April 15, 2010

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky’s Chuck Dickerson has been named the Gymnastics Assistant Coach of the Year for the central region, the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches recently announced.

Dickerson has helped the UK gymnastics team steadily improve its efforts on the vault apparatus since his arrival in Lexington in 2008. Kentucky has ranked among the top 16 schools on the event each season under Dickerson. The Wildcats set a school record with a 49.150 regional qualifying score on vault last season. Last week at the NCAA Lexington Regional, sophomore Whitney Rose (Frisco, Texas) became UK’s first gymnast to qualify for nationals since 2006 when she scored a 9.900 to tie for first place.

“It’s a great honor,” said Dickerson, who is a native of Tyler, Texas. “Coaches only get awards when the team is doing well. It’s a great group of young ladies we have on our team and we’ve continued to make strides on vault.”

“It’s a well-deserving award,” UK head coach Mo Mitchell said. “He is a tireless worker who loves teaching gymnastics. We’ve been one of the top teams in the nation on vault in recent years and that’s due to the hard work put in by Chuck and our athletes.”

Other central region awards handed out by the NACGC include LSU’s D-D Breaux as Head Coach of the Year, LSU’s Susan Jackson as Gymnast of the Year and Central Michigan’s Marcy Weston as Administrator of the Year.