Tabitha Yim is head coach of the University of Arizona Women’s Gymnastics Team.
Savo Fries and Dick Kroese
Tabitha Yim recently visited the SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary Club. A former elite gymnast and assistant coach for the Stanford Women’s Gymnastics Team, she was hired in 2015 as the head coach of the University of Arizona Women’s Gymnastics Team by then Athletic Director Greg Byrne.
Coach Yim is a talented motivational speaker. On this visit, she focused on family–her parents and her team. She spoke of her father’s reaching for love before passing away due to an accident. That love was her mother. As a single mom she raised her daughter to always be ready to help. She helped her understand that everyone has a story and we all need to share our humor and wisdom of life.
Yim, as a sports speakers, explained that women gymnasts lead a life very different than other sports in that they usually start as a child and their career is finished by graduation from college. Twenty-two is old for a gymnast! “Passion, balance and commitment are crucial to being successful,” Coach Yim said, and she shared the motivational tools she uses with her students: STEP Up and Bear Down! S=strength, T=tenacity, E=excellence and P=proud. Recruiting is the bloodline of the team and standards are high. This year the members of the team had a team 3.4 GPA.
SaddleBrooke Sunrise Rotary Club meets every Thursday at the MountainView Bistro, East Room at 8:00 a.m. All are welcome.