Mossman: Oklahoma is Gymnastics U

Mossman Prophecies

February 25, 2010 | Mossman Archive

Kenny Mossman
Sr. Associate A.D. for Communications

Oklahoma Senior Associate A.D. Kenny Mossman writes this column for SoonerSports.com.

Mossman joined the OU staff in August of 2001 as director of media relations. In August of 2002, he was promoted to assistant athletics director. He was promoted to associate AD for media relations and communication in August 2004, then received his latest promotion in June 2006.

At OU, he supervises media relations, publications, graphic design, SoonerSports.com, licensing and SoonerVision.

In media relations, with his primary sport responsibility pertaining to football, he and his staff have promoted winners of the Heisman, Bednarik, Butkus, Lombardi, Nagurski, O'Brien and Thorpe Awards. In all, OU has won 10 college football national player awards and 20 All-America citations during his tenure.

Full Bio | OU Athletics Administration

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I lamented the fact that most of us became familiar with world class gymnast Jonathan Horton while he was winning medals on the other side of the world, not while he was competing in Norman.

It was hindsight at its best. With any real foresight, the piece would have been written months earlier, while Horton was still donning crimson.

Well, I got your foresight right here.

At this writing, Oklahoma's women's gymnastics team is ranked No. 1 in the nation, a feat that had not been achieved by that program prior to this season.

At the same time, the men's team is ranked No. 2.

It's not a far-fetched notion that before the season ends, the men and women could be ranked No. 1 simultaneously.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is Gymnastics U.

Of all the sports I have watched at OU, none surprised me more than gymnastics. An admitted novice, I expected to encounter the occasional "wow" moment in an otherwise amateurish performance in which "oops" would be the more operative reaction.

Such an assumption made me the back end of a pommel horse.

Watching high-level gymnastics is akin to watching gymnastics on television, and I'm not talking local access. It's the genuine article.

The temptation here is to make some sort of price guarantee to anyone who will try gymnastics for the first time, but they tell me state law prohibits such a thing. If I could, I would. It's that good (Prophecy poetry).

The women entertain perennial national power Alabama on March 5 and Washington on March 12. The men host the conference meet on April 3. After that, neither will compete again in Oklahoma this season.

And 2012 is just around the corner. Those summer games are set for London.

Norman is so much closer, plus you won't be kicking yourself wondering why you didn't see that kid when he or she was competing just down the road.

Related Links: OU Men's Gymnastics | OU Women's Gymnastics

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