Well, dear Readers, I WAS going to put up photos of the team girls today, but I left my camera at home yesterday. So today's story is about Diablo's founding father (he will just hate being called that), Jim Gault. Here is a picture of him last Spring, with me and my granddaughter Kaylie at Diablo.
Mr. Gault is a coach from an era when we did not call our coaches by their first name. I met him in the summer of 1969 when Diablo was hosting it's very first Flip Flop Follies. My summer school PE coach, Don Allen, suggested that my friend Karen and I might want to go see a gymnastics show that weekend, so we did.
And I was just hooked forever. We couldn't believe what we were seeing! Girls dressed in frog costumes and cowboy costumes and togas, tumbling across the floor and flying off the bars in unison... Karen and I were just stunned. Amazed. Head over heels in love with what we saw. We went straight home and talked our parents into signing us up for Diablo Gymnastics.
Mr. Gault coached the US Olympic team, wrote compulsories routines for the whole country, and eventually made a huge name for himself in gymnastics from the time it was a fledgling sport in our country.
But when I met him he was doing local stuff, and also coaching at College Park High School. My friend Karen and I went to Mt. Diablo High in Concord. We competed against Gault's team at Zone championships our freshman year. College Park won the meet. Mt Diablo came in second. Team scores were calculated by a point system; CP creamed MD something like 236 to 17. I know for sure that we scored 17. And I'm pretty sure Gault's team got every other point possible, leaving a tie for third place between six teams that scored zero. Ha! That was just the kind of coach he was, in a class all by himself...
So thanks to Mr. Gault for instigating these many decades of gymnastics at Diablo!
GO DIABLO!
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3 comments:
Hi Michelle!
I hope this works. I think it's great to have a local way to communicate!
Paulina
wow, mr. gault looks great! i remember that he used to stand on us (!) as we were stretching our splits, and i still loved him!
i was so proud to have attempted to carry on his tradition of solid, safe gymnastics with good sportsmanship during my tenure... looks like the newest teams are continuing in that tradition.
and yay for ashlyn! she was part of one of my favorite groups coming up through the team ranks. it's great to hear that the diablo is still the classy organization that it has always been... thanks to you, michelle!
i'm hoping to see the next follies, and get together for a reunion -- soon??
Michelle...I love the blog and thanks for the kind words. Even a note from Mary. Hope all is well with you, Mary. The gym looks beautiful thanks to all your hard work, Michelle. Can't wait to see it on my next visit. JG
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