Men's Program At USOPTC Shutting Down; EVO to privately fund much of team

[falcon9]

Looks like this is officially not a rumor anymore…

 

[falcon9]

 

[Rich]

is this where aimee boorman is? How do they get paid?

 

[RedBirdie]

Wow. Didn’t Syque Caesar just get named as USOPTC head coach in the last year?

Is Aimee Boorman still at EVO? For some reason, I thought she left.

 

[Doug1233]

Didn’t Syque Caesar just get named as USOPTC head coach in the last year?

Ouch! Is he not very good?

 

[irichluck21]

Ouch! Is he not very good?

The program shutting down isn’t a reflection of him as a coach.
EVO is offering paid stipends to train in Sarasota. This is not the same as being at USOPTC, where you are not paid and the only stipend you receive is if you are a national team member.
Colin is not currently a national team member, for example, so now he will receive a stipend training with EVO.

If almost all the members of the program end up relocating to EVO, it does not make sense for the program to continue in Colorado Springs.

 

[Doug1233]

What’s in it for EVO? How are they funding all these payments? Did they do some kind of collective sponsorship/ad deal or something?

 

[Yarotska]

Aimee was rumo(u)red to be arrogant and difficult to work with at EVO.

I was working out at EVO in their now-defunct adult open gyms and I’ve heard a lot of about these big money investments. They got a floor from the Olympic training centre in May and I was told they cost like 80,000 dollars. And they were also looking at buying another one that was half a million. The company was from Arizona or something and they started buying up lots of gyms on their network. They were trying really hard to get Sam on board and it looks like they gave him an offer he couldn’t pass up. One of their team coaches sat in on open gyms. He was like 20 and they arranged for him to move to Sarasota at their expense just so he could coach there.

Although the funniest thing I heard is that Sam did a clinic for WAG and the old team coach told me that one of the gymnasts said she felt less capable after working with him.

 

[falcon9]

How do they get paid?

I first heard rumors of this back in June… been waiting for it to break. That has been my question all along though. Where is this money coming from? Are they just buying clubs and using the profit from the clubs to finance this whole thing?

 

[Denn]

I am worried about whether this will actually work.

Like @falcon9, I wonder where the money is coming from, as that may affect whether this will work.

 

[Denn]

A FB comment (uncorroborated of course) claims that one source of money is prize money won at competition — goes back to the organization to help fund things.

Also, what then happens to Brett McClure?

 

[Doug1233]

Prize money is barely a pot to piss in!

 

[OnoNoKomachi]

The National Team training camps will continue to be held at the USOPTC. I would guess the selection camps would also be held there.

EVO is being funded by a private investor. I don’t know any more than that.

Brett McClure isn’t going anywhere - he’s still the director of the men’s program overall, not just the USOPTC.

I hope Syque lands on his feet - he left a job at Stanford for this - and his position is filled so he can’t just go back. Nothing wrong with him as a coach -

I bet the training stipend offered by EVO was what drew most of the people away from the USOPTC

 

[navyblue]

Steve Butcher’s involvement on the business (=fundraising) side of things is a really good sign to me. I’m optimistic.

 

[Denn]

I do agree with that.

 

[Denn]

Brett McClure isn’t going anywhere - he’s still the director of the men’s program overall, not just the USOPTC.

But if the training center closes, this does affect his day-to-day job, right?

 

[falcon9]

But if the training center closes, this does affect his day-to-day job, right?

Not from what I have heard… just would require more travel.

EDIT: So I guess “yes”… it may affect day-to-day… but not overall job function.

 

[Denn]

And when more travel is required, it can get tougher.

I don’t say this to put Brett down in any way, as he is a well-liked coach, a nice person, and a proponent of our program who cares about the gymnasts. But he has previously had limits on his time and ability to do 100% of the job. I have heard this from multiple people and also experienced it first-hand a couple of times with texts. The job is very demanding and this change could make it worse — or maybe better, who knows? I just worry that having either to travel more or to communicate long-distance more might make it harder to do the job for anyone, even a superhero, and it certainly would be a challenge for someone for a responsible father who takes care of his family. And I would like to see him be successful, so I hope that whatever the new plan is, it works great for everyone.

 

[RedBirdie]

Aimee was rumo(u)red to be arrogant and difficult to work with at EVO.

Interesting. Do you know if she still there? The EVO website is worthless.

I heard she was really frustrated with parents and unrealistic expectations and dreams about turning their kids into Olympic champions, and that’s what lead her to leave. But maybe that was incorrect.

 

[RedBirdie]

Is this whole things reminding anyone else of a somewhat similar attempt a decade-plus ago? That fell apart, and the whole thing just gave me a very weird vibe. I can’t remember what the name of it was (shed a tear for the loss of WWG, because we discussed it extensively there, iirc). But we had a lot of the same questions about where is the money coming from, how reliable is this?

And what exactly is Power Gymnastics Group? Google turns up almost nothing.