For Felecia Mulkey, building a major sports program is something that is becoming all too familiar. The Villa Rica, Ga., native has been assigned the task of building Oregon’s newest program: team stunts and gymnastics.
Mulkey began her coaching career at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta in May 1997 and found herself in a situation where some rebuilding was vital to have a successful program. After removing the male portion of the team and holding three tryouts, Mulkey compiled a squad of 18 inexperienced women, many of whom came from strong athletic backgrounds in sports like track, swimming, diving and softball, and a select few had gymnastics experience.
The Owls competed in the Peach Belt Athletic Conference at the time and finished the year in 12th place at the national competition. They continued to improve over the next several seasons, and in 2002 – with only 12 members on the team – KSU finished second nationally. Mulkey’s squad kept improving and took home their first national title in 2004, which was followed by a second national title in 2005.
After their back-to-back title runs, the Owls were moved up to Division I the following season. Behind Mulkey’s guidance they continued to thrive, but after the 2008 season, a change was in order.
Kennesaw State no longer had sufficient funding to run a top-caliber program like the one she had built, which led Mulkey to look for other options. Mulkey met with Renee Baumgartner, Oregon senior associate athletics director, at the national championships last year and agreed to come across the country to build a new program – again.
Mulkey said an early step in her building process will be community education because the sport is so new to the region. “I had to explain that the sport evolved from cheerleading, and that we chose to call it team stunts and gymnastics because we want to set ourselves apart from the cheerleaders, not in a bad way, just to separate it.”
The distinction between team stunts and gymnastics and the cheerleading program has been an interesting topic, but once the first competition rolls around in winter the difference will be very clear.
“One set (of athletes) is more of your sideline, ‘face of the University’ type, whereas my girls are all former gymnasts,” Mulkey explained.
The squad has been exceptionally undersized this spring with only seven women practicing, but Mulkey anticipates there being 30 to 36 women on the team by next year.
“Practice has been strange, but it has been a huge building year,” said junior Tori Mayard. “I look at it as a training year for us and a year off to rest my limbs.”
Mayard, who will primarily be at the base position for the Ducks, is one of the many women who followed coach Mulkey from KSU. Mayard participated on the Kennesaw State team her freshman and sophomore seasons, and was a base and flyer for Barbe High School in Louisiana. She was a part of four state and National Championship teams from 2001-04, and was named a high-school All-American.
“Her program brought me to Georgia, and it would not matter if it was in Egypt, I would still be there,” Mayard said. “Now that I am a Duck, though, the staff, facilities and the people here could have attracted me. I love Oregon.”
Mayard said there has been some difficulty in explaining just what the program will try to do, but as practice has progressed it has gotten easier.
In all, five women will have made the trip from Kennesaw State to continue under Mulkey’s direction, but she has also spread the word throughout Oregon as well as the rest of the country. The roster will feature four Oregon natives, including freshman walk-on Jordan Potter, who did the majority of her prep cheering in high school in Sutherlin, Ore.
“Before being introduced to the team I was already a student here at the University of Oregon,” Potter said. “Which worked to my advantage because I was already here and I was able to join in from the ground level as a walk on.”
She, like Mayard, has enjoyed most aspects of practicing with such a small group this year.
“With the small roster we have had a lot of time to work on improving our skills and we get more individualized attention from our coach, which has been beneficial,” Potter said.
The 2009-10 season will officially begin for the Oregon team in winter. The women will compete mostly against club teams throughout the season, with two of their home meets being at McArthur Court.
“Almost every school has one of these teams, it’s just at the club level,” Mulkey said. “When I say club, that’s not a bad thing, it just means they’re not run through the athletics department.”
The University of Southern California, Arizona State University and Sacramento State all have thriving team stunts and gymnastics club programs on the West Coast, while the University of Louisville’s club team is a collegiate powerhouse.
Many of the girls on the team expect they will have a successful season in their first year as an official program.
“With what coach Mulkey has done thus far within our sport, I expect great things to come for our first season,” Potter said.
Mayard gave equal praise to her well-decorated coach.
“(Working with Mulkey) has been amazing. She is the reason I am the person I am today, mentally and physically tough.” Mayard said. “She settles for nothing less than our best because she knows we can do it.”
It will be interesting to see what Mulkey will be able to do once she has a full roster in place, now that her team is established at the University.
“The women that are a part of this are getting treated like athletes and are getting the respect they need,” Mulkey said.
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