ITHACA, N.Y. -- Paul Beckwith, the Big Red's all-time winningest gymnastics coach, has announced that he will retire at the conclusion of the spring. The 2001 and 2016 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and three-time USA Gymnastics Collegiate Coach of the Year (2001, '07, '09) has served as head coach of the Cornell women's gymnastics team since 1994.
"It has been an honor to coach at Cornell for all these years and I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to work with so many truly amazing student-athletes," Beckwith said. "Their success and happiness both before and after graduation, as well as their enthusiasm for supporting the team as part of the ever increasing 'Cornell gymnastics family,' makes me extremely proud! I am the luckiest coach ever to have partnered with the same wonderful assistant coach for my whole career at Cornell, and I wish Melanie (Hall) the best as she starts the newest phase of her career!"
Beckwith posted a 335-367-3 record in meet competition. The 335 wins ranks seventh all-time among all Cornell coaches in any single sport. During that span, his teams set school records on all four team events and the overall, as well as all four events and the all-around in individual competition.
During his tenure, Big Red teams won seven Ivy Classic and two ECAC titles and in 2009 became the first non-scholarship team to win a USAG Collegiate national title. Seven of his gymnasts qualified for NCAA Regionals, nine won USAG Collegiate individual national titles, 26 captured Ivy Classic championships and 99 went on to earn USAG All-America accolades. In his last 21 seasons, 16 of his teams and 34 individual gymnasts participated in the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Nationals.
Beckwith also placed a premium on success in the classroom. His teams consistently placed in the top 20 in the national academic rankings for universities with gymnastics programs, including second nationally with a team GPA of 3.67 in 2002-03. Cornell had six CoSIDA Academic All-Americans and regularly led the department in most members of the 400 Club, reserved for student-athletes who post a 4.0 semester grade point average. Nine times the program was honored by the NCAA for success in the Academic Progress Rankings, meaning the Big Red posted a score in the top 10 percent of all collegiate gymnastics teams.
A former gymnastics judge, Beckwith is a founder of the Southwest Virginia Gymnastics Judges Association and a safety certified member of USA Gymnastics. He served on the Board of Directors and the Judges Assigning Committee of the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches, and previously served as the chair of both the USA Collegiate National Championship Committee and the Ivy Gymnastics Coaches Committee.
Beckwith began his college coaching career in 1984 when he became the first head coach of the Radford University men's program. He also served as an instructor of physical and health education at the university level, and was the owner/manager of The Gymnastics Center in Blacksburg, Va. He took over the women's program at Radford in 1987 until leaving for Cornell in 1994, guiding several individuals to the NCAA regionals, while his 1992 team placed third at the National Invitational Tournament in Springfield, Mass.
A 1976 graduate of Virginia Tech, Beckwith earned degrees in both sociology and psychology. He completed his master's studies in physical education at Tech in 1981.
Beckwith and his wife, Diane, have three children, Adam, Sarah and Joel.
