University of Denver Spring 2025

“Our recruits hear about these years before they even come here,” says Kutcher-Rinehart. The coaches talk about them in detail during the recruiting process, and once a gymnast is on the team, she meets with them weekly during their first year to talk about what they mean and how to implement them in practice and competition. Assistant Coach Mia Sundstrom (BA ’21, MA ’23) competed on the team from 2018 to 2022 and officially came on board as an assistant coach in 2024. When she thinks about character , which is also one of DU’s Four Dimensions, she sees it as not only the values each person brings to the team, but also the team’s ability to work together and make an impact on others’ lives. She recalls one time when she was still competing and the team was at the Big 12 conference championship in Oklahoma. During breakfast at the hotel, a family of six was looking for a table, and her teammates instantly got up and offered their space. They even wiped off the table and helped the kids get breakfast. “These are high-level Division I athletes on a competition day, who could easily be thinking only about themselves and feel entitled to do so,” she says. “Instead, they looked outside of themselves to see how they could help someone else.” That kind of character, Sundstrom says, is closely entwined with the core value of excellence , which she defines as “bringing 100% of what you have that day, recognizing that not every day is going to be your best, but that you will continue to strive and improve yourself.” Assistant Coach Stephen Hood echoes this. In a sport where the goal is a 10.0 on the vault, bars, beam or floor, he says they try to avoid the word “perfect.” “We talk about the difference between perfection and excellence, and in a sport where perfection is the gold standard, excellence is almost a step down—but it’s an achievable step. You can achieve excellence every day,” he says. The third value, teamwork , is something the coaches expect the gymnasts to “live and breathe.” “If you see somebody moving a mat in the gym, you’ll see somebody else running over, grabbing the other side of the mat to help move it. I think that is the epitome of being a good teammate. Nobody moves a mat by themselves,” says Hood. It’s a simple act, he adds, like putting your cart away at the grocery store or picking up a piece of trash, but from a teamwork standpoint, that’s where it starts. The challenge is to live those values day in and day out, at practices, competitions and outside the gym—through good times and bad. It’s not easy to do year after year and team after team, but, Kutcher-Rinehart says, it’s more important than ever in today’s constantly changing athletics landscape. “We want our athletes to capitalize on all the potential opportunities that are available to them, but at the end of the day, it’s still about being humble and hungry and staying true to our core,” she says.

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UNIVERSITY OF DENVER MAGAZINE | SPRING 2025