Danna Durante Named Head Coach of the Georgia Gymnastics Team

By Elizabeth Grimsley

Danna Durante has been named the new head coach of the University of Georgia gymnastics team. Durante started out as an assistant coach at the University of Washington under Bob Levesque before being named the associate head coach at Nebraska under head coach Dan Kendig. However, more recently, she moved into the position of head coach at the University of California-Berkeley where she has been for the past year. The position of head coach of the Gym Dogs opened up after Jay Clark resigned after failing to make the Super Six finals at the NCAA Championship for the third year in a row. Before taking over as head coach for legendary coach Suzanne Yoculan, Clark was the assistant at Georgia for 17 years.

Durante will have a lot of pressure coming in to continue the legacy that Yoculan and Clark built. However, a fresh start may be just what Georgia needs to find a new identity after struggling for the past three years. Durante specializes in beam and floor choreography and has an impressive gymnastics career behind her. She competed at the 1988 Olympic Trials and then went on to compete for Arizona State University where she went on to score five perfect 10s on the balance beam.

The only questions that now remain are who will Durante call upon to aid in her successes and will she be able to get Georgia back to its winning ways?

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