The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/447116
OLYMPIC SPORTS Coaches might dream about coach‑ ing at their alma mater, but they cer‑ tainly dream about winning cham‑ pionships. The sport of gymnastics hadn't seen a back‑to‑back national champion in 44 years, but that's ex‑ actly what Golder did in his last two seasons at Michigan. His success is almost unmatched over the past 14 years, during which he has coached his teams to 14 Super Six finishes at the NCAA Championships. The past two seasons have been a whirlwind for Golder, featuring a pair of College Gymnastics Asso‑ ciation National Coach of the Year honors and Big Ten Coach of the Year accolades. Over those two cam‑ paigns, he has guided the Wolver‑ ines to 20 All‑America citations at the NCAA meet, and five NCAA and Big Ten individual titles, and produced the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year in Sam Mikulak in 2013‑14. Golder humbly explains how he's been able to achieve so much in that time span. "We were just fortunate several years ago to recruit a lot of depth and very good quality," he ex‑ plained. "Anytime that you have two Olympians on your team at the same time that certainly bodes well for success. Managing the health issue in our sport is a big deal, and we've been successful in doing that. For the most part we've had a very strong lineup at the end of the year and for the last two years in particular." Winning a championship in any arena is truly special and even though Golder has done it four times, he still had a difficult time verbalizing just what it means. "It's so special," he said passion‑ ately. "I compare it with the Olympic Games. It's something that not many people get to experience. When you win a national championship it is such a great feeling. It's hard to ex‑ press. Even if I could verbally ex‑ press it, people who haven't lived it wouldn't fully understand it." Golder and his gymnasts now turn their sites to the three‑peat. He has confidence in his team and says that a third championship in a row is a goal but not one that gets regularly talked about. "I think any team that's in the Su‑ per Six has the potential to win it," he said. "We aren't favored this year like we were last year, but I've won a couple of national titles when we weren't favored. As a matter of fact, in 1999 we were ranked 10th and we came through and won the Big Ten and NCAA championships. "We don't talk about it much, but it's mentioned," he admitted. "We cover that in the fall meeting a little bit. We are not a program that con‑ tinually talks about winning cham‑ pionships. You just hope that every‑ one is paying attention, and that's what everyone is working toward. That's not really my style, to keep pounding on those goals. "We know what they are, and we know what we're trying to do. We are more focused on the process, and if you focus on that, in the end you'll accomplish your goals."