About this episode

Justin James discusses the historic launch of Texas State University's first Division I women's gymnastics program.

Texas produces roughly a quarter of the nation's elite gymnasts. Until this year, it had zero Division I women's gymnastics programs. That just changed. On this episode, Texas coach and judge Justin James joins GymnasticsVille to break down Texas State University's historic launch of the first D1 women's gymnastics program in state history. Justin is the Head Girls Gymnastics Coach at Highland Park ISD, Director of Recruiting for the Texas Armadillos GymACT team, and a member of the Texas and National Gymnastics Judges Associations, with nearly 14 years as gymnastics director at Kingwood High School before that. We get into: - The Oklahoma connection behind Texas State's decision, and why the school's president credits OU head coach K.J. Kindler with helping him see it through - Why it took 40 years for a Texas school to go D1, from football economics to Title IX - Inside the Aggie Ascension, the group working to bring a varsity program to Texas A&M - Why Texas State's location makes it a recruiting goldmine - McMurry's surprise new program and the murky history of Houston Christian's old varsity status - Justin's read on the men's gymnastics scene heading into the Xfinity…

People in this episode

Host: GymnasticsVille

Guest: Justin James

Topics covered

• Division I gymnastics
• Texas State University
• recruiting
• gymnastics history
• women's sports
• Title IX

Keywords

• Texas gymnastics
• D1 gymnastics
• Justin James
• women's gymnastics
• recruiting goldmine
• gymnastics history
• Title IX
• Oklahoma connection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Texas State University, Texas Armadillos GymACT, Texas and National Gymnastics Judges Associations, Highland Park ISD, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, McMurry, Houston Christian

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