The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Daniel Shirey Senior Gym Dog Courtney Kupets (left) and head coach Suzanne Yoculan (right) begin their quest for a fifth straight national championship at the NCAA Championships in Lincoln, Neb. If the Gym Dogs bring home the title, it will be a record 10th NCAA title for Yoculan's illustrious career. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: DANIEL SHIREY Senior Courtney Kupets didn't get to compete at the NCAAs last year due to injury but will try to reclaim her 2007 title. [Click to enlarge]

This day has been 26 years in the making.

The start of the NCAA Championships today marks the beginning of the end for Suzanne Yoculan, the 26-year architect of the Georgia gymnastics program.

When her top-ranked Gym Dogs take the floor in Lincoln, Neb., they'll be seeking their fifth consecutive NCAA title, and their record 10th all-time.

But, no matter how hard they try to forget it, there will be bigger things on their minds.

"There are times I feel a little sick to my stomach over the whole thing, really," Yoculan said.

"It's just been such a part of me, and I'm a little scared I guess about maybe just disappointing people. That's probably the part that scares me the most."

For the last 26 years, Yoculan's identity has been synonymous with Georgia gymnastics. She's produced 16 SEC titles and 33 individual national champions on top of all those team titles, all while marketing her sport so hard that colleagues called her "P.T. Barnum" in her younger years.

She's written books and become a sought-after public speaker. She's made some friends, and more than a few enemies, along the way. She's won, and won big, launching Georgia gymnastics to the forefront in Athens.

And now it's all coming to an end.

"I think it's been stressed enough to try not to think about that, don't look at it. It's more that it'll be a reflection afterward when we're completely done," said senior Courtney Kupets. "If you reflect too much right now it will take away from our motivation and what we're trying to do at this point … We're just going to have fun and be excited for the last moment and not be sad about it."

This week will also be the final one for Kupets, a 10-time All-American who Yoculan called "with the combination of athletically and mentally, the best" gymnast she's ever coached. After missing last year's championships with a torn Achilles, she'll be looking to "defend" the individual all-around titles she earned in her first two years as a Gym Dog.

One might argue that Kupets has become the face of Georgia gymnastics for the last four years. But Yoculan has been it for a lot longer than that.

"In regards to it being Suzanne's last meet, we try not to emphasize it, but there is no denying that it is in the back of everyone's mind," said senior Abby Stack. "She does not need this championship to feel successful or to complete her career. I think it would simply be icing on the cake. But who likes to eat cake with no icing?"

The Gym Dogs posted a nation-best 197.255 at their Southeast Regional, solidifying their top seed going into today's competition. They'll take on Florida, LSU, Oklahoma, Penn State and Stanford in today's afternoon session, with the top three finishers moving on to Friday's

Super Six.

A win Friday would break Yoculan's tie with Utah for the most NCAA championships all-time, and send her off with the best of notes.

Regardless of the outcome, though, the Yoculan era will be at an end.

"I know for sure I will not regret my decision based on if we win or lose," she said. "It has nothing to do with the number of championships or who's on the team or anything like that. It's entirely based on where I am personally and where the program is. I would never have made this decision unless I thought it was the right time for the program, and it is. I make my decisions instinctively, I trust in my ability to do that, and I don't look back."

Yoculan has been getting used to the sound of the word "retirement" for two years now.

She could have seemingly scripted the storybook ending by calling it quits after last season, when the Gym Dogs took their fourth-straight national championship here in Athens. It might have been the fitting end to an illustrious career, a final curtain call in front of a sold-out crowd at the same Stegeman Coliseum she saw filled with just a few hundred spectators when she first came to town in 1984.

But, Yoculan said, it's better this way.

"When I saw the [gymnasts] crying and people in the stands crying that I don't even know [last year], it was just like, wow," she said. "I was so touched by the fan support that we have. I don't know what it's going to be like in Nebraska, but I'm glad it's going to be Nebraska and not Athens."

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