Hauschild head Tuscaloosa News all-time gymnastics team

TUSCALOOSA | It’s hard to stand out when you are part of a collegiate gymnastics program that has won four national team championships, produced 21 individual event national champions and been home to 50 athletes who have combined to win 223 All-America honors.

Penney Hauschild, who competed at the University of Alabama from 1983-86, made her mark with the Crimson Tide above all others. The native of Horsham, Pa., won two national all-around championships and two different individual event titles on the way to twice winning the Honda Award, given annually to the country’s top collegiate gymnast.

“She’s the greatest individual champion we’ve had in our program,” said Alabama coach Sarah Patterson, who is in her 30th year at the helm of the UA program.

That’s why Hauschild heads The Tuscaloosa News’ All-Time University of Alabama gymnastics team as the top all-arounder in the history of a program that has seen more than 100 gymnasts come and go since its inception in 1975. With input from sources who have been close to Alabama gymnastics over the last 30 years, The News put together an all-time lineup with six gymnasts in the rotation on each event and six all-arounders thrown in for good measure.

Hauschild was a fine gymnast before she got to Alabama, good enough to land a spot on the U.S. team roster where her contemporaries were Mary Lou Retton, Kathy Johnson and Julianne McNamara, who all went on to win Olympic medals. Hauschild competed in the U.S. Championships and at the trials for the World Championships, but never envisioned Olympic glory for herself.

“The national team at the time was the top 20 and I was like around 18th,” Hauschild said. “I never thought to myself, ‘If I take this seriously I can make the Olympic team.’ I don’t think at that point I ever thought it was feasible.

“At the time I didn’t know how to compete. I didn’t figure out the whole competition thing until I got to Alabama. I don’t know that I started to take it seriously until I got to college.”

As a matter of fact, Hauschild’s potential didn’t show her first year at UA.

“I’m so amazed when freshmen do so well,” she said. “It was such a transition from growing up outside of Philadelphia and now you’re in Tuscaloosa. I didn’t get it together until my sophomore year.”

Patterson and Hauschild’s parents conspired to help her get her priorities in order, both athletically and academically.

“We were trying to recruit the best athletes we could,” Patterson said, “but she hadn’t achieved what some of the other elite-level athletes had. I think when she got here she flourished. She was a great competitor. She liked competition.

“Penney matured over the years she was here. I don’t think she necessarily knew what she could do. After her freshman year I sent her home and her mother and dad made her work on a factory line, an assembly line, because I didn’t think she was appreciating her gymnastics career enough. I didn’t think she was taking school as seriously as she should.

“She came back with a renewed enthusiasm. I think she’s a great success story. Penney wanted to go to school and do well in school, but it wasn’t her mission. I think we played a role in helping her see the light, so to speak, about what was important in her life.”

Hauschild showed some sign of what was to come when she won the uneven parallel bars and floor exercise titles at the NCAA Regional in Columbia, Mo., as a sophomore. She earned All-America honors in the all-around, on bars and balance beam at the NCAA title meet.

Hauschild really blossomed in her third year of collegiate competition. She won the all-around title at the Southeastern Conference Championship meet, came back at the regional to win the bars and all-around title and capped it off by capturing the NCAA All-Around title in addition to winning the bars title and placing fourth on the balance beam in helping Alabama to a fourth-place team finish in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“It was kind of bittersweet,” she said. “We had a good meet but we didn’t all hit.

“To this day I’d give it back if we had done better as a team.”

Hauschild won the Honda Award that year but didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as she did a year later, when she again won the NCAA all-around title while also finishing first on floor exercise, third on vault and third on bars. Alabama placed third at the NCAA Championships in Gainesville, Fla.

“My senior year we hit 24 of 24 [routines],” she said. “We did the best we possibly could have done.

“I felt better. I didn’t feel guilty about it.”

Hauschild freely admits that she wasn’t the most talented collegiate gymnast in her day.

“I don’t ever look at it like that at all,” she said. “I had a great meet for me at the right time.

“There were tons of people who were better than me who beat me a number of times. They just didn’t hit at the right time.”

So what was it that made the 5-foot-1 1/2 bundle of muscle so good? Why was she able to shine in the biggest meets?

“She was downright competitive, from what I hear, in terms of [being a] gamer,” said Marie Robbins, who came in as a freshman the year after Hauschild graduated, “but not a practice player. Those are the stories over the years. She could kind of have a crappy week in practice and they wouldn’t hesitate to put them out there.”

Patterson cites the same qualities, and said they came naturally.

“She’s just such a fierce competitor,” the coach said. “I think it’s that underlying spirit of overcoming and pushing yourself beyond anyone’s expectations. That’s just an inner drive that is hard to give someone. I do think we helped Penney see her inner drive.

“Once she realized what she wanted to do, she’s the type individual there was absolutely no stopping her. That was her nature. The bigger the opponent, the bigger the meet, the bigger the rival, the better she was. There’s lots of great athletes that have all the talent in the world, but when the lights come on and everything is on the line she knows how to give it 110 percent.”

Ernestine Russell (formerly Weaver), the now-retired longtime coach of the Florida Gators, remembers Hauschild with fondness.

“I remember her as an athlete that never quit,” Russell said. “Penney was a great competitor who any coach would have loved to have on their team, especially when the going was tough.”

Now a 43-year-old mother of three living in Rochester Hills, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, Hauschild’s only contact with the sport is coaching boys in youth gymnastics twice a week. Of all the years she spent in gymnastics, including her days on the U.S. team, it is her time at Alabama that Hauschild looks back upon most fondly.

“I really think the whole competing for a team thing was much, much easier,” she said. “Competing for myself was more stressful. It was a lot more fun doing it as a team.”

Patterson keeps in close contact with many of her former gymnasts. Even far past her days in athletics, Patterson said Hauschild hasn’t changed.

“The best thing about Penney is her spirit,” the coach said. “She was a great athlete but she had great spirit. To this day she has a great spirit.”

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy.deas@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0224.

All-Around

Penney Hauschild (1983-86)

Two-time NCAA all-around champion

“She’s the greatest individual champion that we’ve had in our program.”

Dee Foster (1990-93)

Never finished lower than third in all-around

“I can’t pick her best event. She had no weak event.”

Jeana Rice (2001-04)

Four-time All-American in all-around

“She had nerves of steel.”

Meredith Willard (1994-97)

1996 NCAA all-around champion

“She came in as a Level 9 gymnast and won the [NCAA] all-around. ”

Andree Pickens (1999-2002)

School record 39.85 in all-around

“An example of when your best athlete is your hardest worker.”

Julie Estin (1984-87)

All-American on all

four events

“She went all-around for us for four years. I don’t think she ever missed a meet.”

Vault

Ashley Miles (2003-06)

Three-time NCAA

vault champion

“Biggest vault in the country.”

Dee Foster (1990-93)

Five perfect 10s on vault

“She was powerful but she had great landings.”

Andree Pickens (1999-02)

Three-year All-American

“Andree’s hardest problem was harnessing her power.”

Alexis Brion (2002-05)

Twice first-team

All-America honors

“Her pike-front half was so big at a time when that vault wasn’t popular. It made her stand out.”

Jeana Rice (2001-04)

First- or second-team All-American all four years

“She knew how to drill a landing.”

Kim Kelly (1993-96)

Six perfect 10s on vault

“Knew when to score the 10 at the right time to help us win championships.”

UNEVEN PARAlLEL BARS

Stephanie Woods (1994-97)

1996 NCAA champion

“Some of the most beautiful lines and handstands of any gymnast we’ve had.”

Penney Hauschild (1983-86)

1985 NCAA champion

“Penney was ahead of her time in her release moves.”

Andree Pickens (1999-2002)

NCAA champion, scored five 10s in her career

“More flight, biggest release moves, biggest dismounts.”

Terin Humphrey (2005-present)

Two-time NCAA champion, Olympic silver medal

“She has more skills on the uneven bars and can change her bar routine at will.”

Dee Foster (1990-93)

Four-time All-American

“Known for her consistency.”

Marie Robbins (1987-90)

Twice first-team

All-American

“She had huge release moves and a great competitive drive.”

BALANCE BEAM

Dana Dobransky (1990-93)

Two-time NCAA beam champion

“Dana would be the most artistic balance beam worker in this group.”

Andree Pickens (1999-2002)

NCAA champion, twice All-America on beam

“Our biggest success story on beam.”

Dee Foster (1990-93)

Three-time first-team All-American

“She demonstrated power on the balance beam before power was really in style.”

Jeana Rice (2001-04)

All-America honors all four years

“Ease. She just made it look so easy.”

Kristin Sterner (2000-03)

Three-time first-team All-American

“Kristin was my go-to person. I knew she would always come through.”

Lissy Smith (1998-2001)

Won three regional

beam titles

“She was the most consistent beam worker I’ve ever coached.”

FLOOR EXERCISE

Ashley Miles (2003-06)

NCAA champ, never finished lower than third

“She’s the most natural floor performer we’ve ever coached.”

Kim Kelly (1993-96)

NCAA champion, three-time All-American

“She just did what it took to win.”

Meredith Willard (1994-97)

First-team All-American all four years

“One of the most entertaining athletes ever to watch.”

Morgan Dennis (2007-present)

NCAA champion

as freshman

“Morgan is a combination of power and aggressiveness. She had to learn to be a performer.”

Dee Foster (1990-93)

Three-time All-American, three regional floor titles

“She was short but dynamic.”

Penney Hauschild (1983-86)

NCAA champion, two regional floor titles

“She had an expression that to this day I still try to get athletes to perform.”