Bev Plocki retires from Michigan after 36 years — Watch Simone Biles and Suni Lee accept their ESPYs

Bev Plocki, the Michigan women’s gymnastics head coach for 36 years (you read that right, 36!), announced her retirement this week. 

Plocki steered Michigan as its 2021 team won the NCAA championship. Her squads have won 26 Big Ten championships, the most by any Big Ten coach in any sport. Michigan’s teams have been to nationals 26 times and to the finals 10 of those times. 

Seven of her former athletes now coach their own NCAA teams across the country, including Katie Minasola at Eastern Michigan University. 

Maile’ana Kanewa-Hermelyn, Michigan’s assistant coach for the past six years (and a one-year stint as a volunteer assistant coach before that), will become Michigan’s new head coach. Kanewa-Hermelyn was an Oklahoma gymnast from 2012-2016, winning two NCAA titles with the Sooners during that time. She coached at Oklahoma and at Utah State before heading to Ann Arbor. 

While Plocki’s lengthy tenure was not unusual for coaches who began their careers when she did, it’s becoming more rare to see a coach stick with a top program for as long as she did, through its ups and downs, rebuilding years and championship years. Michigan, too, has a well-deserved reputation as an academic powerhouse and one of the country’s top public universities; Plocki’s athletes more than held their own in that regard, with more than 100 earning Academic All-Big Ten honors over her tenure and more than 70 recognized as Scholastic All-Americans.

We wish Plocki all the best in her retirement. 

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Other gym news

U.S. Classic is this weekend, and The Gymternet has the full scoop on who will be there.

GymCastic previews U.S. Classic and discusses Kaylia Nemour’s interview about leaving her gym. 

College Gym News has a leo roundtable, so you know I’m paying attention. This one is about leos that should be assigned to different schools. There’s also a data deep dive about whether older or younger siblings are most successful in college gymnastics, and 10 vaults from the 2025 NCAA season to watch between now and January.   

Leanne Wong will be the new student assistant coach at Florida. 

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Emma Malewski of Germany committed to Clemson. 

Evey Lowe, a U.S. elite who is committed to Oklahoma, had surgery on both her feet! Speedy recovery, Evey! 

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Five at The IX: Simone Biles and Suni Lee at the ESPYs

At the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly (ESPY) Awards on Wednesday in Los Angeles, two members of the Paris gymnastics squad accepted trophies. Simone Biles won for Best Championship Performance, and Suni Lee won Best Comeback. Biles’ speech was more wry (“This was unexpected…especially in a category of all men”) and sweetly humble; Lee’s will make you cry as soon as she stands up in the crowd and you realize she’s hugging Dr. Marcia Faustin, the former USAG doctor. Kudos to Biles and Lee, and to ESPY voters for realizing all that went into both of their Olympic appearances last summer. 

Here is Biles’ speech: 

And Lee’s: