Campus Connection

Alumna is National Coach of the Year for gymnastics

[caption id="attachment_5230" align="alignright" width="208"] Karen Kuhlmann, ’79 & ’84, earned a master’s and bachelor’s degree from UWL.[/caption] A UWL alumna and coach who has led her team to 11 conference titles and two state championships recently earned the National Coach of the Year award for girls gymnastics. But Karen Kuhlmann, ’79 & ’84, says it isn’t the victories that matter the most in building a successful team. It’s the family she has built around the sport at Holmen High School and Middle School. “Those first couple years as a coach, you think winning is the most important thing in the world. Really it isn’t about the scores,” she says. “You don’t remember scores. You remember moments. We make lots of good memories in the gym and teach a lot of good life lessons.” Kuhlmann is most proud of growing Holmen’s gymnastics program into one of the largest and most stable in the state. Her high school team started with nine gymnasts in 1985 and now has 30. She also started the middle school gymnastics program, which now has 50 gymnasts. “We call ourselves a family. We are there for each other not just in the gym, but throughout our entire lives,” she says. “That’s why I keep going.” Kuhlmann was on UWL’s Gymnastics team in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and she remembers being upset when then-coach Liz Mullarkey thought she’d make a better assistant coach than a competitor. “I felt like I had it in me, but, obviously, she knew me better,” says Kuhlmann. “I was angry going into my first year as an assistant coach, but it took only the first day in the gym to realize I had made the right choice.” [caption id="attachment_5233" align="alignleft" width="300"] Karen Kuhlmann earned the National Coach of the Year award from the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association.[/caption] Kuhlmann loved the feeling of guiding others toward success. “It was so satisfying for me that I continued on 34 years later,” she says. Kuhlmann spent one season as a gymnastics coach at La Crescent High School before accepting a physical education and health teaching and coaching positions at Holmen High School. Kuhlmann says it’s rewarding to earn national recognition for the hard work she has put into the sport and its continuation. As president of the Wisconsin High School Gymnastics Association, she advocates for Wisconsin gymnastics. One of the biggest challenges the sport faces is a lack of visibility due to a lack of media coverage. Another hurdle is off-site facilities, which disconnect the sport from high school communities, she says. While the sport is exciting to watch, many people in communities across the state don’t know their schools offer gymnastics because the programs are not visible enough, she says.