RachelGarrison

Rachel Garrison enters her eighth season as gymnastics associate head coach—after a four-year stint as assistant coach and four additional years volunteering with the program—at the University of Kentucky in 2026.

Garrison, a 2018 and 2023 National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women National Assistant Coach of the Year, has helped guide the Wildcats to over 100 wins while splitting duties as a recruiter and beam coach.

Garrison has coached five Wildcat All-Americans–Sidney Dukes, Alex Hyland, Mollie Korth, Raena Worley, and Isabella Magnelli–to 11 national honors. Dukes was a First Team Regular Season All-American in 2016, followed by a First Team Regular Season honor from Korth and a Second Team Regular Season laurel from Hyland in 2017. Hyland added another All-America honor on beam at the 2019 NCAA National Championships. 14-time All-American Raena Worley earned her first All-America honor on the balance beam during a historic 2024 season, picking up Second Team Regular Season honors.

Under the guidance of Garrison, Magnelli blossomed into one of the school’s most decorated balance beam worker, earning six All-America honors on the event–including three First Team mentions. Magnelli also finished as the SEC Runner-Up on the event in 2023 and 2024 and placed fourth at the 2023 NCAA National Championships and third at the 2024 NCAA National Championships.

In 2025, Garrison’s beam team matched a school record with a 49.575 in the regular season finale at Florida on March 14. This came one week after the Cats posted a 49.525 on the event in a Senior Night win against Arkansas–the highest beam score for the program inside Historic Memorial Coliseum. Magnelli earned First Team Regular Season All-America honors for the first time in her career with a career-high matching 9.935 NQS, highlighted by a near-perfect 9.975 performance on her Senior Night. The team finished ranked inside the top ten on the apparatus for the second year in a row–ranking ninth with a 49.385 NQS. Seven Wildcats–Chesney Bennett, Creslyn Brose, Carly Busch, Skylar Killough-Wilhelm, Sharon Lee, Magnelli, and Delaynee Rodriguez–all set or matched their career highs on the balance beam during 2025.

A historic 2024 season that saw the Wildcats earn their highest score in program history, the highest NQS, and the highest national seed in program history was highly influenced by success on the balance beam under Garrison’s guidance. Two Wildcats–Magnelli and Worley–earned Regular Season All-America honors while the team finished seventh in the final apparatus rankings with a 49.445 beam NQS. Worley nearly scored the program’s second perfect 10.0 on beam, earning a career-best 9.975 at the 2024 Kidney Care Women’s Gymnastics Championships on March 16. Magnelli delivered loads of postseason success, scoring a 9.950 at the SEC Championships and NCAA National Championships to finish as runner-up at the conference meet and as the bronze medalist at nationals.

Kentucky set a new school record with a beam rotation of 49.575 in the NCAA Norman, Okla. Regional on April 1, 2023. The Wildcats previously held its program best on the apparatus of 49.525 in the NCAA Salt Lake City Regional final on April 3, 2021. The Wildcats finished the 2023 season ranked 13th on beam in the Road to Nationals Team National Standings while ranking seventh at the conclusion of the 2024 regular season. UK did not count a fall all season in 2023 while being one of three NCAA DI gymnastics program to score 49.000+ in every event in every meet of the season.

In 2022, All-Southeastern Conference performer Bailey Bunn competed as an individual on beam at the NCAA Championships, while Worley was named a second-team Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Regular Season All-American on all-around.

Garrison oversaw a Kentucky beam rotation that finished among the nation’s top 15 with a Team National Qualifying Score of 49.190 on the event in a 2020 season cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Garrison helped guide the Wildcats to their best national ranking of any event with a No. 8 finish on beam in 2019. Kentucky tied the second-best single-meet beam score in program history with a 49.425 total in an upset of No. 5 LSU on Feb. 18, then surpassed the mark with a 49.450 versus Central Michigan on March 8. Kentucky had an individual match or surpass the 9.900 benchmark on beam 15 times on the season.

Senior Alex Hyland was named a second-team WCGA All-American and All-Southeastern Conference on beam (as well as a WCGA All-American and second-team WCGA Regular Season All-American as an all-around competitor), while Josie Angeny was named SEC All-Freshman on beam.

In 2017, Garrison helped coach Hyland to an SEC Championship on the balance beam, the program’s first individual conference title in 21 seasons.

Garrison’s coaching experience spans over 20 years, as she developed gymnasts ranging from beginners to level 10 and elite status.

Prior to her time as a volunteer assistant for the Cats, Garrison served as a program director at the Nebraska School of Gymnastics for five years. While in Lincoln, Garrison guided gymnasts to qualify for Junior Olympic nationals in each of her five years. Garrison also produced a regional beam champion and played a critical role in recruitment, successfully increasing the enrollment in the program from 40 participants to over 170 members during her tenure with the School of Gymnastics.

Before heading to Nebraska, Garrison spent over a decade coaching at multiple clubs across California, with the most prominent being SCEGA in Temecula.

Garrison is a graduate of San Diego State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology with a specialization in pre-physical therapy in 1999. Rachel is married to UK gymnastics head coach Tim Garrison and the mother of three daughters and two sons.