UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

The 2002-2003 season welcomes a brand new team, The Lady Razorbacks of the University of Arkansas!

Official announcement copied from the Lady Razorbacks website.

Gymnastics is Arkansas' 11th women's sport
       FAYETTEVILLE -- Continuing its commitment to expanding opportunities for female student-athletes, the University of Arkansas announced the addition of gymnastics to the Women's Athletics Department.
       Bev Lewis, director of women's athletics, made the announcement along with Chancellor John White at a press conference held Monday, Sept. 11, in the Lady Razorback Museum at Barnhill Arena.
       "When we looked at all the possible sports, we found that one best suited the University," Lewis said. "Gymnastics is a well-established collegiate sport with substantial high school, club and general public interest."
       The decision to add an 11th varsity sport for women at Arkansas comes at the right time, both financially and philosophically.
       "We added three sports during the 1990s to expand opportunities for women at Arkansas," Lewis said. "The time to address further opportunities was drawing near. At the same time, we will begin to receive new money from the University's television package with the Southeastern Conference. By moving now, we can add a sport without any negative impact on any men's or women's athletic program and without burdening the University."
       Chancellor White expressed his hope that by adding an 11th women's sport that the University was enhancing its role as the builder of future leaders for the state and the nation.
       "Our Women's Athletics Department has been a center of excellence for our campus, both in competition and in the classroom," White said. "We are making this decision to add a sport at this time because it is the right thing to do."
       He cited two recent examples of the Lady Razorbacks' scholar-athletes, 1999 SEC/Boyd McWhorter Scholar Athlete Award recipient Jessica Field and 2000 NCAA Woman of the Year national finalist Jessica Dailey.
       "I hope that the additional scholarship opportunities produced by adding gymnastics will result in many future Jessicas at our University," White said.
       A winter sport with a regular season from January to April, gymnastics is a team and individual sport. Teams of 12 to 15 athletes compete for scores on four apparatus -- vault, beam, uneven parallel bars and floor exercise - with the best scores in each combining for team and individual overall scores.
       By adding gymnastics, the University now offers varsity scholarships for every sport sponsored for females by the Arkansas Activities Association, the statewide organization responsible for administering high school athletics.
       The decision for gymnastics was also influenced by surveys of other institutions.
       "When we look at the Universities we consider as our peer institutions, many of them were sponsoring gymnastics," Lewis said. "The fact that gymnastics is a SEC championship sport was also important."
       As with any women's sport it sponsors, the SEC has produced several national champions. While only six of the 12 member institutions of the SEC currently sponsor gymnastics, five of those six have reached the Super Six, gymnastics' equivalent of the basketball Final Four, and have won eight NCAA team titles and 49 individual titles.
       Lewis will follow the formula she used for adding volleyball, golf and softball during the 1990s by hiring a head coach in 2001, then allowing that coach to recruit both athletes and a staff for the following year before heading into competition during the 2002-03 academic year.
       The year-long building process allows the program to face competition with a solid foundation. It has resulted in all three of Arkansas' expansion teams reaching the NCAA Championships within five seasons.
       While the timeline calls for a head coach hired by next summer, Lewis faces an immediate challenge. Barnhill Arena will be the competition home for gymnastics, but a practice facility must be built for the new team by 2002. To address this need and several other department-wide needs -- most notably a suitable weight training facility for the current 140 Lady Razorback athletes in all sports -- a major fund-raising campaign is under way to support a $3 to $4 million expansion and renovation of Barnhill Arena.
       "We feel confident that we can find people who will step up for women's athletics and help us build for the future of all our sports, not just gymnastics," Lewis said.