In early 2006, after earning a degree in advertising from Alabama, Ashley Miles Greig was in the midst of a dilemma. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do next.
Gymnastics had been her whole life from the time she was six years old. Multiple years of classes, elite competitions, and camps had culminated in a remarkable NCAA career in Tuscaloosa. She had been living independently for a number of years, so returning home wasn’t an option. Then an opportunity appeared at the local Toyota dealership through her former head coach, Sarah Patterson. Greig went to have a conversation, no resume in hand, and left with a job.
“It was totally out of necessity [because] I needed a job,” Greig recalled.
The job Greig got out of need ended up leading to a career shift that now finds her as the head coach of Iowa State. Under Greig’s leadership, the Cyclones experienced a tremendous turnaround, not only in overall rankings but also in team culture.
Greig was initially hired to be in the sales department of the car dealership, but she never sold a single car. Instead, she found herself in the finance office after a previous employee quit. “They said, ‘why don’t you go sit in there with the finance director and see what you can pick up?’” she explained. Three months later, she was a manager of the department, overseeing salesmen with 15 to 20 years of experience in just her early 20s.
Years later, Greig’s vision started to shift. After getting married, she and her husband began exploring the possibility of having children. By this point, she had switched from an in-office role at the dealership to a work-from-home role that saw her as a “road warrior” and was able to begin commentating for ESPN in her home studio as a way to stay connected to the sport that had given her so much. It was a perfect setup to build a family. Unfortunately, after five years of IVF and many failed attempts, it became clear that children were not in the plans for Greig and her husband.
It led her to again ask herself, just as she had after her college graduation, “What am I supposed to do next?”
Greig decided she needed to re-evaluate. What was something that she was passionate about? What did she absolutely love? What could she not live without? The answer became clear.
“Gymnastics is the foundation of who I am. It was really impactful in every major decision I made in my life. I obviously love the sport and I feel like I really had something to offer [to the sport],” Greig noted.
Thus began the networking. Greig used several contacts, including former UCLA coach Valorie Kondos Field, to help get her name out to programs potentially looking for a coach. It didn’t happen right away. Greig went through a few interviews that ultimately were not successful.
At the end of the 2023 season, a head coaching position opened at Iowa State. In the middle of Ames, Iowa, was a team that finished the season ranked No. 44 and walked into competitions defeated and just looking to get by. The university decided they needed what Greig described as a new energy for their program. Despite having no coaching experience, Greig used her skills she obtained through her time in business to advocate for herself.
“I didn’t shy away from that conversation,” she explained. “There’s a lot more to being a head coach than just coaching. Behind the scenes, [it’s] the athletic department, the marketing, business decisions, and so many other areas that I just excel in. So I [said], ‘Look, you need a CEO of your program. These kids don’t need a coach.’”
Through that conversation, it became clear that Greig was the best choice to become the eighth head coach of the Cyclones. It happened so quickly that even Greig had to ask them to slow down so she could breathe and process what was happening. But once she took that time, it became clear that it was a perfect match.
Josie Bergstrom-Te Slaa was ending her sophomore season when the team found out via a Zoom call that Greig would be their new head coach. 2023 was a season that she described as not what the team had expected or wanted, so hearing that someone of Greig’s caliber was going to lead their program brought a sense of excitement to the team.
Greig’s plan to be the CEO of the program was put to the test immediately. She had to get the current athletes and committed freshmen to buy into her vision for the team. Noelle Adams had previously committed to Iowa State because of the family aspect of the team. After the coaching change, Greig reached out to each of the commits to share her excitement, something that Adams said was influential in keeping her commitment to Iowa State.
“From the [start], I loved her energy,” Adams explained. “I loved the way she talked about how excited she was to meet us and to start this new era, so I put my trust in her.”
Greig then went to work building her program with the intention of taking a step back and learning from her staff. She hired Ryan Snider and Cyclone gymnastics alumna Haylee Young to serve as her assistant coaches. Snider reworked the training and conditioning plan, including adding a preseason boot camp. From leotards to attitudes to the way they approached training, everything was reworked. Bergstrom-Te Slaa noted that Greig’s changes were a major shift from her first two years. “She held all of us to extremely high standards which developed a team culture [throughout] the preseason. Team standards, her intentionality and the confidence she has were a complete switch from what I had seen [previously].”
As preseason progressed, Bergstrom-Te Slaa noted that she didn’t experience much pressure but rather was encouraged to have fun; however, Adams felt the pressure to deliver as an incoming freshman because of how the staff had hyped up her class. “They talked highly of us and we had to prove that we actually were as good as they were making us seem,” she recalled.
“They were not normal freshmen,” Greig explained. “They walked in [and] they wanted to compete, and they immediately bought in.”
The buy-in paid off. After not reaching 196 until February of 2023, the Cyclones hit that elusive number in their second meet of 2024. Bergstrom-Te Slaa hit career-highs of 9.900 plus on vault and beam during the season, while Adams regularly competed three events, shining on vault and floor. The team had some ups and downs throughout the season, including a stretch of five consecutive road meets. Overall, the vibe was completely different from leotards to attitudes to the way they competed. “They kept really good attitudes and kept that fight and when it counted, we showed up,” said Greig.
After experiencing the downs of the previous season, Bergstrom-Te Slaa experienced a roller coaster of emotions seeing the hard work pay off. “We shocked the gymnastics world [with] the potential we had. It had been two years since it felt like we were on fire as a team, so it was an unreal feeling right away.”
After qualifying to the play-in round, the Cyclones faced a tough challenge in Clemson, and many counted them out immediately. “Nobody gave us any shot of beating Clemson [and] it was definitely fuel for us,” Greig said. When the Cyclones pulled off the upset and qualified to day two, it was the culmination of everything the team had worked for and something that Greig said will be forever ingrained in her heart, mind, and soul.
“Every odd was against us,” Bergstrom-Te Slaa noted. “We kept grinding and we knew what we were [capable of[, but to have it be shown at the biggest moment, it was awesome.”
“We felt like we deserved [that win], and we got it,” Adams added.
Heading into 2025, the Cyclones want to build on an impressive season by qualifying directly to day two, potentially even to day three, and finishing the season ranked in the top 25. More importantly, Greig wants to make sure that her team proves that last year wasn’t a fluke. “We have to control the things that we can control [and] show everybody who we are week in and week out. If we do that, the results will show it,” said Greig.
Article by Savanna Wellman
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