It all started with a tweet. On November 27th, 2021, San Jose State head coach Joanne Bowers quote tweeted a preseason poll and sent a message to the gymternet: “Watch out for sleeper San Jose State!” While this tweet only got 25 likes, hindsight gives it a prophetic aura. After scoring its second best team score in program history in it’s first meet of the season against Denver, it was clear something was different, and as the season progressed, its record book was rewritten time and time again. It was clear: San Jose State was a team to watch.
The Spartans finished last season ranked 35th, their highest ranking since 2014. And despite a multi-fall beam performance during the first round of the Seattle regional against Stanford, head coach Joanne Bowers exuded nothing but pride in her team’s performance.
But for both the Spartans and Bowers, the road to Seattle was a long yet rewarding one.
When Bowers arrived at San Jose State in 2018, she brought a plethora of coaching experience with her. In addition to her time at Washington, she has been an assistant coach at Michigan, Kent State and Illinois State and describes her coaching philosophy as a combination of all of those schools, expressing profound gratitude for all that she’d learned from each one.
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