E-mail Coach Dilliplane (mh56@cornell.edu)
Melanie Dilliplane, the 2001, 2006 and 2007 USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Assistant Coach of the Year and 2002 NCAA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year, enters her 14th season as the assistant coach of the Big Red. Her main responsibilities are working with the balance beam and floor exercise routines.
The 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006 ECAC Assistant Coach of the Year has been instrumental in helping the team break record after record and developing 14 All-Americans in the past six years.
In the last five years, the team posted a floor score of 48.000 or better at 26 meets. Individual marks have also been set on all four individual events and the all-around, while six gymnasts earned All-America honors.
Dilliplane continues to be the statistician and secretary of the ECAC Committee, a role she has had since 1999.
A former NCAA competitive gymnast at Radford University (1988-1992), Dilliplane was a four-year letter winner and a record-holder on bars. She acted as an assistant coach for two years as a choreographer for floor and beam, and in 1992, helped lead the squad to a third-place finish at the United States Gymnastics Federation sponsored NCAA Division I National Invitational Tournament in Springfield, Mass.
In 1999, Dilliplane began her career as an Olympic Weight lifter. She took second in the 58-kg weight class with a 110-kg total in the snatch and clean and jerk that year at the Empire State Games. In 2000, she again placed second with a personal-best total of 112.5-kg. She repeated that performance in 2003 and 2004.
Dilliplane is a safety certified professional member of the USAG, a current member of the U.S. Elite Coaches Association and the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches. font>
A native of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Dilliplane earned her bachelor of science degree in computer aided graphic design from Radford in 1992. She and her husband, Tom, the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Big Red, have two daughters, Maren and Ava.
