"Phenomenal read" about PITT Gymnastics
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Before the season started, the Pitt gymnastics team had an intrasquad competition, during which judges were brought in to score the team’s members on various exercises. As the routines finished and the scores were flashed before them, there was a collective sense of surprise that morphed into optimism.
“We were like ‘Wow, we really have a lot of potential,’ ” freshman Haley Brechwald said.
Several months later, that has translated into something more tangible and euphoric.
In its first season under coach Samantha Snider, Pitt has earned a spot in the NCAA regional championship Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, the first time the program has done so since 2013. Once there, as a fifth seed, it will compete against UCLA, Arkansas, Boise State, Ohio State and Kent State.
Regardless of how it performs, this weekend marks an important step for a program that believes in both its present and future.
“The minute these coaches stepped on our campus, they set the bar so much higher,” junior Charli Spivey said. “They came in and there wasn’t another option other than going to regionals. That was our goal. They prepared us and made that possible. There was no doubt in my mind we would get here.”
The regional championship is a destination in and of itself for Pitt, but it could represent something more. The NCAA championship, which is in St. Louis this year, comprises six regionals with six teams apiece, from which 12 squads will emerge to compete for the national championship, along with individual competitors from teams that didn’t qualify.
For now, the regional is the culmination of a process that began nearly one year ago.
In May 2017, Debbie Yohman retired after a decorated 31-year career as Pitt’s coach, a time in which the Panthers earned 20 NCAA regional berths. A search for her replacement ended with Snider, who had spent the previous eight seasons at Arkansas, her alma mater, most recently as the associate head coach.
At Pitt, Snider was tasked with not only ingratiating herself to a new group of gymnasts but also becoming the face of a program that had only known one for three decades. It began with team-building activities over the summer, the kind in which she allowed her gymnasts to get a peek at who she was and what she was about. Once practices and workouts started, the energy and intensity she brought was palpable.
“They were very clear with their expectations from the beginning,” Brechwald said. “They really wanted to bring this program to the next level and bring it to the place I think we all knew it could be with the potential this team has. From the first meetings, they showed, even having been with us for that not long, that they knew we could get there.”
The expectations, while high, always seemed manageable, both because of the team’s talent and a connection that comes with a coach who, only 10 years ago, was in the same position they all were.
“She’s extremely relatable,” Spivey said. “I found that so helpful in my gymnastics. When you’re having a hard day, and even when you’re having a good day, she knows exactly what that feels like and she knows how to gear that to help you best and she has done that incredibly this season.”
Pitt gymnast Taylor Laymon practices on bars at Trees Hall on Wednesday.(Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
As the season progressed, the results soon followed. This year, the Panthers notched four of the top-10 overall team scores in program history, the all-time record score on bars, as well as five of the top 10 all-time scores on bar, three on beam and two on the vault. Headlining that success has been Brechwald, who won the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) rookie of the year, captured 12 individual titles in 11 meets and recorded three of the top 10 all-around scores in program history.
Through the efforts of her gymnasts and her staff — which includes her husband, Ryan — Snider’s first season at the helm has been a success.
“We came in and we watched a practice and I knew the talent was here,” Snider said. “I just knew with the right staff and the right technicians, we could maximize the talent. I think that’s exactly what we’ve done this year. You can see the talent was there; they just needed the right kind of leadership to really flourish.”
While the program’s present provides promise, its future may offer more. The team has just three seniors, and its 17-member roster features nine gymnasts who are freshmen or sophomores. Of the six people who posted team-high scores in the five events this season, four will be back.
“I really want to take Pitt gymnastics to a national level, where people know what to expect, know about our program and who we are, and follow us throughout the year because we’ve brought this program from a small conference to now a regional platform,” Snider said. “The next step is to push it to a national platform. I wholeheartedly believe we can do that.”
“We were like ‘Wow, we really have a lot of potential,’ ” freshman Haley Brechwald said.
Several months later, that has translated into something more tangible and euphoric.
In its first season under coach Samantha Snider, Pitt has earned a spot in the NCAA regional championship Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, the first time the program has done so since 2013. Once there, as a fifth seed, it will compete against UCLA, Arkansas, Boise State, Ohio State and Kent State.
Regardless of how it performs, this weekend marks an important step for a program that believes in both its present and future.
“The minute these coaches stepped on our campus, they set the bar so much higher,” junior Charli Spivey said. “They came in and there wasn’t another option other than going to regionals. That was our goal. They prepared us and made that possible. There was no doubt in my mind we would get here.”
The regional championship is a destination in and of itself for Pitt, but it could represent something more. The NCAA championship, which is in St. Louis this year, comprises six regionals with six teams apiece, from which 12 squads will emerge to compete for the national championship, along with individual competitors from teams that didn’t qualify.
For now, the regional is the culmination of a process that began nearly one year ago.
In May 2017, Debbie Yohman retired after a decorated 31-year career as Pitt’s coach, a time in which the Panthers earned 20 NCAA regional berths. A search for her replacement ended with Snider, who had spent the previous eight seasons at Arkansas, her alma mater, most recently as the associate head coach.
At Pitt, Snider was tasked with not only ingratiating herself to a new group of gymnasts but also becoming the face of a program that had only known one for three decades. It began with team-building activities over the summer, the kind in which she allowed her gymnasts to get a peek at who she was and what she was about. Once practices and workouts started, the energy and intensity she brought was palpable.
“They were very clear with their expectations from the beginning,” Brechwald said. “They really wanted to bring this program to the next level and bring it to the place I think we all knew it could be with the potential this team has. From the first meetings, they showed, even having been with us for that not long, that they knew we could get there.”
The expectations, while high, always seemed manageable, both because of the team’s talent and a connection that comes with a coach who, only 10 years ago, was in the same position they all were.
“She’s extremely relatable,” Spivey said. “I found that so helpful in my gymnastics. When you’re having a hard day, and even when you’re having a good day, she knows exactly what that feels like and she knows how to gear that to help you best and she has done that incredibly this season.”
As the season progressed, the results soon followed. This year, the Panthers notched four of the top-10 overall team scores in program history, the all-time record score on bars, as well as five of the top 10 all-time scores on bar, three on beam and two on the vault. Headlining that success has been Brechwald, who won the East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) rookie of the year, captured 12 individual titles in 11 meets and recorded three of the top 10 all-around scores in program history.
Through the efforts of her gymnasts and her staff — which includes her husband, Ryan — Snider’s first season at the helm has been a success.
“We came in and we watched a practice and I knew the talent was here,” Snider said. “I just knew with the right staff and the right technicians, we could maximize the talent. I think that’s exactly what we’ve done this year. You can see the talent was there; they just needed the right kind of leadership to really flourish.”
While the program’s present provides promise, its future may offer more. The team has just three seniors, and its 17-member roster features nine gymnasts who are freshmen or sophomores. Of the six people who posted team-high scores in the five events this season, four will be back.
“I really want to take Pitt gymnastics to a national level, where people know what to expect, know about our program and who we are, and follow us throughout the year because we’ve brought this program from a small conference to now a regional platform,” Snider said. “The next step is to push it to a national platform. I wholeheartedly believe we can do that.”
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