On Oct. 18, 2022, UC Davis unexpectedly announced the termination of Head Coach John Lavallee, who had been with the program since 2007. With this change, Assistant Coach Tanya Ho was named interim head coach. Though many assumed Ho would ultimately take the helm at UC Davis, these weren’t the expected circumstances. With Lavallee’s ouster, Ho, a UC Davis alum who previously coached at Sacramento State and Alaska, was alone at the top. What had been a coaching staff of four the previous season, became a staff of one as Assistant Coach Kaytianna Kell and Volunteer Assistant Coach Lacy Dagen moved to coach at Oregon State, their shared alma mater.
In the wake of Lavallee’s departure, Ho said, “The biggest challenge was being the only one on staff at that point. There were 22 athletes, and I was the only one on staff”.
Given the circumstances, the university granted Ho the ability to hire emergency staff. First, she hired David Seiler, a club coach from Head Over Heels Gymnastics, to coach bars. She also enlisted part-time help from Associate Athletic Director Michael Lorenzen who had some experience coaching gymnastics.
Even with these emergency hires, the coaching shake-up caused uncertainty and confusion within the program. It was especially noticeable on beam, where the Aggies lacked a designated coach for the event. Junior Megan Ray said, “We were a little confused. There’s so many unknowns going into the season like, you know, are we gonna have a beam coach to tell us what our lineup is like?”
While uncertainty swirled around the gymnastics side of the program, the athletes focused on creating a thriving team culture. Junior Keanna Abraham said, “I think our team culture just got so much better, because we’re always there for each other and just kind of like, supporting each other throughout everything.”
This supportive environment allowed the Aggies to overcome some rough patches and inconsistencies in the first part of the season since, on multiple occasions, UC Davis had to count falls on beam. As a result, they did not surpass the 49.000 mark until late January and didn’t hit it again until March.
Rather than cause doubt in their abilities, these falls fueled the Aggies and helped the athletes maintain a positive perspective. Ho said, “We lost a couple meets because of counting falls. So I think the team was able to see ‘oh, we are good enough.’”
With this, the Aggies were able to understand that it was their consistency, not their talent, holding them back. In the last three weeks of the season when it mattered most, UC Davis broke 49.000 on beam in three straight meets.
The pinnacle of UC Davis’s season arrived at the MPSF conference championships. Coach Ho reflected on the experience, stating, “We definitely wanted to win, and we definitely wanted to beat San Jose State. We hadn’t beat them all year, and we had lost to them because of falls on beam.”
With these goals in mind, the team focused on staying in the “Aggie bubble”. Ray described the importance of focusing only on what she could control. “I’m putting my energy into my teammates and putting energy into my routines and making sure that I’m doing the best that I can to control what I can”. With this mindset, they were able to claim their first conference championship since 2015.
In reflecting on the meet, Ray, the Aggies’ floor anchor, described a sweet moment before her routine with sophomore Bella Trejo. “I wasn’t gonna look (at the scoreboard) just in case but then I looked because everyone’s cheering and then Bella Trejo came up to me and said, ‘just have fun. We already won.’”
After their conference championship triumph, the Aggies’ season was over, with the exception of Ray and Abraham, both of whom qualified for regionals on vault and floor. Reflecting on the experience Ray said, “The biggest thing I brought back to the team was that it was fun as an individual, but it’s time to bring the whole team.” Abraham echoed that sentiment, explaining that when she walked into the arena she was envisioning the whole team being there with her.
Despite the coaching upheaval, UC Davis’ NQS in the 2023 season was only one and a half tenths outside of the last regionals spot, even with their beam troubles. Giving Aggies fans hope for a better season, Ho hired Rebekah Hill, who coached at Bowling Green and Oregon State, to take on beam and choreography duties, adding much–needed consistency to the event. Now that the program has a full coaching staff, the Aggies should be on bubble watch once again.
Looking forward to the 2024 season, the Aggies will have to face different opponents in their bid to repeat as conference champions. San Jose State and Air Force Academy left the MPSF to join the Mountain West conference, while Southern Utah joined the conference after the dissolution of the MRGC.
Ray spoke excitedly about Southern Utah joining the conference, saying, “Adding Southern Utah was really exciting. It adds competition. If you look at the numbers, they’re ranked higher than us, so that gives us a way to push ourselves”
With season fast approaching, Ho spoke highly of the three incoming freshmen, Alana Kim, Ayumi Oshiro, and Jadyn Wakita, expecting them to contribute two or three routines right away. Their impact will be especially important on bars and beam, the Aggies’ weakest events last season.
From uncertainty and a one-woman staff to a conference championship, UC Davis’ 2023 season was surprising in many ways. What could have been a team-dividing challenge, turned into a strength. Looking forward, expect to see UC Davis contend for another conference championship win and maybe even earn a spot at regionals.
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Article by Rebecca Williams
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