By Arlie Rahn
Arizona Daily Wildcat
March 4, 1998

End of an Era

When Jim Gault retires after this season, some people will focus on his 340-plus wins, others may look at his nine trips to the NCAAs, but his friends and former athletes will mostly remember his heart.

"The one thing that really separates him is that he truly cares about the athletes," said UA assistant gymnastics coach Bill Ryden, who has spent eight years with Gault. "To him, every girl in his program has been like a daughter. And while he has taken a lot of joy from these athletes, I think he also has had to deal with more pain than anyone deserves as a coach."

Gault will coach his final home meet Friday evening at McKale Center when UA hosts Minnesota.

When Gault entered as UA's head coach in 1980, he was handed a program that was drenched in failure. The team had few wins and even fewer aspirations - it needed a new beginning.

As Gault started the 1981 season, he brought with him a new set of ideas that would begin a better era for UA gymnastics.

"When I came in, the program had its problems. The team was not very successful and the facilities were awful. We had to run through a doorway to practice vaulting," Gault said. "So I decided to start a new type of gymnastics here, one that was very demanding. So demanding that three of our scholarship athletes came in and quit after the first month. It wasn't that they disliked me, it was that they just couldn't take the training."

And while Gault's methods might have appeared a little harsh at the start, they quickly produced results. In just one year he turned a disappointing team that averaged a score of 7.9 per gymnast into a legitimate conference threat with gymnasts averaging scores in the 9.0 range.

"The kids that stuck with it were very excited and they pushed themselves harder than they ever had in their life," Gault said.

Yet nothing had motivated Gault to improve his coaching more than his first international trip to Japan in 1973. As a coach on the U.S. team, he learned quickly how overmatched the United States was in terms of gymnastic ability.

"When we went over there and first saw the Russians in competition, we were amazed. It was like we had just been messing around the last couple of years compared to them," he said. "It really inspired me to go back and do better as a coach, just to keep up with the international style."

Gault also got a view of the politics involved in international gymnastics and how frustrating judging can be during trips.

"The politics were just disgusting," Gault said in reference to a trip he made to Bulgaria. "It was like what these ice-dancing girls had to put up with in this year's Olympics. Once you arrived, you heard talk about how you have to get this judge on your side if you wanted to do anything. That kind of flagrant judging really builds your resolve to train harder so you can't get deducted at all."

So when Gault used this resolve to establish a successful pattern at Arizona in the mid-1980s, the Wildcats began to grow with more talented athletes.

"He really put UA gymnastics on the map," said Senior Associate Athletic Director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose, who was an assistant under Mary Roby at the time. "He brought in a winning attitude and helped our program become rated among the elite."

As the Arizona gymnastics program entered the 1990s, it began to make national news as a team and on an individual basis. The team finished in the top 10 in 1992 (fifth) and 1993 (sixth), and gymnasts Anna Basaldua and Jenna Karadbil achieved All-American status. Yet through all the team's success, Gault continued to focus on the needs of each athlete.

"He is not only a great coach, but he also has a great heart. I have learned so much from him in terms of coaching and performing," said current assistant coach Karen Tierney, who entered the program as a gymnast in 1993. "When you are out there performing and you have a bad event or meet, you think it is the end of the world. He really helped me understand that you can get through those tough times and you will compete again. He was really like a father figure to everyone."

Another person Gault has positively influenced is senior Rose McLaughlin. Although she went to high school in New York and began collegiate competition at George Washington, McLaughlin had grown up in Tucson and had practiced with Gault and U.S. Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug in the old Gittings gymnasium. So, when things got too hectic back east, she turned to him for advice.

"I was really in a tough situation at George Washington. I had been close to coach Gault for a while and decided to talk to him about it," McLaughlin said. "He really restored my faith in gymnastics and I have been happy here ever since."

And while it may be tough for Gault when he enters McKale Center for the final time as head coach Friday night, the pain will not be permanent as he feels that he has accomplished nearly everything he set out to do in gymnastics.

"I've been in this sport for 37 years but I feel it's time for me to move on and do something else," he said. "I don't know what it will feel like not to go to the office every day because it has been my life for so long. I think I'll miss it, but I also think I'll enjoy retirement."

The Gault File

A look at UA head gymnastics coach Jim Gault, who began his career at the UA in 1980. He is retiring at the end of this season.

Year	Record	NCAA Finish	 Honors


1981	5-21	7th in Region		

1984	30-18	3rd in Region	 WCAA Coach
                10th in NCAAs	 of the Year

1989	23-22	5th in Region	 Pac-10 Coach 
		11th in NCAAs	 of the year

1992 	34-6	2nd in Region	 Inducted in Amateur Athletic
		5th in NCAAs	 Foundation Hall of Fame

1996	36-10	2nd in Region	 Pac-10 Co-Coach 
		7th in NCAAs     of the year