02 Apr With Restored Confidence, the Crimson Tide is Ready to Roll at Tuscaloosa Regional
For the Alabama Crimson Tide, it’s about to be showtime inside Coleman Coliseum. On Friday, they’ll begin their run at the 2025 NCAA Championship when they meet up with No. 6 Cal, Iowa and North Carolina at the Tuscaloosa Regional for a chance at the top two and the opportunity to advance to Sunday’s Regional Final.
Seeded No.11 heading into Regionals, it’s been a roller coaster ride for the Tide all season. Struggles with inconsistency, a young team building back experience and finding their voice, and so many “almosts” in dual meets all added up to early uncertainty on just where this storied program would finish their 2025 season. Now, together with their coaching staff, head coach Ashley Priess Johnston and associate head coach Justin Spring are seeing the team start to rise at just the right time. The Tide took first in session one at the SEC Championships, finishing fifth overall. The result has gone miles to restore their confidence as they prepare to take on Regionals and pave the way for a trip to Fort Worth to compete for their seventh National Championship.
One of only eight teams in Women’s NCAA Gymnastics to win the national title, owners of 10 SEC Championships, along with an NCAA-record 32 Regional Championships, the program’s legacy and what lies in front of them this week is not lost on Johnston. As a 10-time Crimson Tide All-American and member of back-to-back NCAA Championship teams, she knows what’s at stake.
“Walking away from SECs was a huge confidence boost,” Johnston told Inside Gymnastics last week. “They’re really believing in themselves and ready to take on this next gauntlet of a Regional Championship and then hopefully, a National Championship as well.
“I think, finally, the team was really ready to make a statement, to come together, and have a revenge tour. I think they’ve learned some hard lessons all season long, and that’s really prepared them to be resilient and to go into the toughest environments and be ready to kick down doors,” she noted. “So, while it hasn’t been as normal of a season as one might hope for — we’ve had some injuries and setbacks and things along the way – I think all of that has prepared them to really shine on these stages at this time of year.”
With the SEC as competitive as ever with the addition of six-time National Champions Oklahoma joining the conference, Alabama repeatedly came up short in a series of crucial dual meets as the season progressed and was, for a time, on the outside looking in at even competing at the SEC Championships in Birmingham. With only eight of the nine teams in the conference advancing, the Tide needed to build their National Qualifying Score quickly in the second half of the season while chasing both Arkansas and Auburn for the final spot.
It took a heartbreaking loss against Auburn (197.750) at home on February 21 where they posted a then season-high team score of 197.350, to shift the Tide’s mentality towards believing in themselves and deciding what was happening in competition with so many missed opportunities to win, was unacceptable. “I look back at our meet against Auburn, which was our Power of Pink meet. We took a hard loss that night knowing that we absolutely could have come out with a win,” Johnston said. “I think that moment for me, was where we saw some real turnaround. We saw a team really dig in and never let the hard days win again, to the point where I think they really pride themselves in acknowledging a tough moment and believing that they can conquer that and whatever else comes their way.”
The team stepped up their game in every department. If they were going to have a successful postseason, their day-to-day focus needed to change. As did their approach and preparation. This was a team not only taking ownership of their season so far, but looking ahead with a fresh mindset and deciding what they could still accomplish.
“I remember just some of the intrasquads after that or just team events where ownership started to come in,” Spring said. “You could hear that in their words, and then you started to see it in their actions. For me, that was the turning point after, again, yes, the hurt of that home meet loss with Auburn. But it was a catalyst for them to be like, ‘enough is enough.’ They came in fiery, which is great. It was intense and that’s how these competitions are. That was cool to see.”
With a young team, building confidence can also take time. What it took were some tough conversations and getting the emotion out. What finally emerged was a team that turned the page and started to peak at just the right time. Talking about what they’d been through so far also allowed the team’s true culture start to shine through.
“It’s that iron sharpens iron mentality,” Johnston said. “It’s when the team really dug in and challenged each other to really take that next step that we started seeing these just amazing breakthrough moments, whether that was somebody leading a team meeting or somebody changing a technique on a skill, or somebody calling some type of team activity outside the gym. It was their willingness and eagerness to go above and beyond to create greatness in the gym and out of the gym, which is really where the culture can be the greatest performance enhancer.”
“We already have this written down for our next year’s retreat, but it’s, ‘how do we get them to dig in on this comeback trail, if you will, before having to lose a meet that you shouldn’t have lost?’ That’s where culture wins out – when you have a team that never settles and has seen excellence,” Spring added. “But that’s really hard. One of our guiding principles is ‘good is the enemy of great.’ We’ve been a really good team for a really long time, but great teams are in the Final Four, always chomping at the bit for a National Championship. If you haven’t been a part of that and lived in that, you don’t realize how much harder that is. The difference between really good and great, it’s not much, but it takes all of your being.”
Heading into the Arkansas meet on February 28, Spring recalled a particular team meeting that served as another major turning point. “Some of our seniors got pretty vulnerable, which was the first time I’d ever really seen that.
“There’s an expectation that comes with competing for Georgia, Oklahoma, Utah, Alabama, these legacy programs. They finally just spoke to that, almost to clear the air. They took charge after that. Not acknowledging something, it doesn’t keep the peace. It keeps the tension. I remember that moment. I’ll remember that moment for a while. That was a Lilly Hudson moment.”
Competing inside Bud Walton Arena against Arkansas has proven tough all season with the GymBacks defeating defending National Champion LSU (196.875-196.600) and a strong Florida Gators team (197.175-196.625). Following the loss to Auburn, the Tide prepared for every possibility. In the end, they secured the win 197.650-197.425 in a back and forth battle en route to what was their first SEC victory of the season.
“We knew Bud Walton was going to be a really fierce environment to be our best in, and it was probably going to come down to one of the last routines. It was going to be a big moment that was going to determine what the rest of the season and SECs were going to look like,” Johnston said. “We just put every scenario out there, and brought the team into that. And it was like, ‘you just have to decide what you want.’ And then you have to just want it more than you’re afraid of it.”
With leadership from within the team driving the next chapter in the season, particularly from junior Gabby Gladieux and Hudson, every practice and every meet got better. Johnston said seeing Gladieux evolve as a leader and start to take the initiative to guide the team has paid dividends in a powerful and very positive way.
“Gabby Gladieux has been somebody that gymnastically, has been a rock star from day one at Alabama. She’s always had an older, wiser mentor in Makarri Doggette and some of our other seniors and veterans that she learned under her freshman and sophomore year. This year, she’s been a tremendous standard setter of what it looks like in the gym, in her work ethic, in her commitment to excellence. Her vocal presence and how she really can command a room has helped our team go in the same direction. I think everybody has evolved in a much more powerful way, but it really took Gabby taking charge and being like, ‘this is where we’re going. Let’s go.’ It was a call to action.”
“Even if you are the certified rockstar competitor, it’s still so hard to do that,” Spring said. “I think that’s where the journey of the season comes in. [Gabby] was like, ‘I don’t even care anymore. I’m fed up. It looks this way, and if you’re not down to do that, then we’re not going to get it done. So decide.’ That’s where the word “decide” – we decided we’re just doing it.”
On senior night, the Tide couldn’t overcome the Gators, but logged their second highest team total of the season (197.450) and the highest from a meet inside Coleman Coliseum in 2025. In their final dual meet, they defeated No. 17 Michigan (197.050-196.675) with their second-highest road score of the season. At SECs, the hunger was there to prove they belonged. To pivot, and not look back. The Tide came out of the gates rolling, leading session 1 from start to finish.
“Our theme was to say ‘yes’ to today,” Johnston said after the meet. “It was every opportunity, whether it was pressure, whether it was if we were [leading], just say ‘yes’ to the moment in front of you. We accomplished that tonight, and that was a great confidence builder as we go into NCAA Regionals.”
On Friday, the Tide will get their chance to say ‘yes’ to the moment in front of the home fans. Johnston feels the opportunity is there for the taking. “It’s a tremendous confidence builder to already know and be prepared for what we’re walking into. We’re excited to continue to make a statement, continue to challenge, to be one of the top teams in the country. It’s all part of the journey and just the next step in that process.
“We have our site set on the goal, which is Fort Worth, Final Four, all those things, but we really can’t control that. We can only control the moment in front of us and how we’re going to approach and give that everything we got. Trust the process, trust the journey, continue to chip away and make the tweaks that are necessary to build your plane, trust your runway, and then ultimately, when the time is right, decide to take off.”
As for the lineups and who we can expect to see on the floor for the Tide, Spring noted that SECs was the first time all season the decisions got tough, perhaps a testament to the team’s gradual upward trajectory. And noted that won’t change for Regionals.
“We have challenged our team to bring some depth forever. I think championship teams are not pulled from the top, they’re pushed from the bottom up. When seven and eight and nine are fighting to take the six and five and four lineup spots, that forces you to be better, to be more consistent, to be great,” he said. “We’ll put the best team on the floor that’s ready in that moment.”
HOW TO WATCH
HOW IT WORKS IN TUSCALOOSA
The first session on Friday, which gets underway at 2 p.m. ET will feature Alabama, Cal, Iowa and North Carolina. The second session on Friday, starting at 8 p.m ET will feature Florida, NC State, Oregon State and the winner of Thursday’s Clemson and Rutgers play-in.
The top-two teams from each of Friday’s sessions will meet for the regional final on Sunday, April 6, at 6 p.m., ET with the top-two teams advancing to the National Championships.
Individual all-around and event specialists from Ball State, Central Michigan, Clemson, New Hampshire, Northern Illinois, Rutgers, Southeast Missouri State and Western Michigan will also compete for a chance to advance to nationals.
For More Information on the Road to the 2025 Women’s NCAA National Championships, Click Here!
Look for Nate’s NCAA Notes and Della’s Inside the MatchUp each week and stay tuned to InsideGym.com and Inside Gymnastics magazine for spotlight features and interviews throughout the 2025 season!
Nate Salsman, Della Fowler, Megan Roth and Christy Sandmaier provide NCAA coverage for Inside Gymnastics.
Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics magazine.
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Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics
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