SEATTLE — Strong leadership is paramount to usher a program into unknown territory. As the Washington women's gymnastics team begins its journey into the Big Ten this season, they're bringing in a new face with some old ties.
"It was really exciting! It's an incredible opportunity and it's definitely something that I don't take lightly. "
Jessa Hansen Parker is a first-time head coach, but isn't new to the new conference. She helped Iowa win its first Big Ten championship in 2021, as well as its first regional final the following year.
“It's a conference that I know really well and it's a really good conference for women's gymnastics," she said. "There are 12 competitive teams and a lot of parity."
It's a long process to get back to prominence, like back-to-back NCAA National Championship appearances in 2017 and 2018, but Hansen Parker takes a daily approach as the 9th head coach in Huskies history.
"We're trying to keep them present in what they can control right now," she said. "And as we're piecing routines together, we're really focusing on consistency and confidence and then really allowing them to feel joy in the moments where they make a new skill or start to put things together and really notice each other's accomplishments in the gym here so when we go out on the competition floor and put it all together, we're able to just compete freely and know that we have no regrets along the way."
She learned that patience from her own coaches at Chow's Gymnastics, a world-renowned gym in De Moines, Iowa, while she was teammates with 2008 Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson.
"I felt valued and cared for, not just as an athlete, but as a person, and they really helped me grow up and helped me with challenges, not in the gym, but in life as well," Hansen Parker said. "That's something that I carry into my coaching, as well, coaching the person before the athlete."
It became her driving force to succeed as a coach.
"You know, I'm a competitor and I want them to succeed and we have high goals and I'm really motivated to get them there, but the why is all of the lessons that they learn and the relationships that they build in the four years here," she said.
The GymDawgs will kick off the 2025 season with the annual Purple & Gold intrasquad on Dec. 15 at Alaska Airlines Arena. The first-ever Big Ten schedule will be headlined by home meets against former national champions Michigan on Jan. 25, with UCLA on Feb. 7, and a non-conference powerhouse meeting with Utah on March 8. UW will also host regionals from April 2-6.