New Titles. Same Goal.

Oklahoma's 2016 men's gymnastics season is underway with the same goal and expectation the program carries every year: win the national championship.

To do that, head coach Mark Williams and the Sooners must overcome the departure of 2015 assistant coaches Guard Young and Nori Iwai. To fill those voids, Williams has tabbed two of Oklahoma's very own in Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons and Steven Legendre. Both had Sooner careers filled with championships, both team and individual, and that experience is exactly what Williams is counting on. Because although their titles have changed in their second stint with OU, the goal has not.

STEVEN LEGENDRE

Stephen Legendre poses after winning the NCAA title in the all-around in 2009. Legendre won a total of six individual national titles as a Sooner, tying Jonathan Horton for the program record.

Legendre is one of the most highly-decorated Sooner gymnasts in the program's rich history. From the moment he stepped on campus as a freshman in 2008, Legendre was a standout. He racked up event title after event title and, with Abdullah-Simmons's help, led OU to its eighth national championship. At the NCAA event finals, Legendre made history by claiming the NCAA individual titles on floor and vault, becoming the first freshman in Sooner history to claim two national titles.

His career would only grow from there. In 2009 he won a total of 22 event titles during the regular season and earned a place on the U.S. Senior Men's National Team. At NCAAs that year, Legendre took home the crown on floor and vault and claimed the all-around title as well. After just two seasons as a Sooner, he had already won five individual championships, a team championship and had earned six All-America honors.

Legendre capped his historic career with another national title on floor in 2010, his third in row, to give him six individual titles for his career. That mark tied him with Jonathan Horton for the program record. As a senior in 2011, Legendre would become Oklahoma's seventh Nissen-Emery Award winner, considered the Heisman Trophy of gymnastics, joining Sooner legends like Horton, Daniel Furney and Bart Connor.

“My four years here were each an improvement,” Legendre reflected. “I started off pretty strong my freshman year, but looking back on it I didn't fully understand what it was about. During my gymnastics career I feel like I learned how to really be a part of a team, be a team player, and to have that one goal at the top of the priority list.”

Following graduation, Legendre continued to train as a member of the U.S. Senior Men's National Team. He was an alternate for Team USA at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and continues to train with the team in preparation for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Despite his pursuit of international competition, coaching has always been Legendre's mind.

“I love gymnastics, I love coaching, and I love watching people get better. The cards just fell into place, and everything worked out the way it was supposed to.” — Steven Legendre

“It's something I've always considered doing,” Legendre said. “I love gymnastics, I love coaching, and I love watching people get better. I always tried to be in the gym and give my input when I felt like I could really help. But now in an official capacity it worked out for me to have the position, and I think it works great for the program. The cards just fell into place, and everything worked out the way it was supposed to.”

“It's great to have Steve, who is training for the next Olympic games, also be coaching,” Williams said. “He is going through the same sequences that our student-athletes are going through. They really respect watching him train right next to them. He can come back down and coach them something that he has done a million times. Now to have him be an official coach, it's been great to know that he knows what he's doing and can teach our athletes. He was one of our hardest workers in the program so it is truly hard to outwork him in a training session.”

TAQIY ABDULLAH-SIMMONS

 Abdullah-Simmons won the NCAA all-round title in 2007 and was part of three national championship teams during his Sooner career.

Abdullah-Simmons owns more than his fair share of hardware as well. As a freshman, Abdullah-Simmons helped guide Oklahoma to the national championship, its third in four years, setting the tone for what would become a career defined by championship success.

As a sophomore in 2006, Abdullah-Simmons won six event titles during the regular season, picked up All-America honors on vault, parallel bars and all-around and delivered career-best performances on parallel bars and vault at the NCAA team finals to help deliver a second consecutive national championship for Oklahoma.

In 2007, the Sooners failed to claim the national title for just the second time in a six-year period since Williams secured his first in 2002, falling just .800 points short of Penn State. Despite coming in second as a team, Abdullah-Simmons was back atop the podium with an all-around score of 55.75 to claim the national title. After perhaps the best individual performance of his career, Abdullah-Simmons was named an All-American on rings, vault and high bar.

The Sooners' new assistant coach duo overlapped in 2008. With Legendre as a freshman and Abdullah-Simmons as a senior, Oklahoma once again secured the national title, giving Abdullah-Simmons the third of his career and Legendre his first and only.

“Coach Williams gave me a call which was a career- and life-changing opportunity.”
- Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons

Following graduation, Abdullah-Simmons worked in coaching, but also became a performer for Walt Disney World in the Festival of the Lion King and for Cirque du Soleil La Nouba.

“Those years in-between felt like a lot of years,” Abdullah-Simmons recalled. “I was a girl's gymnastics coach for two years and after that I had the opportunity to perform at Disney World. After I had a few injuries there I decided to stop and I started coaching again and judging gymnastics. Following there I had another opportunity to perform at Cirque du Soleil in Orlando, which unfortunately led me to a scary accident in my life where I broke my neck in November of 2014. After that I knew it was time for a change and Coach Williams gave me a call which was a career- and life-changing opportunity.”

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Legendre and Abdullah-Simmons, joined by the rest of the 2008 Sooner squad, pose with the national championship trophy at an Oklahoma home football game.

Though they both have championship experience, Legendre and Abdullah-Simmons offer contrasting styles that will benefit the Sooners both mentally and technically.

“Taqiy kind of has a different personality,” Williams explained. “Has a whole different energy about him. Steve comes at it with a business mentality to really get things done. I really thing the message from Steve is that this is the process of being a great athlete and we have had success doing it, but Taqiy can have a little more fun with things. He was an athlete who was better at performing rather than training so his strength is more about the emotional side and getting guys prepared and having that fire and competition.”

With Legendre and Abdullah-Simmons now in the fold, Williams can rely on his assistants to help guide his team through the rigors of a championship season. Both have experienced exactly what it takes to rise to the highest level under Williams.

“I've always felt like I don't want to have a staff that is just me,” Williams said. “I want to have people that are stronger in different areas than I am so we can complement each other. I approached Steve because he had been here and I had talked to him in the past but didn't know if it was going to be able to work because of him still training. We made that work and the second opening was equally as difficult. Steven and I had been together as athlete and coach for so long, I wanted the other person to come in and be someone different than Steve and I. I went through many names but Taqiy was always in the back of my mind because he was always brought out the best in whatever team he was on. I didn't know if he was still interested in the sport from a coaching standpoint, and after hearing he had been injured and wouldn't be performing this year, I figured I would call him and see what he says. It's been great to have guys that know what we do. Before their first day as coaches they knew what to expect.”

“I've always felt like I don't want to have a staff that is just me,” Williams said. “I want to have people that are stronger in different areas than I am so we can complement each other.” — Mark Williams

Those expectations are crystal clear in 2016. The Sooners, ranked No. 1 in the preseason, are off to a hot start, leading the nation in total team scoring average and in scoring average on every apparatus. Oklahoma also currently occupies five of the top six spots in the national all-around rankings. The Sooners seem to have just one thing on their minds: defend for 10.

The mentality to put the team goals first is not always a given in gymnastics. The world of junior competition is a fierce and often times individual pursuit with athletes competing and training in at clubs and not as part of a team.

“What I learned most here at my time with OU was the team camaraderie and working towards a goal throughout the entire season,” Abdullah-Simmons said. “Before I came in, I was pretty much an individualistic athlete, but during my time here he [Williams] really hammered that this was a team sport. Throughout the years I realized it was better to compete more for others instead of myself. To go out and compete my hardest and know I had my entire team behind me, that was the biggest thing I learned from Coach Williams during my time here.”

To grab Williams' third repeat championship, the newest Sooner assistants will need channel all their championship experience and pass it on to the 2016 squad.

“Guys can look at Taqiy and I, being alumni of the team in pretty recent years,” Legendre said. “It is good for them to have us to talk to and ask questions if they are going through a hard time, gymnastics-wise, school-wise and even life-wise. Give them some insight and a clearer memory of how we felt during those times and what we did to get past hard times and improve.”

“It is a dream come true.” Abdullah-Simmons said. “I always said that if I had the opportunity to coach at a college program that this would be it. I have the opportunity to come back to the gym that I have had so much success in, to be able to now be a coach and tell these young athletes that if you stay on this journey you will find success. It is nice to have that experience in my back pocket. To just tell these guys, if you stick to it you will be successful. Not only in gymnastics but your life afterwards, I feel like that is what I can bring.”

University of Oklahoma Athletics

STEVEN LEGENDRE

TAQIY ABDULLAH-SIMMONS

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