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Olympian Kip Simons enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Air Force Academy men's gymnastics team. Simons came to the Academy in 2005, after spending five seasons on the coaching staff for the California-Berkeley men's gymnastics program. In just three years, Simons had accumulated several coaching accolades. In 2006, he was voted as the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Coach of the Year. Following the 2008 season, he was selected as the USAG Coach of the Year and the NCAA West Region Coach of the Year. In 2007, Simons led four Falcons to the NCAA Championships and a third-place team finish at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships. As a team, the Falcons accounted for 11 USAG All-America honors, the most-ever for an Air Force squad. Last season, he coached Greg Stine to the Academy's first NCAA All-America certificate in 15 years, as Stine claimed top-eight honors at the NCAA Championships in the all-around and on the still rings. As a team, Air Force claimed a third-place finish at the USAG Collegiate Championships. Individually, Stine (all-around, parallel bars) and Jake Schonig (still rings) claimed USAG titles, while four Falcons accounted for eight USAG All-America honors. Prior to his appointment at the Academy, Simons spent five seasons with the Cal Bears. He was an assistant coach from 2001-05 and then held the title of associate head coach for the final year of his stay in Berkeley. During his tenure at Cal, the Bears finished within the top-two at the MPSF Championships every year, winning the conference title in 2004. Simons helped guide Cal to a pair of third-place finishes at the NCAA Championships and coached 19 top-10 finishers, including four national champions. Simons began his collegiate-level coaching career following a stellar career at both the collegiate and national levels. In 1988, Simons dominated the U.S. Junior National Championships and the Junior Pan-American Games, collecting 10 gold medals. During a successful college career at Ohio State, Simons earned numerous honors throughout his four years, including the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the Nissen-Emery Award, which is given to the nation's top senior gymnast. A native of Bloomsburg, Pa., he was a four-year member of the All-Big 10 team, while earning four Big 10 Conference titles on the parallel bars (1992, 1994), still rings (1992) and high bar (1993). In addition, Simons picked up two NCAA All-America certificates, as the Buckeyes finished third at the national meet during each of his last three seasons. Following his collegiate career, Simons competed on two world championship teams, as well as the gold-medal winning teams at the 1994 Goodwill Games and the 1995 Pan-American Games. He also represented the United States as a member of the 1996 Olympic team that finished fifth at the Atlanta Games. In September 2006, Simons was one of 12 Ohio State alumni inducted into the OSU Athletics Hall of Fame by the Varsity "O" Association. |
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