Despite years of success most Buckeye sports fans have no idea who Miles Avery is - yet the men's gymnastics coach does not resent his anonymity.
"Sure, I'd like to have the contract that Jim Tressel has or that Thadd Matta has," said Avery, "but I didn't get into this to get famous."
The coach appeared to be glad to have the chance to work with world-class athletes. Ohio State has three world class gymnasts preparing for the Beijing Olympics with Avery. Blaine Wilson, Morgan Hamm and Paul Hamm were all on the 2004 Olympic team in Athens and are working to repeat that - practicing every day for six to eight hours.
"Paul and Blaine are among the most talented guys I've ever worked with" Avery said.
Still, the coach's achievements at OSU are worth notice. In the 10 years since he took the helm, the gymnastics team has won one NCAA and five Big Ten championships.
Walking into Avery's office, one cannot ignore the wall covered with honors. Between 2001 and 2007 he won Big Ten coach of the year five time. In 2001, he won the national coach of the year honors when the Buckeyes won the NCAA championship.
"It's an honor, and it's nice to be recognized," Avery said about the plaques.
Avery has also had success above the college level. He was a coach on the last three US Olympic teams in which America did as well as it ever had. Because of that, expectations are high in 2008. While the casual fan may only get excited about gold medals, Avery is more realistic.
"The level of talent is greater, and the routines are of a higher difficulty than on the college level," Avery said. "If we go and have a great performance and only get bronze or silver then that would be ok."
Many fans see gymnastics as an individual sport, but Avery stressed the importance of team.
"We have to build the best combination of gymnasts for our country," Avery said. "Some guys specialize like Morgan, whereas Blaine and Paul do all the events."
Andrew Martin can be reached at martin.1633@osu.edu.
2008 Woodie Awards
Be the first to comment on this story