Weekly diary by Valorie Kondos Field, head coach for UCLA's women's gymnastics team.
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Note: With three NCAA titles in five years, UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field has positioned her Bruins as the premier program in collegiate gymnastics. Not only has she consistently recruited the top talent in the world, but she has produced the results. In the past six years alone, Kondos Field has led UCLA to three NCAA titles and one runner-up finish, five Regional titles and three Pac-10 championships.
Diary - April 15, 2002
Ready To Charge
I've been asked many times in the past few weeks, "So Coach, are you ready to defend your national championship title?" The way I look at it, there is nothing to defend. Every season is a new season, new team, new chemistry, new obstacles, new challenges ... New hill to charge, with a new flag to plant. We cherish our Championship title from last year and the memories that come with it, but that's in the past.
When I hear the term "defending", I can only imagine our athletes looking back to fight off anyone on the attack. As I'm sure all of us have learned through our successes and our defeats, as soon as you look back you've stopped pressing forward, and someone else is charging right past you.
One of the things our team does best in competition is keeping the focus on ourselves. Our game plan is to compete as hard as we can with as much enthusiasm and excitement as we can.
There's a new NCAA team championship title to claim. There will be no defending. Only charging!