Oregon State Gymnastics Camps - Oregon State University

Oregon State Gymnastics Camps

Michael Chaplin, Associate Head Coach

Associate head coach Michael Chaplin is in his 11th year at Oregon State. After spending his first seven seasons at OSU as an assistant coach, Chaplin was promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2005 season. Chaplin serves as OSU’s vault, bars and tumbling coach and is the Beavers’ recruiting coordinator.

OSU’s vaulters have had a wealth of success since his arrival. Chaplin has coached the Beavers to a couple of their best-ever finishes on vault at the 2001 and 2007 NCAA Championships. On both occasions two Beavers earned first team All-America honors on the event. In 2001, Katrina Severin’s second-place finish on vault is the best ever by an Oregon State gymnast, while Lara Degenhardt’s sixth place finish is OSU’s fifth best performance. In 2007, Mandi Rodriguez vaulted to a fifth place finish. Their performances marked only the second and third times OSU has had two first team All-American vaulters in the same season.

In 2007, Rodriguez and Tasha Smith became his fourth and fifth vaulters to gain All-American status earning berths in the individual event finals. In addition, Smith also became the second vaulter and the third gymnast on floor in his tenure at OSU to become a Pac-10 champion, when she won both events at the 2006 Pac-10 Championships.

Chaplin was named the West Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003, sharing his most recent honor with fellow Oregon State assistant Dick Foxal. In 1999, the Beaver vaulters tied the school record with a 49.475 at the Pacific-10 Championships and ranked 10th in the nation as a team. Three of his vaulters scored a 9.925 or better that year, and the Pac-10 and NCAA Region 1 vault champions came from OSU.

The 2003 vault team was ranked among the nation’s best. Six vaulters competed a 10.0-valued vault, and the Beavers scored a 49.00 or better nine times after doing so just twice in 2002.

Chaplin arrived at OSU after spending three years as an assistant coach at Seattle Pacific, where he primarily coached bars and vault. During his three years, SPU had two national champions on bars and one on vault. In 1997, SPU won the USAG Division II national championship, making Chaplin part of a second national championship team.

Chaplin earned his first national championship as a student-athlete at UCLA. A two-time All-American and four-year letterman, he was a member of UCLA’s 1987 national championship team. In 1989, he was the Pac-10 champion on the still rings and finished fifth in the nation on the event. During his collegiate career, Chaplin also made the U.S. Senior National team and represented the United States in meets in England, Brazil, China and against the former Soviet Union. Chaplin was an alternate on the 1987 World Championship team and he place 13th in the all-around at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials.

In 1990, Chaplin began coaching men’s and women’s gymnastics at the club level. In 1992, he served as gymnastics program director and head men’s coach at the Tacoma/Pierce County YMCA. During his three years at the YMCA, he had several athletes qualify for the U.S. Junior National championships.

In high school, Chaplin trained at Gold Cup gymnastics in his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., and was a member of the U.S. Junior National team his junior and senior years.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA in 1990.

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Dick Foxal, Assistant Coach

Now in his 21st season at Oregon State, Dick Foxal has well over 30 years of gymnastics coaching experience at the club, high school, collegiate and national levels. As an assistant at OSU, Foxal has coached all four events with his primary responsibilities being the uneven bars.

Since his arrival at OSU in 1987, 27 Oregon State gymnasts have combined to earn 56 All-America honors – including 10 on bars, his primary area of coaching. OSU added its latest All-American on bars in 2007, when Jami Lanz earned second team honors. The Beavers have claimed four individual titles on various events during Foxal’s tenure at Oregon State.

He has coached four gymnasts who have scored a total of eight 10.0’s on bars, with the most recent coming in 2003 when Elizabeth Jillson was perfect to win the Pacific-10 title. With Jillson winning in 2003, five Beavers have won a total of seven Pac-10 championships on bars since Foxal’s arrival in Corvallis.

Foxal has received West Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honors four times, sharing the most recent award, in 2003, with fellow OSU assistant, Michael Chaplin. Foxal’s 2003 award was well-deserved as he coached a bars team that twice set the school record. The Beavers scored a 49.500 against Utah to break the old mark set in 1999. The new mark didn’t last long as OSU resest the record with a 49.525 at the 2003 Pacifici-10 Championships.

Prior to his arrival in Corvallis, Foxal headed the women’s program at Montana State from 1984 until the program was discontinued in 1987. Foxal was selected as the Mountain West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1985.

Up until 1980, Foxal worked primarily with men’s gymnastics. He served as a coach for the men’s junior national elite team for four years and coached an American squad that competed against the Japan National Team in 1980.

Foxal began his coaching career as the head coach of the men’s team at Central Washington from 1970-72 and subsequently held the head coach position at the University of Washington from 1977 to 1980 after being an assistant for the Huskies 1975-77.

As a coach on the prep level, Foxal spent three years (1972-75) as head coach at Churchill High School in Eugene, Ore. where he guided the Lancers to back-to-back state championships in 1973 and 1974 and had two high school All-Americans. During his time at Churchill, Foxal received both state and national coach of the year honors in 1975. Foxal also worked as the athletic director and head of physical education at University Prep Academy in Seattle from 1981-84.

Foxal graduated in 1970 from Central Washington University with a degree in physical education and health. While at CWU, he was a member of the gymnastics team and competed in the 1969 and 1970 NAIA National Championships. He earned his master’s degree in physical education at CWU in 1972.

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Bea Whisenhunt, Director of Operations

Bea is in her fourth season back at Oregon State and third as the program’s Director of Operations. Bea assists the coaching staff with coordinating travel and hosting each meet. In 2006, Bea played a major role in hosting the NCAA Championships as well as the Pac-10 Championships.

In 2005, Bea served as the volunteer coach concentrating her efforts on the balance beam.

Whisenhunt competed for the Beavers from 1996-98 and again in 2000 after missing the 1999 season due to injury.

The native of Romania was most known for her skills on the beam. In 2000, she tied her career-high of 9.875 on the event at the NCAA West Regional Championships to help earn the Beavers a trip to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1996, when she was a freshman.

A former Romanian junior national team member and national champion on bars, Whisenhunt moved to the United States as a teenager, living with another former Beaver gymnast Heather Justus’ family while training at the Oregon Gymnastics Academy.

Whisenhunt graduated from Oregon State with a degree in Exercise and Sport Science in 2000. She is married to former OSU wrestler Josh Whisenhunt. They have two children, Gabe (4) and Lylianna (2).