As expected, Chuck Chmelka has taken over for retiring Nebraska Gymnastics Head Coach Francis Allen.
1984 Olympic gold medalist Jim Hartung will remain as Chmelka’s assistant coach.
The team is under some pressure to produce in the very near future if they are to survive possible athletic budget cuts.
The program’s future depends on a successful 2010 season. The once unbeatable Huskers—they’re the only team, ever, to win five men’s titles in a row (1979-83) and own eight national titles total; only Penn State and Illinois have more—finished the 2009 season ranked ninth (out of 20 teams) and haven’t won a National Championship since 1994. …
Chmelka, who is married to fellow former Husker gymnast Kim Grabowski with a son, Alex, also a gymnast, runs the well-respected Nebraska School of Gymnastics, the junior program based in the Husker’s facility. …
Right now, Chmelka’s focus is on his new role as the Husker head coach, and leading his team back to top of the men’s gymnastics ranks.
“The first thing we gotta address, and fix, is recruiting,” Chmelka says of how he plans to get there. “We’re going to recruit differently than we have. We have to. Our guys are good, and we’re getting better, but we need a couple of the top guys to challenge those top teams. Somehow, we gotta get ‘em to come to Nebraska. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a lot of work. But it can be done. Mark (Williams) did it [at Oklahoma], Stanford went through it. I know we can do it too.”
Despite the rumors, Chmelka clearly feels his team’s future is bright. “Do I think we’re going to have a team next year?” he asks, answering emphatically, “Heck yes! … I’m not even thinking that we’re not going to be here next year. I’m planning on being here for a long, long time.”
INSIDE GYMNASTICS – CHMELKA TAKES OVER AT NEBRASKA
