Craig Ballard can’t read his gymnasts’ minds. Instead, he fosters and relies on a team culture of open communication, creating training assignments and lineups that are designed to build trust between the athletes.
Floor has historically been Kent State’s hallmark event, between floor music that plays to the home crowd and big E-level tumbling passes. Behind it—often literally on meet days—is Ballard, who is in his 10th season with the Golden Flashes and is the team’s vault and floor coach. Year in and year out he has coached their abnormally deep floor roster to lead the MAC, but as the spring of 2020 came up, their season was cut short as they were beginning to hit their stride. Senior night and the MAC championship never happened that year, leaving two high scoring meets out from their final rankings. On Karlie Franz’ account, the shutdown put a fire under the team and motivated it to come back stronger.
When the new year rolled around, Kent State relied on its floor team to hit the ground running, and finished the 2021 season ranked 18th on the event—largely in part to its signature blend of depth and consistency. The Golden Flashes are routinely in the top of the conference on floor, if not outright leading. And this season is shaping up to be…
