The University of Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team will return to the mat this winter with a familiar face as the new head coach.
Taylor Susnara tumbled at the University of Oregon from 2015-2018 before joining the coaching staff of Keenyn Won for the past three seasons. In her inaugural season as head coach, Susnara looks to build the framework to create an acrobatics and tumbling powerhouse in the future.
“This year we are really trying to hone in on our culture and positivity of the program as a whole,” Susnara said. “When I was an assistant we started doing this… I’m excited to build a stronger mindset within our student athletes that they can believe that they are good enough to be the best.”
Acrobatics and tumbling consists of six events, and each event is broken down into heats with more specific moves and point totals.
In 2021, the Ducks went 2-3 with a win and two losses against the six-time defending national champions Baylor Bears. This year’s Oregon team is focused only on self improvement, relying solely on each other for intrinsic motivation.
“My expectation is to increase our consistency,” Susnara said. “We’re working hard at practice, and I’m really happy with how things are progressing.”
The Ducks this year will be without graduated 2021 All-American tumblers Payton Coon and Addie Lacewell. The Ducks do, however, return senior do-it-all star Alyssa Hew.
“She’s gonna be playing a key role in the tumbling event and will probably touch a bit of every event,” Susnara said. “We have 14 new members… We are going to get to see a lot of people stepping up into key roles.”
Since the conception of National College Acrobatics and Tumbling in 2011, the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team has consistently been a contender for the national championship. Last year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team faced detrimental limitations to their practice regiment, including social distancing protocol which prohibited the entire team from being together at one practice, forcing them to only interact with each other in small cohorts and practice only tumbling because lifting for acrobatics posed a threat of COVID-19 transmission.
“We had to get creative with Zoom calls,” Susnara said. “We had good attitudes and with a lot of hard work were able to pull out a pretty good season.”
This year, with some COVID-19 complications alleviated by vaccines, the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team is once again allowed to practice in full capacity. They have a young team and an invigorated coach, all focused on personal growth and team camaraderie over their prospects of winning a national championship.
The Ducks will look to hit for higher point values than in years past by doing more difficult tricks. However, it’s the interpersonal trust and care between the players and coaches which has this Oregon team poised for success.
“In our sport you strive for perfection that’s not always attainable,” Susnara said. “Instilling belief into our student athletes that they are good enough to do anything they put their minds to is important.”
