment for breast cancer. Other supporters included the University, community leaders and Tuscaloosa Toyota. Tuscaloosa Toyota became more and more involved donating free pink shirts to give away at the meets and prize give-aways during the meet. As of the 2009 fundraiser, the effort had raised in excess of $750,000 towards breast cancer prevention and awareness.

Head coaches

Year-by-Year Records

NCAA Titles

Current roster

• Head Coach: Sarah Patterson & David Patterson
• Assistant Coach: Dana Duckworth
• Assistant Coach: Bryan Raschilla

External links

• The Official Web Site of Alabama Crimson Tide Gymnastics
• GymTide.com Coverage of Alabama Gymnastics