2023 coaching changes and athlete transfer portal

[irichluck21]

Not a good look for Randy Lane.
Lots of transfers in the first three years of his program and he loses his top two specialists.

 

[RedBirdie]

Some sunday afternoon reading: https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-utes/2023/04/30/utes-seeing-transfer-portals/

 

[irichluck21]

Tanya Ho, interim HC at UC Davis is confirmed as head coach.
Not surprising at all, especially with the season that the Aggies just had.

MPSF Coach of the Year Tanya Ho to Continue to Lead Aggie Gymnastics - UC Davis Athletics

DAVIS, Calif. – Cal Aggie Athletics Hall of Fame student-athlete Tanya Ho will continue to lead the program where she was a three-time NCAA performer as UC Davis

ucdavisaggies.com

 

[irichluck21]

Brown’s assistant coaches apparently were let go or got jobs elsewhere.
Both Jay Villegas and Alex Hyland were removed from the roster.
Only Brittney Harris is listed.

 

[Laura722]

Lucy Stanhope is transferring to Nebraska and Sirena Linton is transferring to Arkansas.

 

[irichluck21]

Lucy Stanhope is transferring to Nebraska and Sirena Linton is transferring to Arkansas.

Stanhope will get to see competition in more line ups, and possibly even in the AA.

Linton to Arkansas is interesting. Wieber again loving her 5th year grad students.

 

[makam]

Does Arkansas have a lot of unused scholarships to give to the 5th years? Does that mean they haven’t recruited freshmen?

 

[RedBirdie]

I don’t believe they have open spots, but things are always in flux. Plus, grad students may be receiving other aid of some sort that offsets the cost of attendance. Or, after 4 years of scholarship, they decide they can handle taking on one year of loans (and federal grad student loan borrowing limits are MUCH higher than undergrad, making it much easier to avoid private loans).

 

[Sasha]

Jillian Hoffman is going to LSU.

 

[RedBirdie]

Jay Clarke doesn’t like the portal…except when it works to to his benefit :roll_eyes:

The Transfer Portal: How It Works and How to Normalize It in Gymnastics - College Gym News

All the recent articles published on College Gym News, including event coverage, recruiting news, features, data deep dives and more.

collegegymnews.com

Like most things, though, there are unintended consequences with the transfer portal. LSU head coach Jay Clark noted that the portal can sometimes be used as an easy out for an athlete. “It can create a situation where it’s a little too easy for individuals to leave. In some ways, there should be some ability to work things through. We’re not doing them any favors when we tell them if they don’t like something, you can just leave.”

And

Recent NIL legislation has also added fuel to the fire when it comes to the transfer portal. “Some teams out there are able to accommodate extra gymnasts on their team through NIL,” Clark said. “I’m worried that it becomes like a bidding war [and] that the NIL and the collectives and the things that exist now could drive that and you wind up in a sort of pay-for-play situation.” He believes that the NCAA should require some sort of documentation for an athlete’s transfer so an athlete cannot leave without attempting to reconcile the situation in some way.

 

[makam]

He believes that the NCAA should require some sort of documentation for an athlete’s transfer so an athlete cannot leave without attempting to reconcile the situation in some way.

Not sure I’d be down for that. You’re being abused by your coach and want to leave and have to have a permission note from the coach to transfer to another team? Or am I reading that wrong? (obviously in most cases getting documentation would be an easy thing but it is also easy to see how it could be abused. Plus, how many times would a gymnast hop teams? I would think if you were on your second or third trip through the portal, you might not get picked up)

 

[Laura722]

Those are weird comments considering LSU has taken Alexis Jeffrey, Cammy Hall, and now Jillian Hoffman as transfers.

 

[GLeigh]

I thought it might be somewhat in reference to Jeffrey, because while it didn’t seem like they were going to be successful, she left before UCLA had fully tried to fix things. He might not want a similar situation with one of his own leaving.

 

[RedBirdie]

But when you happily take Jeffery, you’re being a hypocrite at best. Clark wants to prevent his own gymnasts from leaving, but is more than happy to use the portal to LSU’s advantage.

His comments about NIL money are ridiculous, too. Let’s not pretend that LSU isn’t swimming in NIL money.

 

[GLeigh]

I know. I remember seeing somewhere that LSU has the three top female NIL earners, and they’ve gained valuable transfers while having no one transfer out in a long time, so his comments didn’t really seem to apply to himself. I guess he disagrees in principle but is happy to use it to his advantage while it’s like this?

 

[irichluck21]

I think Clark is more referring to the athletes with more eligibility left than just a 5th year.
For their 5th year, the athlete has already done four years, earned their degree. So Hoffman and Hall don’t apply, especially as some schools might not have the scholarship available.

Clark did take Jeffrey so that is hypocritical of him, but perhaps he thought it was Christian of him to take her seeing as a majority of schools wanted nothing to do with her.

I think his comments are more along the lines of if the gymnast doesn’t get what she wants, she can just leave the program. In other words, if she isn’t working hard enough, or not making line ups, etc.

He is also a master recruiter so he likely has the mindset on all the efforts that the coaches made to recruit an athlete, just so she can transfer at any moment.

Either way you take it, definitely hypocritical of him to even make the comments, even if he does actually support transfers.

But we know Jay Clark would do anything to win a national title as head coach.

 

[blake]

Amelia Hundley has been hired as an assistant coach at Bama.

 

[irichluck21]

Bama quickly making use of the added, paid, coaching position.

 

[GLeigh]

Lacey Rubin to Missouri, leaving ASU with one coach at the moment

 

[blake]

Good snag for Missouri to replace Magee as beam coach.