SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – University of Florida’s Rhonda Faehn is the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) selection as the Coach of the Year. She received her award, the first of her head coaching career, at the 2007 NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships banquet held Saturday morning at the University of Utah’s Rice-Ecceles Football Stadium.
The national coach of the year is selected by a vote of members of the NACGC. Faehn became a candidate earlier this month when she received her third NACGC Southeast Region Coach of the Year Award. She is the third Gator coach to win the award (Ernestine Weaver/1992 and Judi Markell/1994).
Faehn, in her fifth year with UF, led the Gators to a third-place finish in the 2007 NCAA Super Six team final. It is the highest national finish for UF since taking second in the 1998 NCAA Championships. This season, the Gators held the No. 1 position in 11 of the 12 ranking periods of the regular season. Florida claimed its first Southeastern Conference team title since 1989 on March 31 in North Little Rock, Ark., and earned its third consecutive NCAA regional team title on April 14 in Ann Arbor, Mich.
This is the second coaching honor for Faehn this season, as she picked up her second consecutive SEC Coach of the Year honor at the league championships.