How a two-coach system bolsters Georgia gymnastics
When Georgia gymnastics took the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment, similar to a personality test, co-head coaches Cécile Canqueteau-Landi and Ryan Roberts received some polar opposite results.
Particularly when it comes to patience, Roberts goes a mile a minute.
“He’s on the go, on the now, really — like, it has to happen almost yesterday,” Canqueteau-Landi said.
“Cécile probably is a little bit more, can sit in the moment and process,” Roberts said.
Both said that’s exactly why their partnership works — they balance each other out. Plus, both are willing to collaborate, a must with two head coaches at the helm. And they both share the same ultimate goal of building Georgia gymnastics back into a perennial power.
Starting off Year 2 of Canqueteau-Landi and Roberts leading the GymDogs together, Georgia defeated No. 21 Ohio State on Jan. 10, earning its first score of 197.000 in a season opener since 2007. Then, in a top-10 clash Jan. 16, No. 8 Georgia knocked off No. 2 LSU 197.200-196.850 in the GymDogs’ first win against a top-5 team since 2017.
Next, Georgia will face No. 2 Oklahoma on Friday in Norman.
“We want to keep on the legacy and bring it back to the top,” Cécile Canqueteau-Landi told the AJC in the days following the win versus Ohio State. “I knew Georgia when they were on the top and everyone wanted to be a Georgia GymDog. And I want that back.
“ … I think (the team is) starting to believe last year was more like ‘Let’s see what happens.’ This year is like no, we can be among the top teams, and we want to show everyone and more importantly, themselves, that they can do that.”
Having more than one head coach is rare in the collegiate sports world, even in gymnastics, though husband-and-wife duo Justin Howell and Elisabeth Crandall-Howell serve as co-head coaches at Clemson (they previously coached together at Cal, as well). It’s more orthodox in the world of club gymnastics, however.
For Lily Smith, a junior All-American, having two coaches is ideal.
“I think it was the best thing that could have ever happened to this team,” Smith said. “Ryan and Cécile are so different. … That’s just what we needed. We need someone that’s a little more like ‘All right, you gotta get this done,’ just like more hard core in the gym, but then also someone that’s like ‘All right, I see you’re struggling a little bit, let’s just take it down, let’s go back to the basics,’ like someone that is a little more calm, because they just work so well together and balance each other out.”
Ady Wahl, a junior All-American, is a fan of the two-coach dynamic as well. “I would say Ryan is definitely more serious, but he can also have fun as well. But he definitely takes that more serious role, and then Cécile kind of, you know, during competition, she’s having fun, like dancing, like being just down to earth with us just to keep us calm,” Wahl said. “So it just depends, but they really do balance each other really well. … And you can tell that it’s a partnership rather than, oh, let me try to be better than the other person.”
Roberts met Canqueteau-Landi when he started coaching at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy around 2013. They weren’t coaching the same team, but knew each other within the organization. When Roberts left in 2018 to serve as an assistant coach at Alabama, they stayed in touch.
Roberts was hired as an assistant coach at Georgia in 2022, and when he was up for the head coach position, he knew he wanted to work with Canqueteau-Landi and that she’d be an asset for the Bulldogs.
The pair have worked together well, with this year a little different from Year 1, when Canqueteau-Landi — who has coached Olympians Simone Biles, Madison Kocian and Jordan Chiles — was adjusting to the logistics of college gymnastics (and the meetings and budget balancing that comes with it).
Sometimes, they have to divide duties and conquer, but for the most part they work on tasks together.
“We have similar philosophies,” Roberts said. “So it was a pretty seamless transition into starting to work with her and doing this whole co-head coach thing. And I think it makes us stronger as a team. Both of us have, I think, a pretty technical eye, (but we have) different perspectives on some things. … We see different things and talk about it.”
“To be able to split a little bit of the duties that we have, but also to get a different opinion,” Canqueteau-Landi said of the benefits of having a co-head coach. “And it’s really hard to make decisions on your own. So to have someone you trust and you can talk to and have another point of view, it’s really helpful.”
Under Roberts and Canqueteau-Landi last season, the GymDogs tallied six consecutive meet totals of 197.000 or higher for the first time since 2001. Against Oklahoma, they earned the sixth-highest meet score in program history, also the highest since 2009’s regular season.
The GymDogs advanced to regionals for the first time since 2019, with Smith and Wahl advancing to nationals as individuals. Georgia hasn’t made it to nationals as a team since 2019, which is the goal for this year.
Under legendary coach Suzanne Yoculan, the GymDogs won 10 national championships, including five in a row from 2005-2009.
The landscape has gotten even tougher, according to Roberts, with even more high-level teams in the mix. He’s confident the GymDogs are on the right track, but keeps his enthusiasm for the future in check.
“Yes, of course, we want to win SEC, conference championships, national championships, but we’re staying in the moment, we’re taking it day by day, we’ll take it year by year,” Roberts said. “We’ll keep recruiting the best that we can until we do get to there. But yeah, I think the way, the trajectory we’re ongoing right now, I want to continue on this path. And I do believe that we’ll be able to compete for those conference and national championships fairly soon.”
About the Author
Sarah Spencer, a Georgia native and UGA alum, serves as a general assignment and features writer for sports. She previously covered the Hawks from 2019-22.
