For the LSU Gymnasts, the Unsung Hero of the Championship Team Is Jay Clark

After 50 years, LSU gymnastics finally has its national title after outlasting California, Utah, and Florida Saturday afternoon at the NCAA gymnastics championships in Forth Worth with a score of 198.2250. And while it’s easy to attribute the success to star all-arounders Haleigh Bryant, Aleah Finnegan, and Kiya Johnson, when asked who would be considered the team’s unsung hero, Finnegan only had one answer.

“Can it be a coach? I would say Jay.”

Sitting to her left, LSU head coach Jay Clark, who had traded in his signature paper Powerade cup for a bottle of water, nearly choked from surprise. 

“I’m sorry, Jay, no,” Finnegan insisted, countering Clark’s head shake and eye roll. “He wants it so bad for us every single day. Day in and day out when we go inside the gym, he truly makes us 1% better, and we could not be more thankful to have him as a head coach and have him as the leader on our team.”

Just like she had for two hours previously on the competition floor, sitting next to Finnegan in the small press conference room under Dickies Arena, Bryant backed her teammate up.

“Honestly, I didn’t even want to come do college gymnastics. I came here, and it’s been the best four years of my life. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him, and I’m just so thankful for that, giving me the opportunity of a lifetime and getting to do all the things that I’ve done.”

“There’re so many people behind the scenes who support us and help us get to where we are that nobody really gets to see,” Johnson added.

Clark’s failed attempt to hold back a smile bolsters the impression that he’s far more moved by his gymnasts’ recognition of their proverbial village than by the praise directed toward himself. 

After a chaotic semifinal round that saw the shocking elimination of—to borrow Clark’s phrase—the “prohibitive favorite” Oklahoma Sooners, the Tigers found themselves the unexpected frontrunner heading into Saturday’s championship final.  

The meet was markedly close through the first three events, with less than two tenths separating first-place Utah and third-place Cal heading into the fourth and final rotation. The Utes would end on their weakest event, vault, and the Golden Bears on their strongest, bars. Luck of the draw meant that LSU would finish on its most mercurial, beam, the event on which four of the last six national championships have been won. 

Senior Sierra Ballard, daughter of legendary Georgia gymnast Lori Strong Ballard and Clark’s niece, led off the team with what was arguably the best routine of her collegiate career, and was rewarded with a career-high 9.9500. One down, five to go. 

Next up was sixth-year Savannah Schoenherr, who transferred to LSU after the 2023 season following a stellar career with SEC rival, Florida, during which she earned All-America honors on vault and bars. Schoenherr rarely competed beam during her time with the Gators and was even a relative newcomer to the Tigers’ lineup. She looked on pace to match the 9.925 she’d earned in Thursday’s semifinal when she made a seemingly random (and truly bizarre) error on her on-the-beam choreography that has already been dubbed “the Sloth Fall” by the gymternet, fittingly mimicking the small stuffed sloth the team brings to every meet. 

“If you really want to know the truth, I was praying to take it out of my hands,” Clark said. “I mean, I was running my mouth in my cup.”

His prayers and ritual cup-chewing worked, as one by one Konnor McClain, Johnson, and Bryant each contributed scores of 9.9500 or better. With one final shot to drop Schoenherr’s mistake, LSU needed better than a 9.6875 to put the title out of reach for both Utah and California. It would all come down to Finnegan.

“I just knew that moment was built for her,” Clark said. “I was extremely confident when she got up there that she was going to knock it out of the park, and she did.”

Finnegan’s 9.9500 gave the Tigers a championship-record 49.7625 beam total to clinch its first NCAA title. As the gymnasts erupted into a frenzied nebula of tears, hugs, and shrieks of joy, Clark walked away from the scrum toward the podium stairs, refusing to celebrate his team’s win until legendary LSU coach D-D Breaux made her way down from the stands.

“D-D gave me an opportunity to join her when I needed one,” said Clark, referencing his 2012 resignation as Georgia head coach after failing to deliver a national title during his three years at the program’s helm. “She was a big part of this program—the 43 years that she put in there and the battles that she fought, whether it was Title IX or anything else—I just felt it was important that when this program won its first national title that it’d be hers as well.”

Despite his success at both Georgia as an assistant coach and now leading LSU, Clark didn’t hesitate to acknowledge those who paved the way before him.

“As a male in a female sport, I’ve been the benefactor of D-D, Sarah Patterson, Suzanne Yoculan, Greg Marsden, Val Kondos [Field], and others who came along ahead of me,” Clark said. “I’ve been along for the ride for some of that, but I didn’t have to fight through those things. Now we’re in a situation at LSU [where] our administration is tremendously supportive of every sport, and we don’t feel as though we’re looked at any differently.”

With 34 years of experience, Clark has built up an incredible wealth of knowledge yet stated he believes he has learned more from his athletes than they have ever learned from him. And while that may be true, his impact on his gymnasts is still abundantly clear.