UAA gymnastics team reinstated by Board of Regents

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The University of Alaska Anchorage gymnastics team has met the fundraising goal necessary to reinstate its 2021-22 season.

In 2020, the UAA Board of Regents voted to discontinue the school’s hockey, gymnastics and alpine skiing teams unless they could raise two years of private funding to cover operating expenses by a deadline of Feb. 15. Then, in February 2021, the board extended the fundraising deadlines for the hockey and gymnastics teams. The board decided the teams could be automatically reinstated if they met their fundraising targets.

The ski team met their goal and has been reinstated. Now the gymnastics team has as well, according to a press release from the university’s athletic program. The gymnastics team has raised $445,782, which is over the $444,000 benchmark for reinstatement.

While this is a major milestone for the program, it is not the end of the road. The program needs to secure approximately $323,000 by June 30, 2022 in order to make sure the program is sustained through next year. The team is already one-third of the way to the next goal, according to the release.

“We are in the middle, we are at a nice little round about,” said assistant coach Kendra Daniels. “You know, I started off joining the team back in August not expecting any of this, and then going to, OK, now we have a task ahead. Let’s take the bull by the horns. Where there is a will there is a way, and it was rocky. We fought through some hoops but athletes really pulled it together.”

The UAA gymnastics team will be getting back into the Alaska Airlines Center soon to start training for next season. Those who want to donate to the program can do so through a GoFundMe account set up for the team. There one can also find information about the Virtual Flippin 5K, which is another way that the program is going raising money.

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