The state that produces more top recruits than any other doesn’t have a Division I team.
The elite gymnasts — an exclusive level reserved for the best athletes hoping to represent the United States in international competition — are chasing ambitious Olympic-size goals at World Champions Centre, the club owned by Simone Biles’s family. But eventually they’ll be stars in the NCAA. To find a major program, they’ll have to leave Texas because the state that produces more top recruits than any other doesn’t have a Division I team.
Of more than 1,200 Division I gymnasts, 96 are from Texas, and more trained in the state but list hometowns elsewhere. California, which tops Texas with 133 gymnasts, has six Division I programs. Many of those athletes chose a nearby college. Every state that produced at least 40 gymnasts on this season’s rosters — except Texas — has at least one Division I program. Division II Texas Woman’s University is the only in-state NCAA team., coaches hope that momentum could prompt a change.
“They’re going to need a new wall,” said Arianna Patterson of Kentucky, one of the final eight teams at the NCAA championships, who previously trained at Metroplex. “You look at the banners every day.” Other Texas gymnasts with Division I talent, but not enough to earn an athletic scholarship, may face a financial challenge if they still want to compete at that level because they have to leave home and pay out-of-state fees.Skye Blakely, a Texan who won gold with the U.S. team at world championships last year, had dinner with her parents and Florida Coach Jenny Rowland in the fall of 2021.
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