January 8, 2008: Congratulations to Rhonda and Jeremy on the newest addition to the family! Noah Émile joined the GatorNation at 11:10pm this past Tuesday evening, weighing in at 7lbs, 5oz, standing tall at 20".
October 26th, 2007: Year in and year out the Gator Gymnastics team is involved in local events and this year is no exception. This past Saturday the team participated in the American Cancer Society Making Strides against Breast Cancer awareness event. Next month, the team will be holding their annual Harvest Food Drive. Scheduled for November 18, 2007, at the Crom Gymnastics Studio in the O'Connell Center, the team will be collecting canned food for local food banks. See Gatorzone.com for more details.
August 27th, 2007: The 2007 Gymnastics team will be acknowledged this weekend during the halftime festivities of the Florida football game against Western Kentucky. The accomplishments that will be recognized include:
SEC Champions!
Rhonda Faehn – National Coach of the Year, SEC Coach of the Year
Adrian Burde – Southeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year
Amanda Castillo – All-American, SEC Champion Floor Exercise, SEC Freshman of the Year
Savannah Evans,Corey Hartung,Ashley Reed and Melanie Sinclair - All-American
Breanne King - 2nd Team All-American
May 31st, 2007: Collegiate regional and national championship gymnastics competition is coming to the University of Florida!! The Stephen C. O'Connell Center will play host to the NCAA Southeast Gymnastics Regional Championships on April 12, 2008. UF will also serve as host for the 2010 NCAA Gymnastics Championships.
"We are so excited to bring these two major gymnastics events to Gainesville," UF Head Coach Rhonda Faehn said. "It will be a great opportunity for gymnastics fans to see the nation's top competitors."
February 6th, 2007: The University of Florida gymnastics team is featured on the cover of the latest issue of Inside Gymnastics magazine. The January-February issue of Inside Gymnastics is their collegiate issue and previews the 2007 college season. Associate Publisher Tara Owen-Jeroloman wrote the centerpiece article that focuses exclusively on the Gator program.
December 26th, 2006: We all know how talented our ladies are on the gymnastics floor, but let's not forget that they are not called Scholar-Athletes for nothing! 12 Gators earned a 3.0 or better this past semester, including a perfect 4.0 by Savannah Evans. Congratulations, ladies, on an outstanding achievement!!
November 19th, 2006: The University of Florida gymnastics team held its Eighth Annual Harvest Food Drive to collect cans of non-perishable food for a local food bank at the Ted Crom Gymnastics Studio in the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. In return, Head Coach Rhonda Faehn and members of the Gator gymnastics team held their yearly gymnastics clinic for beginning gymnasts, ages 5 and above. Each participating gymnast brought five non-perishable food items.
The event attracted 56 aspiring gymnasts, bringing in more than 920 pounds of canned and non-perishable foods. Participants worked with the UF gymnastics team on skills, technique and just having a good time.
"The Harvest Food Drive is something we do every year. This year we collected more than 900 pounds of food, which is a big increase over the 250 pounds collected last year," UF junior Tiffany Murry said. "It is great to be able to help the community by contributing to the food bank. We are happy to give back since the community is so supportive of the Gators.
"The kids are so excited to participate in the Harvest Food Drive event. They are jumping everywhere and they remind me of how fun it was to do something like this when I was little," she continued. "We were glad that we could help them have fun for the day."
October 14th, 2006: Head Coach Rhonda Faehn and the Gator gymnastics team helped out the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk event Saturday morning at Gainesville's Northeast Park. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer® (Making Strides) is an annual noncompetitive walk to raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. Funds raised support American Cancer Society breast cancer research, education, advocacy, and patient service programs. Saturday's 5K walk included people of ages. The Gators helped out with registration and at the drinks tent before the event began. At the end of the walk, the Gators were there to cheer on the participants, hand out drinks and reward them with a pink ribbon emblem. The event hosted over 1,000 participants, 120 of which were cancer survivors. To date, over $131,000 has been generated.
During the upcoming 2007 season, the Florida gymnasts will host a breast cancer awareness meet. The Florida-Kentucky dual meet on February 16 is the Gators' first breast cancer awareness meet, an evening when both teams put aside their school colors and wear pink leotards to raise understanding about the fight against breast cancer.
July 13th, 2006: Adrian Burde will join the University of Florida gymnastics staff as an assistant coach, Florida Head Coach Rhonda Faehn announced Thursday. Burde brings coaching experience from the collegiate, club and international levels to the Gator program.
"Adrian will be an outstanding addition to our staff. His coaching ability is well thought of by both coaches and gymnasts," Faehn said. "I was fortunate to work with Adrian for one year at Nebraska. It was obvious then the strength he would bring to any program. He has shown a tremendous talent for coaching while at the collegiate and club level. I'm very excited to bring his expertise to the Gator gymnastics program. I feel the combination of Adrian with Robert (Ladanyi, current UF assistant coach) will give the Gators one of the best coaching staffs in the country. Although he coached vault and floor at Nebraska, he has tremendous knowledge and expertise in coaching the uneven bars. I feel confident that the Gators will continue to be a strong bars team under his guidance," Faehn continued. "I am very happy that Adrian has decided to become a member of the Gator coaching staff."
At Florida, Burde will coach uneven bars, as well as aid in recruiting and team conditioning. He was named the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003.
Burde, 32, will be reunited with Faehn, as both were members of the University of Nebraska coaching staff for the 2002 season. In his five seasons with the Cornhuskers, the team advanced to four NCAA Super Six team finals (2002, '03, '05, '06), earning its highest of fourth in 2003. Burde, who coached the Cornhusker's vault and floor performers, saw UN performers earn a total of 19 All-America honors in the two events over the last five seasons. In 2003, UN's Richelle Simpson claimed the NCAA all-around and floor exercise titles. Simpson represented her native Canada at several top international events and Burde coached her at the 2003 World Championships. Nebraska won the Big 12 team titles in 2002, '03 and '05. Cornhusker gymnasts claimed at least a share of the Big 12 titles for vault in 2006, '03 and '02 and floor in 2005, '03 and '02.
Prior to joining Nebraska, Burde was the head girls' program coach for the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. He coached Level 10 and elite international gymnasts, including U.S. National Team members Larissa Stewart and Lori Wynn. "Coaching at Florida is an opportunity that I couldn't pass up," Burde said. "The program's potential is limitless because there is so much to offer the top recruits as far as academics, facilities and of course, the weather. The three of us (Rhonda Faehn and Robert Ladanyi) all share the goal of winning a national championship. That is what we will have the Gators focused on in the upcoming seasons. I'd like to say thank you to the Nebraska program for giving me the opportunity to coach at the collegiate level," he continued. "Dan (Kendig, UN Head Coach), the team and the rest of the staff were awesome to work with. I wish them well in the future."
Burde began his coaching career in his native Romania in 1994 and was a Junior National team coach until 1999. During his time with the Romania Junior National Team, Burde coached three seasons with current UF Assistant Coach Robert Ladanyi. The two have known each other since their competitive gymnastics days.
In 1997, he joined the staff of Steaua Bucharest, the top junior club in Romania and helped guide the team to the 1998 national title, which includes a sweep of the top four places in the all-around. At Steaua Bucharest, Burde worked with Eliza Stoica, who coached the Romanian national team to a silver medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.
An accomplished gymnast in his own right, Burde was a member of the Romanian Junior National Team from 1988 to 1992. He joined the French club team Aix les Bains in 1992, and captured the all-around title at the 1994 French national meet. Aside from competing for the club, Burde helped coach younger gymnasts.
In addition, Burde has coached national and international athletes in three countries.
Welcome to the Gator Nation, Coach Burde!