Gymnastics Icon Conner Helped Rowland Find Her Path
Friday, January 29, 2016 | Gymnastics, Scott Carter
Gators head coach Jenny Rowland began career at U.S. Olympic champion Bart Conner's gym
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- They knew each other long before Jenny Rowland returned to Oklahoma and looked for a job to help pay her way through her final two years of college.
By the time Rowland (known then as Jenny Ester) decided to retire as a competitor and left a full athletic scholarship to Arizona State, where she was an All-American in 1993, Bart Conner was already well into his post-Olympic career.
A two-time gold medalist at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Conner parlayed his fame and success in gymnastics into a fruitful career as a television commentator, publisher and owner of the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Okla.
The 17,000-square foot complex at 3206 Bart Conner Drive is the home away from home for The First Couple of Gymnastics, Conner and his wife, Nadia Comaneci, who became an international celebrity in 1976 when she won three gold medals in Montreal and scored the first perfect 10 in modern Olympics history as a 14-year-old.
It's also where Rowland, who is in her first season in charge of the UF gymnastics program, began her coaching career in 1996 to help pay the bills.
"I honestly had no desire to coach whatsoever as an athlete,'' Rowland said this week as the No. 1-ranked Gators prepared to host No. 5 Alabama tonight at the O'Connell Center.
Her outlook soon changed when she started teaching elite level gymnasts at Conner's gymnastics center. Conner had known Rowland since she was a kid training in Tulsa and competing in small club events all around Oklahoma.
Once Rowland settled into her new job, Conner saw her future perhaps before she did.
"She was sort of trying to figure out what she was going to do,'' Conner said. "It sure seemed she always had gymnastics in her blood."
Rowland spent five years working at the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy before taking a job as an assistant at Oklahoma, where she was hired when longtime Sooners coach Becky Switzer, wife of former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, left the program.
When Rowland became a head coach for the first time last spring at Florida to replace Rhonda Faehn, Conner and his business partner, former Oklahoma men's gymnastics head coach Paul Ziert, sent a letter and gift to congratulate her and Gators assistant Adrian Burde.
Burde came to the U.S. from Romania on a work permit in the late 1990s to work at Conner's academy, marking the first time Rowland and Burde worked together.
Conner will be in attendance at tonight's meet for his work as a gymnastics analyst for the SEC Network, the latest opportunity to reminisce with his two former employees.
"Who knew years later they would be two top coaches at the No. 1 program in the country,'' Conner said. "Good for them. It's just great to see the success they are having."
Rowland looks back on her experience in Norman as one that defined her future.
She not only discovered her career, she also met her husband, former Oklahoma gymnast Garon Rowland, when she returned to her alma mater as an assistant. Overall, Rowland spent the first 10 years of her coaching career in Norman between Conner's academy and Oklahoma.
"Bart and his entire staff at his gymnastics facility has really made a big impact on my life and really set my career up to be successful,'' Rowland said. "I left a full college scholarship and moved schools and paid my way through my last two years, with my mother's permission of course.
"So I started coaching gymnastics because that's what I knew at the time. And really, I fell in love with it all over again. It was something I knew I had such a passion for. It was something that was very meaningful to me because it was something I felt that I would be able to empower young athletes and help them fulfill their dreams."
Rowland is off to a good start in her brief time at UF. The Gators are 3-0 and return home tonight after winning last week at Auburn, where Rowland spent five seasons as an assistant prior to being hired at Florida.
Conner was in the house as the Gators provided Rowland with a memorable homecoming. He chuckled Thursday recalling a conversation he once had with Rowland while she was at Oklahoma.
The topic was how schools like UCLA and Florida had such a recruiting advantage because of "sunshine and palm trees."
Rowland is the beneficiary of such advantages these days as the Gators seek a fourth consecutive national championship.
"She has done it all in gymnastics at the highest level,'' Conner said. "The fact she is now a head coach at a major university is not a surprise to me. To follow her and cheer her on during her journey has been real exciting."
Rowland hasn't forgotten where that journey started.
She didn't know where she was headed at the time, but The First Couple of Gymnastics helped point her in the right direction.
"Bart and Nadia are two of the most humble people I have ever met,'' she said. "At first I was a little star-struck. Bart is the most genuine person. He is just who he is. He will give you the best advice and biggest hug."
She can expect another one tonight.
