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Frank Kudlac, the only head coach in the illustrious history of TWU Gymnastics, is entering his 30th season as leader of the Pioneers.
Kudlac, who started the TWU gymnastics team in 1978 as a club sport, has led the Pioneers to eight USA Gymnastics (USAG) Collegiate National Championships. TWU won four USAG titles in a row from 1993-1996. Since their initial title run, the Pioneers have claimed the USAG crown on four more occasions - 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2006. No other school has won more than two USAG Collegiate National Championships. TWU also won Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Championship for the first time in school history in 2006.
Under Kudlac’s direction, the Pioneers’ 2007 season was another succesful one. The team placed fourth at both the MIC Championships and the USAG Collegiate National Championships. Two TWU gymnasts - senior Courtney Arno (bars) and freshman Rachel Zimmerman (beam) - won USAG individual event national championships. Six Pioneers - Arno, Zimmerman, sophomore Amy Hulbert, senior Catherine Schnoes, sophomore Brittany Parker, and sophomore Tonya Pipkorn - were named to the 2007 USAG first or second All-America teams. Additionally, seven Pioneers garnered All-Midwest Independent Conference honors. Arno won two MIC Gymnast of the Week awards and the MIC Senior of the Year trophy. She also tied for fifth on bars at the 2007 NCAA South Central Regional meet. The Pioneers also continued their tradition of academic acheivement. Collectively, the team had a 3.5885 GPA during the 2006-07 academic year and ranked seventh overall in the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGC/W) scholastic rankings of all women’s gymnastics programs in NCAA Divisions I, II and III. Thirteen TWU gymnasts were picked for the All-MIC Scholastic team. Twelve Pioneers were named 2006-07 NACGC/W Academic All-Americans and eight ladies were chosen as USAG Scholar-Athletes.
A seven-time NCAA Division II Coach of the Year selection (1993-96, 1999, 2000, 2006), Kudlac is a native of Binghamton, New York. He was born into a family with a rich history and appreciation for the sport of gymnastics. His grandfather, Paul Kudlac, his mother, Sidney, and his father, Frank, Sr., all excelled in gymnastics. Even his younger sister, Vicki, who currently resides in Richmond, Virginia, participated in gymnastics on the recreational level.
Kudlac himself learned gymnastics through SOKOL, a Czechoslovakian gymnastics organization that uses a “sound mind, sound body” method of teaching. Kudlac competed as an all-arounder for West Chester (Pa.) University and was the team captain his senior year. The Rams were conference champions the first three years of Kudlac’s career and finished as conference runner-up his senior year. Kudlac graduated from West Chester with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1978. He will be inducted into the West Chester University Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 16, 2008.
Arriving in Denton in 1978, Kudlac entered graduate school at TWU and began a club gymnastics team with seven women whom he recruited in class and on campus. Kudlac earned his master’s degree in Kinesiology from TWU in 1981. During the 1981-82 season, Lisa Harlan, a member of the TWU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, became the school’s first All-American by finishing first in the nation on floor exercise at the 1982 NCAA Division III National Championships.
In the past 29 years, TWU gymnastics has had 163 USA Gymnastics All-America awards, 85 National Association of College Gymnastics Coaches/Women Scholastic All-America selections, 15 appearances in the NACGC/W Scholastic Top Twenty Teams, and three NCAA Postgraduate Scholars. TWU gymnastics has also recorded three Verizon Academic All-America winners: Monique Taylor, who made the third team in 1996; Brandi Smith a first team member in 2003 and a third team member in 2002; and Erin MacNabb, who was selected to the third team in 2004. The Pioneers’ most decorated gymnast, Kim Koenig, finished her senior year in 1999 with back-to-back perfect 10’s on beam at the USAG Collegiate National Championships. These are still the only perfect 10.0 scores in TWU history. Koenig will be inducted into the TWU Athletics Hall of Fame on April 25, 2008.
Kudlac added international experience to his resume when he served as an assistant coach for the 1994 United States women’s gymnastics team that competed in the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 26-Aug. 3, 1994.
Additionally, Kudlac teaches in the department of Kinesiology at TWU. He also owns and manages a private gym in Denton called Achievers Gymnastics Center.
Kudlac is married to the former Johnna Hinton. The couple lives in Denton with their two children, daughter Sydney Kay (5) and son William Matthew (3).
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