20 Questions with Suzanne Yoculan - A glimpse into the mind of a success story

by Laura Leidner | photos by S. Guevara

Plaques, trophies and banners adorn the head coach's office. Just like her office, Suzanne Yoculan appears intimidating, but she flashes a smile and welcomes all with a breath of energy and interest. Coach Yoculan is, as future Head Coach Jay Clark puts it, "larger than life." In the gymnastics world Yoculan is a celebrity. In the real world, she is an icon of success. And in the Gym Dog home training facility, she is the queen bee. Yoculan is the 25-year head coach of the Georgia Gym Dogs who plans to retire after the 2008-2009 season. The following interview provides a glimpse into her spontaneous, intense and funny personality.

ugazine: What's your typical workday?

Coach Yoculan: It starts with emails all during the night because I am a very light sleeper. I get up numerous occasions: one in the morning, three in the morning, five in the morning. I'm notorious for sending emails in the middle of the night. So, where you do want me to start my day? I suppose it starts with emails all night. Then, I work out in the mornings from 7:30 to 9:30 or around there. Then there are meetings with coaches, gymnasts, people in promotions departments, Internet people, the booster club and so on. Different weeks we have different practice schedules, depending on whether we have a Friday night or a Saturday or a Sunday meet.

ugazine: What is your personal coaching style?

CY: I'm really big on communication, so I confront all issues. I try to get the girls to tell me how they feel and what's going on. I'm very involved in their outside life, daily life, social life, academic life. Also, respect is really big with me. We don't yell, scream or curse at each other. I'm firm but tuned into what they need. My coaching style is designed to meet the individual needs of the athlete. My job is to see that they're happy. Because when they're happy, their gymnastics is better.

ugazine: What kind of advice outside gymnastics do you give your gymnasts?

CY: I try to advise them to make academics first and gymnastics second, and then everything else after that. If they have gymnastics, academics, and a social life, they only have time for two. If they spend too much time with their social life, it will affect one of the other two things. So let's eliminate the social life, and a lot of them do. Not that they eliminate it entirely. There's just no going out downtown during the week. They don't have time for that kind of thing. But we have a very disciplined team so I don't have to interject myself too much in terms of rules or discipline.

ugazine: How do you react to disciplinary problems?

CY: I'm really strict. I don't give a lot of second tries. Everybody knows the rules. The gymnastics program's policies are more rigid and punitive than the Athletic Association's policies. If you have a positive drug test, you're not on our team. It can only happen once. I don't give a second chance. It's not that I don't think people don't make mistakes. If you have underage drinking, you're not kicked off the team. You have to sit out for a number of weeks, but it's not one game or one meet.

ugazine: What do you tell young girls who meet you or write to you and say they want to become a Gym Dog when they're older?

CY: Most kids that write have seen us a great deal on TV. They are very aware of our winning tradition. People can see when they watch our team competing that we have a lot of fun, that we have a very tight team and that the girls really like each other and enjoy being together. It's very warm and sincere. It's not pretend. And that's what attracts people and athletes and fans to our team. I'll tell them to keep working hard and encourage them and make sure I point out the importance of academics.

ugazine: What are the gymnastics opportunities for Gym Dogs after their college careers?

CY: They don't have the opportunity to be professionals like tennis players and golfers and football and basketball. When senior night comes and when their career is over, they are devastated! Their life is sunk into a sport they start when they're three years old. Their families move from towns to towns. Courtney Kupets's family moved from Virginia for her to compete in the Olympics, and then moved to Athens when her sister became a Gym Dog. These parents follow their kids around and support them. Then all of the sudden its over. It's over! Unfortunately for gymnasts, there are very few coaching jobs. There's not a lot of opportunities for them to work in the field. In gymnastics we only have 90 or so programs and colleges aren't adding gymnastics programs. They're dropping them.

ugazine: How has Title IX affected gymnastics?

CY: The Title IX has hurt gymnastics. Because now schools around the country must to have equal number of participants in men's and women's sports. So if you have 300 men participating in men's sports, here, you have to have 300 women. I'll use Clemson as an example, because they're thinking about starting gymnastics. They have 60 more men participating in sports than women. They've got to add a women's sport to make up those numbers. Well, if they add crew or lacrosse, they can get squads of 30 or 35 girls, whereas a gymnastics team would only take fifteen or sixteen girls. Our numbers just aren't as big to fill a team. This drives schools' decisions on what sport to add.

ugazine: I know you have a lot of popularity, but is it hard being in this sport at a football school?

CY: No! It's great being at a football school. Twenty-five years ago it was hard. I got here and couldn't understand why everybody didn't want to come to a gymnastics meet. It was all "football and basketball." I came from Penn State, and we had 7,000 gymnastics fans in 1982. I couldn't believe there were no fans here. So it was hard at the beginning, but not now. Now it's just contagious. It's a great spectator sport.

ugazine: What makes gymnastics so appealing?

CY: Well, our sport appeals to the whole family. That's where we're a draw over other sports. We are a family sport, and we appeal to the senior citizens and all generations. We bridge that gap between generations.

ugazine: Are there any negatives to gymnastics?

CY: One of the negatives is the scoring. People can't follow the scoring. They look at the scoreboard and say, 'Okay, Gym Dogs are winning with a score 187 to 185.' Then they ask, is that a lot of points or is that not a lot? And, you know it's a LOT, but most people don't even know that. So it's hard to understand the scoring of the sport, which sometimes hurts.

ugazine: You obviously love gymnastics, but are there any other sports you love?

CY: Oh yeah! My son played college tennis and had a full scholarship to Birmingham Southern College in Alabama. My daughter played college soccer, and now she's a senior here.

ugazine: Is there a reason she didn't do gymnastics?

CY: She's 5'11." They both did gymnastics when they were little. You know, it's a great sport for confidence building, development, balance, and they did it until they were about nine years old.

ugazine: Let's talk about your retirement. What are your short-term plans?

CY: I tell the girls, if you've got an issue or a problem or have to make a decision or don't know what to do, just don't do anything for 24 hours, but deal with it within seven days. So if you have a fight with another teammate or whatever or if I'm upset with them, I don't deal with it for 24 hours. I usually deal with it in two days, but I give myself 24 hours so that I learn not to be impulsive or overreact or say or do something when I'm emotionally driven versus logically driven. I want to apply that same theory or philosophy to my retirement. That's how I live my life. I'll give myself six months and not make any decisions. [laughs] I don't know. I have a lot of opportunities. I have a lot of ideas.

ugazine: What sort of opportunities are you considering?

CY: I like commentating and speaking engagements. I think I'd love do something similar along those lines. I do a number of speaking engagements now, and I have to turn down many just because of my schedule with the team. I've spoken to Georgia Power and Coca Cola's National Women's Forum.

ugazine: How do you prepare for these speaking engagements?

CY: It's really easy because what businesses want to hear is how to build a team. And who knows better than a coach? They want to know what to do in everyday situations. You know, I've lived it, done it. Building teams and building leadership and team chemistry and having a picture. I really believe that before you can be successful you have to have a picture of what you want to accomplish, and everyone on the team has to have idea of what his or her role is in the picture.

ugazine: What is your personal philosophy on how to win?

CY: You cannot win or be successful without team chemistry. Everyone on the team has to be either a leader or a follower. You can have no obstructers-no one pulling against the leaders and the followers. When I talk about team chemistry, what I put at the top is respect. Really defining what it is. Leadership is about taking responsibility. That's the simple way to put it. We don't have a captain on our team because I don't want someone to speak for the team. I want everyone to learn to speak for themselves.

ugazine: Do you see gymnastics as an individual or a team sport?

CY: Oh, it's an individual sport. Definitely an individual sport. But we mold a team with a group of individuals. And when we don't mold a team, we don't win very much. [laughs]

ugazine: Do you have any hobbies or little known facts that might interest your fans?

CY: My hobby is working out, exercising, conditioning. My work out schedule is probably the only personal thing I have time to do. And reading! I love to read. I read everything. Jimmy Johnson's books are some of my favorite. I love reading coach's books, business books-how to win, how to be successful, anything to do with how to win or how to be successful from coaches' perspectives to CEOs' perspectives. I read 'em all. Love 'em! Fiction too. No nonfiction. Just straight up junk, I-don't-wanna-think-tonight fiction. Love it!

ugazine: Would you say that's your guilty pleasure?

CY: I don't feel guilty at all! No. I don't even remember what I read the next day. Sometimes I just need to not-think. Because if I'm reading my other books I'm highlighting or taking notes and, you know, thinking. And I like relationship books. I got hung up on them when I got divorced, and now I'm still hung up on them! I like Dr. Phil stuff. Psychology, I love psychology.

ugazine: Are you an Oprah fan?

CY: Absolutely. She's wonderful. I TiVo all of her shows. I TiVo Oprah and Criminal Mind. Isn't that an interesting mix? Because I like psychology a lot. I read a lot about psychology, sports psychologists. I wear all those hats in here every day so....

Ending with a laugh, Head Coach Suzanne Yoculan rises from the red sofa in her office. She reapplies her lipstick and prepares for the day's next media interview, afternoon practice and an evening meeting. She walks out of her large-windowed office and waves goodbye. Now empty of her lively presence, the office silently celebrates the head coach's pizzazz and success and the winning tradition of Georgia gymnastics.