“This is Lindenwood Gymnastics. This is #OurLegacy.” After 12 record-setting seasons, Lindenwood gymnastics prepares for a final chapter

“This is Lindenwood Gymnastics. This is #OurLegacy.” After 12 record-setting seasons, Lindenwood gymnastics prepares for a final chapter

On Saturday, March 16, Lindenwood will compete in their final regular season tri-meet as a team and as a program when they travel to Illinois State to compete against the Redbirds and Michigan State. It’s certain to be emotional just as it has since the moment it was announced that the University would be cutting 10 NCAA Sports including women’s gymnastics. You can watch these student-athletes Saturday, March 16 at 5pm ET on ESPN+ and coming up at the MIC Championships on Saturday, March 23. 

To the team and coaching staff, we salute you.

“This is Lindenwood Gymnastics. This is #OurLegacy.” 

After 12 record-setting seasons, Lindenwood gymnastics prepares for a final chapter

By Megan Roth and Della Fowler

On December 1, 2023, Lindenwood University announced it would be cutting 10 NCAA sports, women’s gymnastics included. Lindenwood was once known for having one of the largest athletic departments in the country, with over 30 athletic programs, but the decision left student athletes reeling as close to 300 lost the ability to play their sport.

The following message was shared by Lindenwood’s President John Porter on December 1:

“After a comprehensive evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue 10 athletic teams at the conclusion of their respective seasons this academic year. This decision is a result of a thorough assessment of our athletic department’s sustainability, aligning with our commitment to upholding the high-quality academic and athletic experiences that define our university.”

The administration stated that the decision was final, with no opportunity for fundraising. Scholarships would be honored for current team members and gymnasts signed as part of the high school class of 2024. These cuts will be effective at the conclusion of each sport’s season in the 2023-2024 school year, meaning this current season is the last season Lindenwood Gymnastics will compete. 

Inside Gymnastics sat down with Lindenwood gymnasts Jaly Jones and Gayla Griswold, and assistant coach Sam Scherwinski to learn about their experiences, the team’s motivations for their final season, and the legacy they want to leave behind.

Griswold – a 5th year senior, 2023 and 2024 AAI Award nominee, 2023 MIC Woman of the Year, and an individual qualifier to NCAA Nationals in 2022 – said shock was the first emotion she felt upon hearing the decision. Jones – a sophomore, two-time MIC Newcomer of the Week, and a consistent All-Around competitor for Lindenwood – agreed, explaining that a lot of emotions went through her mind during the meeting where the decision was announced. As a sophomore, Jones will need to transfer to a new university if she wants to continue competing in the NCAA after this season. 

Scherwinski said he “went numb when the conversation first happened.” It all went down during a meeting where all coaches of the affected sports sat for no more than three minutes as the news was delivered by Lindenwood’s president and athletic director. Right after, they moved downstairs into a different meeting room and delivered the news to the student athletes. At the same time, the news was posted on social media. Scherwinski described the timing as “brutal,” stating that some athletes received social media notifications and messages about the decision while in the meeting, before the news was delivered. 

Leading up to the announcement of the news, Scherwinski and Lindenwood’s coaching staff had no suspicions. “Things were seemingly normal,” Scherwinski said. “Even up through November, we had different meetings, talking about the future of our program and different types of fundraising and donations. It was just a complete shock to us as a staff.” 

Still, the team of coaches and the student-athletes needed to find a way to move forward and decide what their final months together would look like. 

In terms of goals for Lindenwood’s final season, Griswold, Jones, and Scherwinski agreed that the team’s performance goals have not changed since hearing the decision. They still want to win the MIC conference title, defend the USAG National title the team won in 2023, and qualify athletes to NCAA Regionals. While their goals remain the same, Jones said the intentions behind them have shifted. Griswold added, “we really want to go out with a bang this year. We’ve worked so hard and we don’t want to let that go to waste. We want to show them who we are and really make every team that came before us proud because this being the last year, we just want to enjoy every single moment together and really leave everything we have out there on the floor.”

Record-Setters Determined to Rise 

Lindenwood is having a record-breaking season, crushing program records for their highest ever season opening score, highest home meet score, and highest total team score by the halfway point of the season. While they’ve drawn motivation from this being their last season, Scherwinski felt this outcome was “going to happen regardless of if the team was getting cut or not.” In one of the first team meetings in August, the team set goals for breaking all of these records. 

For Scherwinski, while he is so proud of his team for the initiatives they’ve taken to make their last season count, the season Lindenwood is having fits the trajectory the program has been on. The team has been rising since the program began 12 years ago, which makes the nearing end bittersweet. “It’s hard to look back and see all of the success that we’ve had and knowing that it’s coming to an end,” Griswold said. But for now, competing with all they have is what Lindenwood can do to best leave their legacy. 

Something so inspiring about Lindenwood is their ability to focus on the present. With the decision, many of Lindenwood’s gymnasts are facing constant uncertainty about where they will be next year, knowing that each meet brings them closer and closer to the end of their time as a team. Rather than focusing on all of the negativity of the decision, they’ve embraced a mindset of unity. 

Scherwinski knows the team’s experience is a unique one. “It’s tough,” Scherwinksi said. “Really no one can relate except for the people that are here.” 

The team recognizes that they are all in it together; they understand each other best and are each other’s biggest cheerleaders. “We’re always at our best when we’re having fun and are really close together,” Griswold said. Focusing so closely on one meet at a time and one routine at a time, their love for each other and their sport leaves no time to think about anything else. 

The looming fact that Lindenwood’s time as a team is dwindling has brought the team closer together. After coaching in college for seven seasons, Scherwinski said he has never felt a team this close, especially through so much adversity. “It’s really evident that this whole situation has made everybody live in the present because we are just so appreciative that we can still be together,” Scherwinski said. 

The team’s appreciation for each other has developed into what Scherwinski described as a tough love dynamic where they are able to hold each other to the highest standard. “Whatever it is, we’re not afraid to call one another out,” Scherwinski said. “We’re not afraid to say something that might be hard and I think that genuinely comes from a place of love because we all care about each other.” 

This dynamic is not just for coaches, but between gymnasts, too. “I think the most special part of this team is that everybody holds each other to the same standard,” Griswold said. “I think everyone is just way more hungry for it this year, which is kind of a cool thing to watch. That drive in the gym every single day; we have so much more of a purpose. Taking things head on, getting through any tough practices or tough meets is a lot easier together.”

Their Why: The Family

For both Jones and Griswold, the aspects of the program that led them to choose Lindenwood originally are just as present, or even more so now. On her first visit to campus, Jones said she had never seen a team so close. “That really set my decision that I want to go to Lindenwood and be a Lindenwood gymnast,” Jones said. “Just the atmosphere, everyone cheering for each other very intentionally and are very loving of each other – I really wanted to be a part of that.” 

Griswold added that the same close, supportive environment has sustained through her five years at Lindenwood and partially owes the team’s loving atmosphere to their alumni support network and successes. 

For many years the phrase “building a legacy” was the theme of Lindenwood Gymnastics. At only 12-years-old, Lindenwood is one of the youngest NCAA gymnastics programs. Now that the program’s history is coming to an end, the team’s focus has moved to leaving their legacy, using the hashtag #ourlegacy as their theme on social media. 

Alumni have also played a large role in Lindenwood’s success this season. Having had 12 seasons of Lindenwood Gymnastics, the team is dedicating each one of their 12 meets to a different Lindenwood team. Their first meet of the season honored Team 1 and their last meet, USAG nationals, will honor Team 12, the current team. Throughout the season, Lindenwood alumni have come to practices and meets to speak to the team. “It’s been very, very cool to see the building of the Lindenwood legacy, seeing all of the different alumni that have been a part of the program and just seeing how passionate they are,” Scherwinsk said. “It’s really shown our girls on the team how much of a sisterhood Lindenwood Gymnastics is. It’s given them another outlet of support.” 

Other than alumni, the coaches have been some of the team’s biggest supporters throughout the season. Even though they all have personal uncertainties about their jobs for the next season, their support has never wavered. 

“Our coaches have been really amazing through this whole process,” Griswold said. “They’re still incredibly dedicated to this team and this year and they truly give their all to it.” 

For Scherwinski and the coaches, it was important to give the athletes autonomy to be in charge of their season. “We’ve really allowed the team to take control,” Scherwinski said. “As a staff, we just support them all the way through with whatever it is they want to do. Creating goals, finding new motivations, and deciding how the team wants to leave its legacy have been up to the gymnasts.”

Because Lindenwood no longer has a team to recruit for, the coaches have shifted their role to become recruiting counselors for their team. “We told them from the beginning, from the day that the program got cut that we would take that on,” Scherwinski said. “If they wanted us to help them, if they needed assistance, if they needed guidance, even if they needed a foot in the door somewhere, we told them we would be the people to do that.”

The Uncertainty

For the majority of Lindenwood’s gymnasts, the program cut brings a lot of uncertainty for the future. Gymnasts who want to continue competing in the NCAA must enter the transfer portal, but there is no guarantee that they will be picked up or offered the same scholarship they received at Lindenwood. While they can enter the portal at any time, Scherwinski explained that many teams aren’t looking for new additions until after this current season is complete. While this does not help with the uncertainty these athletes face, it has helped them remain more present in this current season. For Jones, she said it has been a little “weird” contacting coaches she used to talk to, but the process has been easier than when she went through it the first time. “I think it’s easier because I’ve already done it before,” Jones said. “I know how to take a phone call. I know what questions to ask.” 

In terms of resources and support offered by the administration following the announcement, Scherwinski said a basic message about continuing to support athletes throughout the season and the transfer process was communicated, but he explained that since the announcement, he’s felt a lack of support from the administration. “​​You can kind of tell that we’re the cut program and that we’re not the ones going to be around next year, just with the different kinds of marketing and social media things for our program and events that are going on,” Scherwinski said. 

While the recruiting process looms in the back of her mind, Jones does not think about it when she competes. “I just live in the moment and when I’m competing, I am doing it for this team and this year,” Jones said. “Whatever happens in the end, it’s going to happen.”

While gymnasts could enter the transfer portal soon after they learned the news, new coaching positions do not open up until the end of the current season. The coaches know when their employment ends, but they have an indefinite future beyond that. Because the coaches trust that their futures will become more clear in the coming months, they’ve been able to focus their attention on the remaining time they have with their team. “The only thing that matters to us and the only place that our focus is geared towards is this current team and taking care of our athletes,” Scherwinski said. 

Bigger Than Us: The Impact, The Future and The Legacy 

Through the difficulties of balancing this season and future plans, a constant for Lindenwood has been the support from the gymnastics community. Since the day it was announced that the program is cut, Lindenwood received an outpour of support from gymnasts, coaches, fans, and fellow NCAA teams. 

Soon after the program was cut, parents of current Lindenwood gymnasts and alumni of the program launched Save Lindenwood Gymnastics, a fundraising campaign with the goal of raising money to save the program. Even though Lindenwood’s administration said no fundraising could change the decision, the closest supporters of the program felt the need to try. Save Lindenwood Gymnastics grew a following on social media and had over $450,000 in pledged donations. In January, it was confirmed by the administration that fundraising would not be accepted. Since then, the mission of Save Lindenwood Gymnastics has been to support the current team to the fullest extent, and fight for NCAA gymnastics and women’s sports teams across the country.   

Until it was visible, Lindenwood gymnasts were unaware of the impact their team has on the wider gymnastics community. When the coaches originally spoke to the team to prepare them for what might feel like an overwhelming amount of support, they laughed it off, not realizing how big the situation really is. 

NCAA gymnastics teams across the country wore gold ribbons in their hair at meets to support Lindenwood. Sarah Haxton, a senior and captain of the Kent State gymnastics team explained that hearing the news about Lindenwood put a lot into perspective. “I tried to put myself in their position and consider what it would be like to have to think about either transferring schools or retire from the sport together,” Haxton said. “I can’t fathom being forced to make that decision.”

Gymnasts across the country, like Haxton, added activism to their to-do lists in efforts to support Lindenwood. Through promoting Save Lindenwood Gymnastics on social media and wearing gold ribbons, gymnasts worked relentlessly to save the program. “Athletes are leaders. They have an audience and voice that many do not. They can make a difference,” Leslie Heaphy, author and professor of sport history at Kent State, said. Heaphy added that because athletes feel so much for their sport, they are able to harness that to fight for their peers.

For Lindenwood, seeing support from other teams and younger club gymnasts was heartwarming and helped the team see the impact their gymnastics has on a wider scale. “It felt like such a bigger purpose that we had,” Griswold said. “The support coming in, we’ll be forever grateful for it.” 

For Scherwinski and Lindenwood’s coaches, the outpour of support proves just how close knit the gymnastics community is and shows the impact one program can have on the whole community. 

“Although we’re the only ones that are getting cut, it affects everybody,” Scherwinski said. “It’s much bigger than us. It’s taking away opportunities for girls in college. It’s taking away opportunities from gymnastics as a sport and it’s much bigger than us.” 

After this season, there will no longer be an NCAA team in the St. Louis area for young gymnasts to look up to. For Lindenwood, part of what makes up their legacy is the legacy of NCAA gymnastics and women’s sports. Removing Lindenwood’s program takes away from that legacy. When recruiting for their team, Lindenwood’s coaches strove to create a program wanting to contribute to that legacy. 

“We wanted to create an environment that pushes people to fully grow and be the best version of themselves,” Scherwinski said. “Taking away our program takes away that opportunity for people. More than anything, this situation has shown just how great the community of gymnastics is, regardless of wins and losses, conference rivals or whatever it is: the sport and this opportunity is so much bigger than that. It’s a shame to see the program and this opportunity go away, but on a much bigger picture, it’s been extremely heartwarming and I am just so grateful to be a part of the end of this legacy and just see firsthand how incredible the sport is.”

Photos by Terry Simpson

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