JEFF RICHARDS

Jeff Richards took over the reigns of the Utah State gymnastics program in July, 2008, becoming only the second head coach in the Aggies’ history after legendary coach Ray Corn retired after 31 seasons.

Last season, Richards coached five Utah State individual NCAA Regional qualifiers, the most during his time as head coach of the Aggies. USU finished fifth at the WAC Championships. Richards was named the NCAA Division I National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) North Central Region Co-Coach of the Year, in a vote by the region’s head coaches at the NCAA Division I Gymnastics North Central Regional.

Last season, Richards guided Utah State to a third-place finish at the WAC Championships, tying USU’s best WAC finish in the Aggies’ five years in the league, matching the 2007 third-place finish. Two Aggies earned all-WAC honors as Heather Heinrich earned second-team all-WAC honors by finishing fourth in the all-around. Sophomore Rebecca Holliday also earned second-team all-WAC accolades by finishing tied for fifth on bars and tying for sixth on beam. Richards also mentored three USU NCAA Regional qualifiers in all-arounders Heinrich and Lyndsie Boone as well as bars specialist Jackie Dillon.

Richards, who was born and raised in Logan, is a 1988 graduate of Logan High School and was a student assistant coach at Utah State from 1988-90.

Prior to USU, Richards spent the previous three seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Iowa, where he was named the 2008 North Central Region Assistant Co-Coach of the Year with fellow Iowa assistant, Talya Vexler. The award came after Richards helped the Hawkeyes to a 10-4-1 record, a ranking as high as No. 19 in the national polls and finishing third in the Big Ten.

“I’m thankful to Utah State University for putting their confidence in me, and I’m excited to move the program forward,” Richards said when he was hired. “There’s a lot of history here for me, and it’s great to be returning home.”

Richards, who has over 20 years of collegiate gymnastics experience, served as Iowa’s main bars coach and spotter for all four events. He was also in charge of travel, equipment and scheduling for the Hawkeyes. In 2008, Richards coached the Hawkeyes to a season-high 49.0 on bars in a dual meet against Iowa State. He also coached senior Katie Burke to a first-place performance on bars against Illinois and Michigan State. Richards also coached freshman Rebecca Simbhudas to first-place performances on bars twice.

Richards began his coaching career as a student-assistant at Utah State from 1988-1990, before transferring to Southern Utah, where he finished his student-assistant coaching duties and earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from SUU in 1995. While at Southern Utah, Richards was an assistant coach for the Thunderbirds under SUU head coach Scott Bauman, also a former USU assistant coach, until 1998. From 1998-2004 Richards was head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and was head coach at Winona State University from 2004-05 before joining Iowa in 2005.

While at Wisconsin-Stout, Richards earned the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year Award for both the 2000 and 2001 seasons, and the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Coach of the Year honors for the 2000 season. He coached seven NCGA All-Americans and eight all-conference award winners at Wisconsin-Stout, leading the Blue Devils to the 2001 NCGA National Championships. UW-Stout broke its team-best score each of Richards’ six seasons at the helm.

At Winona State, Richards mentored two gymnasts who qualified for the NCGA National Championships.

During his stint at Southern Utah, Richards helped increase the team score from 170 to 188 in his first year, as well as coaching individual regional qualifiers each year and one national qualifier, and highly increased the Thunderbirds’ recruiting caliber.

While at Utah State, Richards helped the Aggies to two appearances in the NCAA Regional Championships in both 1989 and 1990, and coached Tana Davis in the all-around to the NCAA National Championships both seasons. Richards also helped coach all-High Country Athletic Conference honoree Stephanie Green in 1990.

Richards has two daughters, Kanyon (16) and Kennedy (13) who live in Menomonie, Wisc.

Janet Anson is in her second year with the Utah State gymnastics program.

After being responsible for beam coaching duties and floor cho- reography during her first two years with the Aggies, Anson is switching to vault and floor this season.

Anson, a native of Kansas City, Mo., comes to USU after two years as a volunteer assistant coach at Iowa State, where she shared coaching responsibilities for floor and vault, along with planning floor workouts and endurance training.

With the Aggies, Anson mainly handles beam coaching duties along with floor choreography as well as assisting in recruiting.

“I’m very excited for her to be here. I think she brings a lot of experience to the table, both from her time competing and her coaching career, learning from Iowa State head coach Jay Ronayne,” Richards said.

Last season Anson mentored Rebecca Holliday to a second-team all-WAC finish on beam, as well as first-team all-WAC all-arounder Heather Heinrich. Anson also helped guide Henrich and Lyndsie Boone to all-around performances at the NCAA Regional Championships.

In 2009, Anson helped guide the Cyclones to a No. 19 national ranking in the final Troester/GymInfo Women’s Gymnastics Rankings. ISU finished third in the North Central Regional, the same regional that Utah State’s five individuals competed. The Cyclones had three Big 12 individual co-champions, winning a share of the beam, vault and bars titles.

“She was a national competitor all four years she was at Iowa State, leading them to the Super Six one year. I think she’ll bring out a great deal of experience from the high level competitive meets to help the girls mentally and physically in those late season big meets like conference championships, regional meets and hopefully soon, the NCAA championships,” Richards said.

“Being a part of a Super 16 and going to nationals, she understands what it takes. She has instilled in them to keep fighting. Everyone has injuries, but you have to keep pushing. She has done a wonderful job of keeping them focused and getting them to fight,” Richards said.

Richards is familiar with both Anson’s competitiveness and coaching skills, having coached against her when he was an assistant at Iowa, and he’s excited about them progressing from foes to allies.

“She’s a fierce competitor, and she brings that to her coaching. I think she’ll be able to help the girls focus and find that competitiveness within themselves,” Richards said.

Anson’s two seasons coaching at Iowa State came after her very successful career there, and she is one of the most decorated gymnasts in Iowa State history.

Anson earned All-America accolades eight times, and she was also a two-time Big 12 Gymnast of the Year in 2006 and 2007. Her honors and award collection also includes the 2007 American Award, 2007 North Central Region Gymnast of the Year, 2007 Kansas City Sports Commission Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year and 2007 Honda Sports Award Finalist. Anson also qualified for the NCAA individual finals all four years she competed, was a three-time Big 12 champion, two-time regional champion and NCAA runner-up on vault. She was also the two-time Iowa State Female Athlete of the Year in 2004 and 2006 in addition to being the first-ever Cyclone Nation “Ms. Cyclone.”

Off the floor of competition, she was also a member of the Iowa State Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) and the Big 12 Good Works Team.

In addition to her Iowa State coaching duties, Anson was also the team Director/Optional Coach for Cardinal Gymnastics Academy in Ames, Iowa.

Anson earned her bachelor’s degree in health and human performance from Iowa State in 2007.

TeShawne Jackson is in her first year with the Utah State gymnas- tics program.

Jackson will handle beam coaching duties and floor choreography for the Aggies.

“TeShawne will bring a high level of experience to the team. She helped lead Iowa State to two consecutive regional appearances and coached Janet Anson to an all-conference finish on both beam and floor and a second-place finish at the NCAA Central Re- gional,” Richards said. “TeShawne has an eye for perfection and the persistence to make it happen. She knows what it takes to make changes and will out-work anyone to make it happen.”

Jackson brings six years of coaching experience to Utah State, including three years at Iowa State, where she not only coached fellow current Aggie assistant Janet Anson, but also coached with her, as they were both assistants for the Cyclones from 2008-09.

Prior to USU, Jackson was a team compulsory/optional coach for Coral Reef Gymnastics in Weston, Fla. for one season. Before that, Jackson was at Iowa State for three years, where she was chore- ographer and coached the 2009 Big 12 beam champion, Jasmine Thompson. In 2007, Jackson mentored Anson, who earned All- American honors on beam. Anson also took all-conference on both beam and floor and finished second on beam at the NCAA Central Regional. Jackson helped lead the Cyclones to consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, a co-runner up finish at the 2007 Central Re- gional and second-place finish at the 2008 Big 12 Championships.

From 2005-06, Jackson was an assistant at the College of William and Mary, where she choreographed for and coached the 2006 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) floor champion, Brit- tany Gibbs. While at William and Mary, she also helped Gibbs and Jess Randall to co-USA Gymnastics Collegiate Individual National Championships on floor in 2006.

Jackson began her coaching career at Ball State during the 2004- 05 season, assisting on all events with a main focus on beam and floor. She also assisted with promotion of the team’s meets.

A 2004 graduate of West Virginia University, Jackson earned her bachelor’s degree in physical education with a co-concentration in athletic coaching education.

She had a well-decorated four-year career at WVU, winning the East Atlantic Gymnastics League vault and all-around titles in 2001 and 2002, tying the WVU career record for individual conference titles (four). In 2000, Jackson captured the NCAA North Central Regional Championship in floor exercise and was an individual national qualifier in 1999 at Junior Nationals, before qualifying as a collegiate gymnast in 2000 and 2002.

Jackson holds the WVU career record for perfect-10.00 perfor- mances in all events with a total of seven. She also holds the Mountaineers’ career record for most scores of 9.90 or higher on vault and floor with 23 and 21, respectively. She has a gymnastics move named after her, which is recognized in the Code of Points (tour jeté ring 1/2).

Nicki Felley-Jackson is in her third year on the USU coaching staff after a well-decorated four-year career for the Aggies.

Felley-Jackson works primarily with USU’s floor exercise, coaching second-team all-WAC all-arounder Heather Heinrich last season. She also mentored Heinrich and Lyndsie Boone to the NCAA Regional Championships in the all-around.

“Nicki has been helping out at floor with tumbling. She comes from a really good gym, so she had to condition really hard and knows what it takes to work hard,” USU head coach Jeff Richards said. “ She wasn’t a kid that could just get out there and do it. She was a kid that had to condition, condition, condition.”

Felley-Jackson served as the captain of the USU gymnastics team her junior and senior years of 2008 and 2009. She graduated from Utah State in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science.

While competing for the Aggies, Felley-Jackson was a two-time NCAA North Central Regional qualifier in the all-around her junior and senior seasons.

She was also a three-time all-WAC honoree. As a senior, Felley-Jackson earned second-team all-WAC accolades after finishing fifth in the all-around with a 38.925. As a junior she led USU in the all-around and ranked ninth in the WAC and 17th in the region.

“It has been great to have her coaching on the floor because she knows how hard she had to work to get it. She didn’t always succeed, and workouts are hard, but she knows you have to somehow find a way to make it through it and make it happen,” Richards said.

Off the floor of competition, Felley-Jackson was a three-time academic all-WAC honoree in addition to the USU Joe E. and Elma Whitesides Scholar-Athlete Award all four years she competed.

Prior to her USU career, Felley-Jackson competed as a Level 10 gymnast for Chris Burdette and Kim Zmeskal as a member of Texas Dreams. In addition to winning the 2004 Texas state title on floor, Felley-Jackson placed second on beam at the Level 10 Regionals and at the Level 10 Nationals, she placed eighth on floor and 10th on vault. At the 2005 Junior Olympic Championships, she finished ninth in the all-around.

Felley-Jackson married former USU football student-athlete Leon Jackson III in August, 2010.

Lyndsie Boone is in her first year on the Utah State coaching staff, serving as a graduate assistant coach after being a highly success- ful four-year letterwinner for the Aggies.

“Lyndsie was a great gymnast for us for four years and has matured into an incredible young woman. She is working on her MBA and wanted to learn more about the business side of gymnastics. Her business skills, combined with her gymnastics knowledge have been a tremendous help in the day-to-day operations of the pro- gram,” Richards said.

A native of Winthrop Harbor, Ill., Boone’s duties will be working with all events during practice and meets, as well as some office work

“Lyndsie’s communication skills make her an incredible coach and the student-athletes respond to her coaching style very well. As a head coach you try to surround yourself with capable, hard work- ing, self motivated people and Lyndsie emulates these qualities and has set a standard that will be hard to be equaled by GA’s that will follow,” Richards said.

Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Boone was a four-year NCAA regional qualifier, competing in the all-around in 2009, 2010 and 2011 after qualifying on beam in 2008. She was also a three-time academic all-WAC honoree as well as a three-time USU Joe E. and Elma Whitesides Scholar Athlete Award recipient.

Boone earned her bachelor’s degree in business entrepreneurship from USU in 2011 and is currently pursuing her master’s of business administration.