FAYETTEVILLE — At an age when most coaches are grinding as graduate assistants or working their way up through the high school ranks, Jordyn Wieber is the head coach of an SEC program.
The 23-year-old former Olympian was tabbed as Arkansas’ new gymnastics coach Wednesday, replacing long-time coach Mark Cook, who retired about two weeks earlier.
Wieber comes to Fayetteville with six years of experience at UCLA, the last three of which were as a volunteer assistant. She is believed to be the Razorbacks’ youngest head coach in modern history, so her age was a topic of discussion when she was formally introduced Thursday afternoon.
“When I look at my past experience in this sport, I’ve seen it all, from the club level to the elite level and now the college level,” Wieber said. “I feel that experience has equipped me for this. I don’t think age is a factor, personally, and I’m excited to show everyone that although I’m 23, I’m prepared for this.”
That experience also convinced athletics director Hunter Yurachek that she was ready to become a head coach in the competitive SEC.
He said he was blown away by Wieber from the first time they met and that she is “wise and mature well beyond her years.” Despite trying, Yurachek couldn’t find any dirt that would give him pause about making the hire.
“I went back to my computer to check, re-check and triple-check that she was 23 years old,” Yurachek said. “That’s what it says on paper, but what you will learn as I quickly did, Jordyn has experienced more, in and out of her competitive gymnastics arena, than most of us will ever experience in a lifetime.”
This is the third head coaching hire Yurachek has made at Arkansas, following Courtney Steinbock for women’s tennis and Eric Musselman for men’s basketball.
Considering he is in just his second year on the job, hiring such a young coach whose experience was limited to being a volunteer coach could be seen as risky. In fact, he was directly asked Thursday if he viewed it as such.
“I think every coaching hire is a gamble,” Yurachek said. “I’m also prepared to understand she’s going to have a learning curve, being 23 years old as a first-time coach, but every first-time coach has a learning curve.”
For perspective on Wieber’s age, here’s a look at what a few of the Razorbacks’ other coaches were doing when they were 23…
~Chad Morris (football): Needing a job to pay the bills while preparing for exams required to become an actuary, Morris became a math teacher and assistant football, basketball and baseball coach in Eustace, Texas. At the time, he was also still considering a career as a firefighter or with the FBI or DEA.
~Eric Musselman (men’s basketball): Having just finished up his playing career at San Diego, Musselman became the general manager of the Rapid City Thrillers in the Continental Basketball Association. His first hire was Flip Saunders as head coach. It wasn’t until the following season that he began his coaching career as the Thrillers’ head coach.
~Mike Neighbors (women’s basketball): With an associates degree from Westark C.C. (now UA-Fort Smith) already in hand, Neighbors was still working on his bachelor’s degree at the University of Arkansas. He was still a couple of years away from his first coaching job at Bentonville High School.
~Dave Van Horn (baseball): In his final season as a player, Van Horn played just 17 games as a second baseman for the Anderson Braves, Atlanta’s Single-A affiliate, and hit .170 with one RBI. The following year was his first as a graduate assistant for the Razorbacks.
~Chris Bucknam and Lance Harter (men’s and women’s track & field): Bucknam and Harter were both working on their master’s degrees at Northern Iowa and Colorado State, respectively. Bucknam was also an assistant for the Panthers, where he’d eventually become the head coach.
~Courtney Deifel (softball): When Deifel was 23, the former All-American at Cal was playing professionally for the NY/NJ Juggernaut, helping them win the National Professional Fastpitch title. She also played three more years in Japan before beginning her coaching career.
~Colby Hale (soccer): Following his playing days at Oral Roberts, where he was a two-time team captain, Hale was actually working in sales for Tyco, a security systems company.
~Jason Watson (volleyball): Watson was still playing his senior year of volleyball at BYU.
~Andy Jackson (men’s tennis): The one coach on campus who can probably relate to Wieber the most is Jackson because he became Mississippi State’s women’s tennis coach when he was 23, shortly after wrapping up his playing career at Kentucky.
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