2000 Season Preview
12/17/1999 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Dec. 17, 1999
The Missouri Tigers will have a new look for the new millenium. And it starts at the top. For the first time since the program was established, a coach other than Jake Jacobson will be prowling the mats. Rob Drass, the top assistant for Nebraska?s nationally ranked program the last eight years, accepted the coaching reins in June after Jacobson retired following a 20-year tenure. Drass inherits a team that is a blend of old and new.
He has a new assistant coach in Kansas City native Karen Tierney, a former gymnast and coach at Arizona. And to ease the transition, Drass retained Eric Geren, now in his third season as an assistant coach at MU.
The 2000 roster is much the same with six returning letterwinners, including five seniors, balanced by a six-member freshman class.
The Tigers? goal, though, is much the same ? to compete for the Big 12 Conference championship and to qualify for the NCAA Regionals, a post-season berth that just eluded Mizzou in Jacobson?s final tour of duty.
?I fully expect this team to reach Regionals,? Drass said. ?And I?ll be very disappointed if we don?t.? The formula will be a bit different, though. While Tiger all-arounders were the backbone of the Mizzou program in recent years, Drass is likely to maximize MU?s point potential by massaging his lineup from event to event.
?You win with the team (score) and lose with the team (score),? Drass says. ?There may be times when we don?t have anyone entered in the all-around. It helps the team come together. They learn to rely on each other that way.? Three senior stalwarts graduated from last year?s squad ? Big 12 Conference co-vaulting champion and NCAA Regional all-around qualifier Jessica Haag, Amanda Peterson, also a Regional qualifier in the all-around, and dependable Kelly McKinnie.
So Drass will look to put his best six gymnasts together in each event.
One person upon whom the Tigers will certainly rely is senior Shannon Brown. She?s advanced to NCAA Regional competition each of the last two years and tied for the balance beam title in the Big 12 Conference Championships last spring at MU?s Hearnes Center with a school-record score of 9.925.
She also twice tied the school bars record of 9.9 last season.
?Shannon will be a major player for us in all the events,? Drass said. ?She?s one of the more talented athletes around.?
The experience of Missouri?s other seniors ? Alison Akers, Meggen Smiley, Chandra Harlow, and Katie Cole ? will also be important.
?I?m proud of these girls,? Drass says. ?They have accepted the change and moved forward. They are all hard workers and hard work will pay off.?
Akers has been a valuable performer for Mizzou throughout her career on the vault, beam and floor.
?Alison will provide leadership and consistency for us in those events,? Drass said. She had an excellent season on beam last year, scoring 9.875 in the Big 12 meet.
Smiley was MU?s fourth all-arounder last season, and nearly joined Haag, Peterson and Brown at the NCAA Region 3 Championships in Lincoln, Neb.
?Meggen performs on a very even keel,? Drass says. ?She can show our freshmen that they can score by not missing.?
Harlow swings great on the bars, and will provide depth in other events. Her work ethic in the gym is infectious, too.
A rejuvenated Cole seems intent on making her senior year her best in a Mizzou leotard.
At the other end of the spectrum, six talented freshmen will play prominent roles in the 2000 season ? especially on the vault.
?The freshman class could be our best vaulters,? Drass says, paying particular attention to Alina Hamm, Terri Baker, and Laura Anson.
Also joining the Tigers in August were Leah Gremaud and Laura Forbes. All five are Missouri products.
A late addition to the group is Jacqueline Coatsworth, a Las Vegas native who graduated from high school in December and will enter MU for the second semester. She?s very strong on bars and beam, and starred while qualifying for the Junior Nationals the last four years.
There are only three Tigers who fall between the senior and freshman classes. Ann Gietler and Lindsay Hayes are Mizzou?s only juniors, while Shannon Brett is the lone sophomore.
Gietler tied with Smiley for the floor exercise championship at last year?s Shakespeare?s Gymnastics X-treme, and led the team in that event with an average score of 9.71. She?ll also be looked to this season as a stalwart on bars.
Brett will miss the season after breaking her left leg during fall workouts and Hayes is looking for an opportunity to crack the game-night lineup.
Drass expects that beam and floor, Missouri?s best events a year ago, will still be the Tigers? strength.
?We need to develop more depth on bars,? he says. ?We?ll be young on the vault, but every team in the country struggles there. We just need to hit clean sets.?
The first-year coach ultimately would like to see his Tigers score 48.5-49 in every event. ?That gives you a team score in the 195 neighborhood, and doing that can put you in the (nation?s) Top-15.?
But, ?the first thing we need to do is establish confidence in ourselves. In gymnastics you are competing against yourself every time out,? Drass says.
?We expect to compete for the Big 12 title, receive a regional bid, and our ultimate goal is to make it to the national championships.?
As usual, the schedule is a tough one. Six teams that finished in last year?s Top-25 dot the 2000 schedule. In all, eight of this year?s opponents advanced to post-season competition a year ago.
