The Iowa gymnastics team and its culture has been a big part of Bailey Libby’s life ever since she was a baby. Because her mom, Larissa, was and still is the team’s head coach, she basically grew up in the gym. But even though so much of her life was spent there with the Hawkeyes, she didn’t always know that she wanted to be one.
When Bailey first started the recruitment process, she looked at a variety of different schools. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to stay in Iowa City, and there were multiple reasons for that. “I was trying to get away and kind of experience life away from my family, on my own trying to figure out who I am as an individual,” Bailey said.
Bailey wasn’t the only one who was hesitant about staying in Iowa. Her mom also had some concerns about her daughter being on her team. Larissa wanted Bailey to be able to have the “normal” college experience, and she was worried that being coached by her mom wouldn’t allow for that.
“I want my team members to have a life outside of gymnastics, and I just didn’t see how she could do that,” said Larissa. “I really felt like no matter what, she was always going to be under a microscope.”
But eventually, Iowa started to emerge as one of Bailey’s top choices. “As I was going through that process, I always started to fall back on Iowa’s culture and what they have as a team and as a family,” Bailey said. “And there was just this one part of me that was like, ‘I can’t leave.’”
Once Bailey and her mom were on the same page about her coming to Iowa, it was time to start the recruitment process. Even though Bailey’s been around the gymnastics program for her entire life, she still had a lot to learn about the school itself. Because of this, she went through the same recruiting process that everyone else does, and her mom being the head coach had no effect on it. “Nothing came from me. It all went through my two assistant coaches—everything,” said Larissa. “She came on an official visit with the other kids.”
When Bailey and her mom made the decision that she’d be going to Iowa, the two didn’t quite know what to expect. Larissa hadn’t coached her daughter very much, other than filling in for Bailey’s club coaches from time to time. She had some concerns about how her daughter would adjust to being a collegiate athlete. “I thought it might be the conditioning,” Larissa said. “Or what if she had a bad attitude?” But Coach Libby quickly realized that she didn’t need to worry. She described her daughter as “generally a pretty happy person.”
Since starting her journey at Iowa, Bailey and her mom have had to make some slight adjustments. They’d never had a coach-athlete relationship in addition to a mother-daughter one. Larissa wondered how she’d be there for her daughter when she also has to be her coach. But Larissa and Bailey have figured out some strategies to work around it. Bailey confides in her dad a lot, and sometimes when she really needs to talk to her mom, she reminds her that, “By the way, I’m talking to you as my mom.”
Even though there were a lot of factors at play and the decision didn’t come easily, both Larissa and Bailey are happy with how it all turned out. They both feel like it’s turning out to be a lot easier than they thought it would be. In fact, they’ve discovered some benefits to their unique dynamic along the way. “She knows when something’s wrong by the look of my face. And I have comfort [when] going to tell her when something is wrong,” said Bailey.
So, making the decision to stay in Iowa City may not have been easy for Bailey or her mom, but in Bailey’s eyes, it’s “the best decision I’ve ever made.”
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Article by Emily Lockard
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