After nine seasons as head coach of the Penn State women\u2019s gymnastics team, Sarah Brown has left to become the first women\u2019s gymnastics head coach at Texas State University. She was introduced as the Bobcats\u2019 inaugural coach on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Brown will direct a brand-new program at a school that officially joins the new and re-imagined Pac-12 Conference on Wednesday, and is located in a gymnastics hotbed. The TXST team, slated to begin competing in 2028, will be the first NCAA Division I women\u2019s gymnastics program in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Texas State, \u201cThe state of Texas has established itself as one of the premier talent pipelines in the country for women\u2019s gymnastics, producing 19 Olympians, 19 Olympic gold medals, and 43 world champions, yet the state has never had a Division I\u00a0program\u2026Texas is home to more than 100 current NCAA gymnasts, and it trains 25% of the nation\u2019s elite talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown, in a TXST press release on Tuesday, said, \u201cI am incredibly honored to be trusted with building the first-ever Division I gymnastics program in the state of Texas. \u2026The energy at Texas State is palpable \u2014 from my very first visit, I could feel a campus-wide culture of support that assures me this program will reach the highest of highs. I look forward to meeting the Bobcat family and can\u2019t wait to get started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Brown in 2026, Penn State earned a berth into NCAA Regionals for the fourth consecutive season and was ranked No. 19, the second-highest finish during Brown\u2019s tenure, bested only by a No. 15 in 2024 \u2014 Penn State\u2019s best ranking since 2014. Her sons, Isaiah and Elijah, were both born while she and her husband, Antonio, were at Penn State.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After transferring to Missouri from the University of Utah, Brown was a four-time All-American and the Big 12 Conference Gymnast of the Year in 2009 and 2010.<\/p>\n
THE COACHING CAROUSEL<\/p>\n
Brown, hired in May 2017 by former athletic director Sandy Barbour, was the second-longest tenured women\u2019s head coach at Penn State, behind women\u2019s soccer coach Erica Dambach, who has been at Penn State since 2007. Dambach has been a head coach at PSU longer than any of her colleagues, male or female. The Top 4 Penn State head coaches with the longest tenure as head coaches were all hired by former athletic director Tim Curley (AD from 1993-2011); all have been uber-successful:<\/p>\n
1. Dambach, women\u2019s soccer, 2007
2. Cael Sanderson, wrestling, 2009
3. Jeff Tambroni, men\u2019s lacrosse, 2010
4. Guy Gadowsky, men\u2019s ice hockey, 2011<\/p>\n
Ranking No. 5 is John Gondak, head of the PSU men\u2019s and women\u2019s cross-country and track and field programs. He came to Penn State as an assistant in 2006 and has been on the PSU athletics\u2019 staff in one form or another longer than any other head coach. He was promoted from his interim head coach role by Barbour in September 2016. Jeff Kampersal was named women\u2019s ice hockey head coach in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sanderson has guided the Nittany Lions to 13 national championships, while Dambach has one national title to her credit and has led PSU to the NCAA tournament in every one of her seasons. Tambroni has twice taken the Nittany Lions to the lacrosse final four. Gadowsky guided Penn State to the Frozen Four in 2025, and Kampersal took the PSU women to the 2026 Frozen Four. Both were Penn State firsts.<\/p>\n
Five head coaches on Penn State\u2019s current staff were hired by Barbour (2016-2022): Gondak, Kampersal, Alexandra McIntyre (women\u2019s tennis), Clarisa Crowell (softball) and Katie Schumacher-Cawley (women\u2019s volleyball).<\/p>\n
KRAFT-Y HEAD COACHES: 15 OF 24<\/p>\n
Wednesday will mark the four-year anniversary of the July 1, 2022, start date for Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft, who came to PSU after stints at Temple and Boston College. With Brown\u2019s departure and the subsequent hiring of her replacement, 15 of the 24 head coaches in Penn State\u2019s athletic program will have been hired since Kraft started.<\/p>\n