Lane, Smith Return To UCLA Gymnastics Coaching Staff
July 06, 2011 | Gymnastics
July 6, 2011
UCLA Gymnastics head coach Valorie Kondos Field has announced two new additions to the Bruin coaching staff. Returning for his third stint as an assistant coach is 2000 National Assistant Coach of the Year Randy Lane. Former UCLA All-American and team co-captain of UCLA's 1997 NCAA Championship team Amy Smith will also return as a volunteer coach.
Additionally, Chris Waller has been promoted to Associate Head Coach after four years as an assistant head coach and five as an assistant coach. Waller, a 1991 UCLA graduate, first joined the Bruin staff in 2003 and has helped lead UCLA to three of its six NCAA titles. In 2004, he was named the NACGC/W National Assistant Coach of the Year, and in 2010, he was voted the West Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
"Everyone at UCLA Athletics is excited to welcome Randy Lane and Amy Smith back to Westwood," said Kondos Field. "We have a lot going on these next two years in particular with our competition venues switching back to the Wooden Center this season and then into the new Pauley Pavilion, which will be the host site for the 2013 NCAA Championships. It was very important that we brought in coaches who would fit in seamlessly with the philosophies and values of our program and who would we could look to for new ways to enhance the structure that is already in place. Both Randy and Amy have a love for our sport and UCLA and enthusiasm for life that permeates through everything they do."
Lane previously coached at UCLA from 1992-94 and 1998-2001. He left coaching for a private business but returned to the sport as an assistant coach at Florida from 2002-06. For the past five seasons, he has been an associate head coach at Michigan State. Lane was also the head coach at UC Santa Barbara from 1995-97.
During Lane's last stint at UCLA, he helped guide the Bruins to NCAA titles in 2000 and 2001. UCLA gymnasts won eight NCAA individual titles from 1998-2001, including three on the event on which he was the lead coach, uneven bars. He was honored as the NACGC/W National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2000, and in 1998, he was named the West Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
At Florida, his Gator teams advanced to the NCAA Championships each of the four years he coached there and won NCAA Regional titles in 2005 and 2006. At Michigan State from 2006-11, he coached two gymnasts to perfect 10 scores on vault and helped lead the team to its best-ever NCAA Regional finishes (third) in 2011 and 2008.
Lane, who graduated from Illinois in 1989, was a member of the Illini's 1989 NCAA Championship team. He also earned a Master's Degree in 1999 from the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine. Lane replaces Jim Foody, who was offered the head coaching position at the Josephson's Academy of Gymnastics.
"I am honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to return to UCLA," Lane said. "I am so thankful to be able to work alongside Val and Chris (Waller) and help shape the future of UCLA Gymnastics. My journey has taken me several places over the past 10 years, but I am extremely honored to return home to UCLA, where I started my collegiate coaching career."
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Smith was an assistant coach at Missouri from 2007-11 and helped guide the Tigers to their first-ever NCAA Championship appearance in 2010. Also the team choreographer and balance beam coach, she helped Sarah Shire earn a runner-up finish on floor at the 2010 NCAA Championships and the 2009 Big 12 beam title. Additionally, under Smith's tutelage, Adrianne Perry won two consecutive Big 12 floor titles in 2008 and 2009.
Smith, who will also be coaching at the Broadway Gymnastics School in Los Angeles, got her coaching start at UCLA in 1998 as an undergraduate assistant coach, and she became an established choreographer for schools in the SEC, choreographing six All-Americans at Florida from 2003-06. She also choreographed floor routines for Kentucky from 2004-05.
A 2001 UCLA graduate, Smith was the Bruins' team co-captain in 1996 and 1997, leading UCLA to a close runner-up finish in 1996 and to its first NCAA Championship in 1997. She earned first-team All-America honors on floor exercise in 1997 and 1995 and on vault in 1997. She was also the 1997 Pac-10 floor exercise and West Region vault champion and the 1996 West Region floor champion.
"I am beyond thrilled to be back at UCLA and so thankful for this opportunity," said Smith. "My level of excitement to be a part of this coaching staff is inexpressible, and it is a phenomenal opportunity to be able to work with the caliber of student-athletes here at UCLA. The entire situation is priceless, and it's going to be a fantastic journey."
