Gary Babjack enters his 10th season as SUNY Cortland’s women’s gymnastics head coach in 2007-08.
Last season, Babjack’s squad finished sixth at the ECAC Championships. In 2005, Babjack guided the team to third-place finishes at the ECAC meet and at the NCGA Division III Championships. He was named the 2002-03 National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Division III Coach of the Year after guiding the Red Dragons to their second straight national runner-up finish and their second consecutive ECAC Division III title.
Babjack assumed his coaching duties with the Red Dragons in January 1999 and led the team to a third-place finish at the ECAC meet. In 2000, he guided the Red Dragons to a fourth-place ECAC finish and a fifth-place national showing. In 2001, the Red Dragons finished third both nationally and at the ECAC meet. In all, his athletes have earned 30 Division III All-America honors, including six national champions.
Babjack graduated from Slippery Rock (Pa.) University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education in 1987 in addition to taking master’s classes in Exercise and Sport. From 1979-85, he was an assistant coach with Slippery Rock’s women’s gymnastics team. He assisted with both the men’s and women’s teams in 1985-86 and was the school’s men’s head coach from 1986-88.
From 1991-97 Babjack served as the head coach and program director at the Lakettes Gymnastics Academy in Erie, Pa. From 1997 until his appointment at Cortland, Babjack was an assistant coach at Olympic Dreams Gymnastics, Inc. in Youngstown, Ohio, a private gymnastics club, which featured Level 8, 9 and 10 and Elite Trainees. He has also worked at numerous gymnastics camps and has taught fifth- and sixth-grade elementary classes from 1990-98 in Greenville, Pa.
A native of McKees Rocks, Pa., Babjack is a graduate of Montour Senior High School in Coraopolis, Pa. He has two children — Jorie and Julia.
