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How Janelle McDonald returned UCLA to gymnastics prominence

April 12, 2023

UCLA gymnasts will wince if you ask them about the intrasquad meet that occurred in the first practice after the Pac-12 championships.

Coach Janelle McDonald decided to hold an intrasquad to replicate the feeling of competing two days in a row. So after a Pac-12 championship in which UCLA worked their way from fourth to second place in the final standings, and after traveling back from Utah, the Bruins went all out.

“It’s a good idea. But did I want to do that? No,” Bruins senior Margzetta Frazier said. “We were so tired, but we sat in the huddle like, ‘Let’s lean on each other. It’s not going to be the last time we compete like this. Let’s get it done.’ It was so freaking hard.”

In spite of their fatigue, every gymnast hit their routine. McDonald’s decision paid off even further on the second day of the NCAA regionals, when the Bruins battled meet-day nerves as well as personal struggles. They reminded each other of the successful intrasquad, then proceeded to finish second and qualify for the NCAA championships.

McDonald’s bubbly personality has rebuilt morale in UCLA’s bounceback season, but beyond the smiling face are coaching decisions made with intention. And those have the Bruins ready to contend for a national title.

The Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) named McDonald as Head Coach of the Year and UCLA’s BJ Das, Kyle Grable and Autumn Grable were named Assistant Coaches of the Year in early April, but McDonald’s accolade has been years in the making.

Finding her niche

Although McDonald a first-year head coach at UCLA, she’s been coaching since she was a teenager. While in high school, she led recreational classes at Gymnastics Unlimited in Washington so she could train for free at the facility.

“I loved being able to even help the little kids learn their first part cartwheel. There was just so much joy in it,” McDonald said. “I wasn’t really planning on continuing coaching, but as I coached through college I was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything else.’”

As she continued her career, she coached higher and higher levels of gymnastics and ended up as an assistant coach at California. The coaches in Berkeley were attracted to her joyful demeanor as much as they were to her ability to hone in on specifics, particularly on uneven bars.

“Part of the things that we love in Cal gymnastics is taking a lot of pride in details and lines,” Cal co-head coach Elisabeth Crandall-Howell said. “It’s holistically looking at a video of a kick and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s really pretty.’ It’s that and having people in the program like Janelle who would embrace the details of things.”

McDonald’s attention to detail still shows in daily practices. She allows the Bruins to “play gymnastics,” letting them experiment with different skills, but also makes sure all drills are completed with quality, right down to the final handstand hold.

In film sessions, she reviews slowed-down routines recorded on iPads during meets in both one-on-one and team settings. She points out a detail in a gymnast’s routine, then asks what their mindset was in that moment. The thoughts of gymnasts who are in as well as out of the lineup are taken into account.

Some gymnasts, like sophomore Ana Padurariu, seek constructive criticism and like to have every detail spelled out for them.

“I like to improve on everything that I can,” Padurariu said. “So anything that she’ll see, like, ‘Your legs are apart here, on your handstand you need to open your hips, on dismount you need to point your toes.’ She’s always very transparent.”

Getting the results

The extra effort spent on details is showing in the results, especially on bars. Last season’s best score as a team in the event was a 49.475. The Bruins have surpassed that score seven times this season.

The team has been ranked within the top six in the nation all year and is No. 5 in the country on uneven bars and balance beam and No. 1 in floor exercise. UCLA has also surpassed a 198 total team score three times this season, a mark that was achieved only once last season – coincidentally against Cal, where McDonald was coaching at the time.

McDonald manages gymnasts with a wide range of skills as well as a wide range of personalities at UCLA. Some gymnasts, like Kalyany Steele, are soft-spoken. Others, like Jordan Chiles, burst into press conferences, talking quickly and preventing any instance of silence by making her thoughts known on any topic that comes to mind.

The key has been directing the energy of each gymnast into a common focus to get the whole team to function at full capacity.

“It’s easy to talk about scores and talk about that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, we can’t control that,” McDonald said. “Somebody sitting in the chair does and so don’t focus on it. Pivot your mindset into what you can be intentional about.”

Setting the standard

McDonald put together a challenging preseason for the Bruins. The first meet was the Super 16, which brings together some of the best teams in college gymnastics in Las Vegas. UCLA was placed in a session with then-No. 1 Oklahoma as well as Michigan and Auburn, which were ranked No. 4 and No. 5, respectively, at the time.

UCLA placed fourth at the meet, but hit its highest season-opening score in 18 years.

“That was definitely something we were intentional about,” McDonald said of scheduling the meet. “It’s going to show our team where we’re at and where we want to go. That day, I saw them flip a switch to really believing how great they can be. And that was a moment that really has catapulted our season to being so great.”

The Bruins again find themselves among the best teams in the country this week in their first appearance as a team at the NCAA championships since 2019. They’ll start Thursday at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas, in semifinal 2 against Oklahoma, Utah and Kentucky at 6 p.m. PT.

If they’re one of the top two finishers in the session, the Bruins will move on to the finals, slated for 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve really just been champing at the bit,” said Frazier, who was part of a nationals-qualifying team as a freshman. “The more we said it, the more we believed it and embodied it and realized, ‘Why not us? We went into regionals like, ‘Why not us? We’re the top team in the nation.”

The seed of that mentality was planted by McDonald at the Super 16 meet, and grew with every film review, dual meet and grueling intrasquad. The coach has been smiling as bright as her blue-glittered nails all throughout – perhaps her most intentional coaching decision of all.

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“You have to be able to work and you have to be able to push yourself to places that are uncomfortable to improve,” Crandall-Howell said. “Even when things are hard, you’re able to reflect upon the joy that you have for what you’re doing and the people that you’re doing it with. Embracing the hard days can can be a choice that you make.”

NCAA WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

When: Thursday

Semifinal 1 (noon): No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Cal, No. 6 LSU, and No. 8 Denver

Semifinal 2 (6 p.m.): No. 1 Oklahoma, No. 2 Utah, No. 5 UCLA, and No. 7 Kentucky

Where: Dickies Arena, Fort Worth, Texas

TV: ESPN2

Orange County Register

News Details

How Janelle McDonald returned UCLA to gymnastics prominence

Finding her niche

Getting the results

Setting the standard

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