Since 2020, 248 athletes across all divisions have switched paths in their NCAA careers and been able to explore new opportunities they have been given by the sport. Over the past couple seasons, transferring to continue your career has become more widely accepted, whereas in the past, transferring might not have been as common and was looked at as more of a risky decision. Making the decision to transfer is a scary one, but, in my own experience, it ended up turning into something beautiful.
I spent the first two years of my career at the University of Bridgeport, a team I was immensely excited to be a part of, and I will always be grateful for the people I met, the memories I made, and the opportunities I was given there. However, as my sophomore season ended, I was, unfortunately, ready to be done with gymnastics, not knowing in just a couple of days this might become a reality. My last competition with Bridgeport was March 8, 2020, only four days before everything was completely shut down. Our team left campus on March 13 with none of us knowing what our next chapters looked like.
Over the next couple of months, I was taking classes online, living at home, and training at my club gym, still waiting for answers about what the year would look like. Rumors were going around of cutting the program or another university buying out Bridgeport, on top of our coach taking a different position. Fast forward to December 2020, still without any answers, I entered the transfer portal with only a couple of days left to be eligible for the 2021 season. At that time, I had no idea how the portal worked and was really just waiting for any opportunity. I ended up contacting my, soon to be, future head coach at Temple, Josh Nilson, and thank goodness he called me back. After our initial conversation, I was really just hoping for everything to fall into place. Within three days, I accepted a spot on the team and moved to Philly to compete just a week later. That was the longest, most chaotic week of my life, but it was the best decision I ever made.
I was able to talk to Samantha Krenzel, a former Lindenwood gymnast who is now finishing out the last few seasons of her career at Bridgeport and who has had a very similar experience in the past couple of months. On December 1, 2023, right before its winter intrasquad, Lindenwood announced it would be discontinuing 10 athletic programs, one of which being gymnastics.
“We met up as a team right after [the meeting], saying ‘If we are going to do anything, we are going out with a bang.’ I wanted to give everything I had to this program, the school, and the girls that came before us,” said Krenzel. Lindenwood capped its legacy last season in the way it set out to do months before becoming USAG national champions for the fifth time in the 12 seasons of the program’s existence.
However, immediately after this highest high, the girls had to make difficult decisions about what all their lives were going to look like in just a few short months. During the 2023-2024 season after the news broke, the former Lindenwood coaches encouraged all their athletes with remaining eligibility to enter the transfer portal in early December. “It was interesting being in the portal during the season, because you are trying to get recruited while you are competing, but still having the season to compete for the team you are on,” shared Krenzel. “It was hard to find the balance between prioritizing my team, but also looking to the future for myself.”
Both my decision and Krenzel’s decision to transfer were, in a sense, made for us, and not knowing what this part of your future might look like is extremely nerve-wracking. Although this was a time of major uncertainty, sitting in this, I found the most peace. Knowing what I wanted moving forward really helped me find exactly what I was looking for. After being at such a low the previous season, when I decided I wanted to continue, I was looking for a place to learn how to love the sport again. Krenzel resonated with this feeling sharing, “I was open to anything; any division, any school, I was willing to make it work. Leaving Lindenwood, I wanted to find somewhere I could be happy doing gymnastics; my sophomore year was very difficult emotionally, so I wanted to find somewhere I could find the joy of gymnastics again.” Luckily for the both of us, we found programs filled with the most loving teammates and coaches who made us a part of their families.
I distinctly remember walking in my first day of practice with my teammate who also transferred from Bridgeport, anxiously waiting to open the doors into the gym, not knowing how us being there so close to competition season would be received. Whatever anxieties I had were washed away by the kindness and support we both immediately felt from a group of girls we were strangers to, and I knew that at that point, that was the perfect place to be.
“Coming in as a freshman to a new school, you are all in it together,” said Krenzel. “[However] as a transfer, I didn’t fully know anyone… and something I was really nervous about was how I was going to fit into this new group of people coming from a school where we were all so close.” When you come in with a group in your freshman year, you are all experiencing the same things, but as a transfer, you have to make adjustments being thrown into something completely new than what you have been conditioned to in your previous years. However, when it’s right, you just know. “It’s really hard to think about how you are going to fit into a team,” said Krenzel. “ But, [any anxieties] I had went away when I got here. I got thrown into it, and now I feel like I’ve been here my whole career. … I feel like I can just be myself here.”
Finding a place that really feels like home is the greatest reward after so much uncertainty. There’s a saying that says, “It’s the people that make a home, not the place,” and this perfectly describes both our experiences being a part of a new team.
When I asked Krenzel about her goals for this upcoming season, she shared, “When I was looking for a place to go after Lindenwood, I [felt] like I didn’t have much to bring gymnastics-wise, but, Lorraine saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. … I want to give everything I have to this team. I’ve been working so hard to build back up my confidence, and coming here has really helped me with that. … I want to find my joy in gymnastics again, and do it for my team who has helped me so much during this transition, and show them how grateful I am for them.”
Going outside of your comfort zone is difficult, but it might just have some of the most beautiful outcomes. Speaking to Krenzel, it felt like a full circle moment knowing that the program I transferred out of, now with the most accepting culture and leadership, is giving her the home she needed after the hard ending of her previous year. Krenzel put it perfectly, “Lindenwood served me at that point in my life, but at this point, this is where I am supposed to be.”
While I will always be grateful for the time and people I met at Bridgeport, I will also always have so much love for the bonds and memories I made at Temple. If it were not for Nilson answering my emails and taking my phone call, I would have never been given the chance to find my love for gymnastics and myself again. If it weren’t for the girls on the three teams I was a part of, I never would have experienced such love, kindness, and acceptance from that first day to the hardest challenges I went through. This group truly built me back up, and for that I will always be so grateful. While this process to leave what you know, even if you also know you aren’t your happiest, best self, is daunting, you might find exactly what you needed that made you so excited to be a college gymnast in the first place.
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Article by Julianna Roland
