After 29 Years, Gators Would Love To Join 1982 Squad In Gymnastics Immortality
Friday, April 15, 2011 | Gymnastics, Scott Carter
CLEVELAND – Ernestine Russell won't be spending the weekend here on the edge of Lake Erie wondering if Florida's gymnastics team will finally celebrate a long-awaited national championship.
The 73-year-old Russell has a meet of her own this weekend as coach of a young group of gymnasts in Nevada.
Known as Earnestine Weaver during her 13 seasons as UF's head coach from 1980-92, Russell made the trek to the NCAA Gymnastics Finals a year ago. Like many others, Russell thought the stars might magically align for the Gators as they hosted the NCAA Finals for the third time in school history.
The Gators had the talent to win and were well-positioned for a breakthrough before a home crowd, but they didn't have the performances when it mattered most, finishing fifth as UCLA captured its sixth NCAA title.
Russell sat in the O'Connell Center bleachers rooting hard for the Gators, trying anything she could to will them to a win. Nothing worked, and Russell returned home amazed that another year had passed and her 1982 Gators remained the only Florida gymnastics team to capture a national title.
“That's our sport,'' Russell said. “It makes you wonder why they can't do it. But the older I get, the more I realize how you can't control everything. There are so many variables.''
In Russell's third season at UF, the Gators won their first and only national title by edging SEC rival Alabama for the final Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) championship. The Gators ruled the day 29 years ago in Memphis, Tenn.
Senior Ann Woods won the all-around, floor and bars, and sophomore Lynn McDonnell captured the balance-beam competition in the transition year before the NCAA merged the AIAW meet into its national championship meet that started the same year. Since Florida's title, only four schools have claimed national titles in gymnastics: Utah, Georgia, Alabama and UCLA.
The Gators take the floor Friday night here at the Wolstein Center on the campus of Cleveland State University seeking to join the exclusive club. The Gators have come close, finishing runner-up in 1998 and in the top five in each of the past five years.
Still, while all those Super Six banners hanging inside their practice facility at the O'Connell Center look nice, the 1982 AIAW banner has rested alone all these years.
The goal, the same as when Russell felt pressured to produce near the end of her tenure, is to bring home a national title trophy. Current Gators coach Rhonda Faehn wants to see the Gators crack the short list of national champions as much as anyone.
In her ninth season at UF, Faehn sees more teams capable of winning a national title than at any other time. But it takes more than talent.
“It's tremendously challenging,'' Faehn said. “You ask any of the four coaches at the schools that have won, and they'll say something similar: 'That the stars have to align on that night and everything has to fall in place.'
“It's something pretty magnificent that we dream of. We would love to bring that title back to Gainesville. I think there are more schools that can contend. There are other ones knocking on the door.''
While the competition is better than ever in the sport, the interest has also increased to create a more pressured environment. More than 12,000 tickets have been sold for this weekend's sessions in Cleveland, an inconceivable concept to Russell nearly 30 years ago.
She doesn't remember much hoopla surrounding the Gators' historic win.
What she remembers is a team that delivered in the clutch and helped launch Florida's program to a new level. The expectation level also shot up.
“We knew that we should be able to do it,'' Russell said. “But you just never know. The boosters were getting a little anxious when I wasn't getting any further than third place. And here it is 20 years later, and they still haven't won another one.
“Florida is in my heart to stay. I sure hope they can win one. I know Rhonda has waited a long time for this.''
So has sixth-year senior Maranda Smith. She said the Gators are focused on positive results, and if they do that, a national championship could be a bonus and add another layer to the program's successful history.
“It would definitely show that this team has worked hard for many years to get to this point,'' Smith said. “It would be great to be part of that team that wins. It would be fun to be part of the team that broke the trend of those [four] schools.''
Sophomore Marissa King got a taste of her first NCAA Finals a year ago. She heard all the national championship talk. She knows the expectations that Florida's programs face from fans. She also knows the Gators have the ability to get the job done if they perform at their best.
“That's going to be in the back of my mind,'' King said. “Obviously we want to win. When we go out there and hit our routines like we have been doing, that's when we produce positive results.''
But don't expect a speech from Faehn about going out and winning the school's first NCAA title. She'll leave that topic for others to discuss. What she wants to see is the Gators maximize their ability on the sport's biggest stage.
If they win a national title, that's even better. But that can't be the focus.
“That's too overwhelming,'' Faehn said. “We are going to lay it all out on the line, and however it finishes, it finishes. But we're not going to leave there with any regrets. We do great things as a program and as a team when we compete that way.''
