New assistant coach Sam Buchalter took the time to sit down with UKathletics.com and answer some questions. Check out what the new addition to Hajile ?Mo? Muhammad?s staff had to say.
What attracted you to Kentucky from Michigan State
First of all, it?s in the SEC and the SEC is head and shoulders the best conference in the country for gymnastics. Second, the chance to work for Mo. I?ve known him for a while and felt it would be a great situation. He was also willing to take on the responsibility of mentoring me because my goal one day is to be a head coach. He understands that. Quite simply when you start comparing the nuts and bolts of operations, Kentucky has so much support from the university and the athletic administration. If I wasn?t going to be competitive, I would go back to practicing law.
How did you decide to make the change from practicing law and coaching for a club to coaching full time at the collegiate level?
I was working as a lawyer and still coaching club when one of my athletes signed with Michigan State. She asked if I would apply for their assistant opening. In the back of my mind I always thought I wanted to coach college. I thought it might happen later in my career though. Another thing was that it was Michigan State and in the town I was living in. It was a great learning experience and I didn?t want to leave. We had a really good recruiting class coming in, but there was an equally good recruiting class coming here. In the world of gymnastics, people appreciate how good the SEC is. Every single team is in the top 20.
How hard was it to go from your home, Michigan, to a new place like Kentucky
It wasn?t that much of a challenge. I was a grad student for four years oversees. Picking up and moving halfway across the world ? moving to Finland ? was a little more intimidating than moving here. That said, all my friends and family are in Michigan. I lived in Lansing for nine years. I really loved it and it was hard. Eventually I?ll have to cut the cord, but I still go back and I still think of it as home. You know, Kentucky is a place that gets picked on sometimes by other states, but Lexington is a nice town. It has everything you could want. Other schools in the SEC are in some remote locations, but Lexington has a similar feel to Lansing and Michigan State. I love it here so far.
How did you get into gymnastics
My mom was a coach, actually a very good coach. She was the first coach inducted into the Michigan Coaches Hall of Fame for gymnastics. So, I grew up in the gym. When I was three years old, my mom would take me to the gym I would go to gymnastics camps that my mom worked at in northern Michigan. I grew up in it. I call myself a gymrat. But I never really coached until I was 18 and one of my best friends, working for my mom, had a motorcycle accident. As a favor to my friend, not my mom, I started covering some of his hours and that?s how I started coaching. I have a twin brother ? he and I and two of our buddies each took one of his four days per week. Then my buddies dropped off and I took their hours and my brother and I did it. Then he quit and I kept going, 22 years later I?m still doing it. It kind of happened by accident. While I was in college, it was a way to work my way through school. It beat flipping burgers. When you start getting good, it gets addictive.
You practiced law. Was that what you always saw yourself doing?
I had a friend who was a college coach for a while and it intrigued me. I always thought it would it would be neat with all the different aspects. Once I went to college, I loved the university setting. I?m kind of a split personality. I have a strong academic focus, but I love playing in the gym. Sometimes I have a hard time considering it a job. In the back of my mind, I always wanted to be a lawyer, but I didn?t really want to practice law. But, now I?m well situated if I ever want to move into administration. One of the key considerations when I left Michigan State was they didn?t have continuing education benefits and UK has great opportunities. I?m already looking into some things that are really intriguing to me.
You took six years off from school after high school and before college. What did you spend your time doing?
I raced motorcross for a while. I was pretty good. I even won a championship at the amateur level. I was probably good enough to go pro, but I wasn?t dedicated enough. This was before the X Games and before they started doing all the flips and things. From about 1979-1992, I raced motorcycles. My mom was into gymnastics and my dad was into motorcycles. My twin and I basically from 13 on raced every weekend with my dad while my mom was doing her gymnastics things. My mom would come to one or two races a year. There?s a lot of injuries with motorcycles and she didn?t like that.
Did you ever have any horrible wrecks?
I?ve broken my left arm about six different times. I had to spend half a year in a cast which pretty much ended my racing career. It?s a fairly expensive habit, so I had to work coaching gymnastics and I even worked construction one summer. So that made me want to go back to school.
What?s the best part about being at UK?
It?s a very talented team. Mo and (former assistant) Tom (Haley) did a great job recruiting. I like the fact that there?s a no-nonsense attitude in the athletic department. We?re expected to win and the athletic department supports us in every way. The chemistry of the team is amazing and they get along great. The level of expectations because we?re in the SEC is high. There?s a motivation by them to get better. I like the fact that I do a lot of the work with them. I get up in the morning and spin with them or sprint them. But, I don?t do aerobics, I?d rather run.
How much does it help as a coach to do a lot of the training with the athletes?
It makes a huge difference. The club I come from is known as being one of the best in the country. It has a reputation for being pretty tough, so a lot of the girls were worried that I would be nuts and expect too much. I?ve told them I expect a lot, but I do it all with them. They like it that you doing the hard work with them.
What excited you the most about being here and the direction of UK?s gymnastics program?
Kentucky has never qualified for nationals, so being here and helping them do something for the first time excites me. I really think being here and seeing how competitive UK is in basketball, for example, everything is in place for us to become a national power in gymnastics. The facilities are there. It?s clear with the administration will support you and the state of Kentucky will also. We?ve had the best college gymnast ever here, so its clear it can be done, now we just have to do it with a team.
