Frank Kudlac

Frank Kudlac, the only head coach in the illustrious history of TWU Gymnastics, is entering his 33rd season as leader of the Pioneers.

Kudlac, who started the TWU gymnastics team in 1978 as a club sport, has led the Pioneers to nine USA Gymnastics (USAG) Collegiate National Championships. TWU won four USAG titles in a row from 1993-1996. Since their initial title run, the Pioneers have claimed the USAG crown on four more occasions - 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2008. No other school has won more than two USAG Collegiate National Championships. TWU also won two Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Championships in 2006 and 2010.

A nine-time NCAA Division II Coach of the Year selection (1993-96, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2008, 2010), Kudlac is a native of Binghamton, New York. He was born into a family with a rich history and appreciation for the sport of gymnastics. His grandfather, Paul Kudlac, his mother, Sidney, and his father, Frank, Sr., all excelled in gymnastics. Even his younger sister, Vicki, who currently resides in Richmond, Virginia, participated in gymnastics on the recreational level.

Kudlac himself learned gymnastics through SOKOL, a Czechoslovakian gymnastics organization that uses a “sound mind, sound body” method of teaching. Kudlac competed as an all-arounder for West Chester (Pa.) University and was the team captain his senior year. The Rams were conference champions the first three years of Kudlac’s career and finished as conference runner-up his senior year. Kudlac graduated from West Chester with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1978. He was inducted into the West Chester University Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 16, 2008.

Arriving in Denton in 1978, Kudlac entered graduate school at TWU and began a club gymnastics team with seven women whom he recruited in class and on campus. Kudlac earned his master’s degree in Kinesiology from TWU in 1981. During the 1981-82 season, Lisa Harlan, a member of the TWU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame, became the school’s first All-American by finishing first in the nation on floor exercise at the 1982 NCAA Division III National Championships.

In Kudlac’s first 32 years as head coach the TWU gymnastics program has had 202 USA Gymnastics All-America awards, 115 National Association of College Gymnastics Coaches/Women Scholastic All-America selections, 16 appearances in the NACGC/W Scholastic Top Twenty Teams, and three NCAA Postgraduate Scholars. TWU gymnastics has also recorded three NCAA Postgraduate Scholars, four Academic All-America winners, two NCAA Woman of the Year semifinalists, and one NCAA Woman of the Year finalist. The Pioneers’ most decorated gymnast, Kim Koenig, finished her senior year in 1999 with back-to-back perfect 10’s on beam at the USAG Collegiate National Championships. These are still the only perfect 10.0 scores in TWU history. Koenig was inducted into the TWU Athletics Hall of Fame on April 25, 2008.

Kudlac added international experience to his resume when he served as an assistant coach for the 1994 United States women’s gymnastics team that competed in the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 26-Aug. 3, 1994.

Additionally, Kudlac teaches in the department of Kinesiology at TWU. He also owns and manages Achievers Gymnastics Center, a private gym in Denton.

Kudlac is married to the former Johnna Hinton. The couple lives in Denton with their two children, daughter Sydney Kay and son William Matthew.