E-mail Coach Beckwith (pab12@cornell.edu)
Paul Beckwith, the 2001 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and 2001 and 2007 USA Gymnastics Collegiate Coach of the Year, enters his 13th season as head coach of the Cornell women’s gymnastics team. The Big Red’s all-time winningest gymnastics coach, his teams have shown yearly improvement, and the 2008 season has the potential to be the best of all.
Beckwith has posted a 104-143-1 record in dual meet competition. During that span, his teams have set school records on all four team events and the overall, as well as all four events and the all-around in individual competition, including smashing each of the records in 2004.
In 2006, the Big Red placed a best-ever third place at the USAG Collegiate Nationals, the highest finish in the history of the meet by a non-scholarship program. The team also won the Ivy Classic and finished fourth at the ECAC championship. Cornell collected nine All-America honors. In addition, individual Big Red gymnasts won three of four events at the Ivy Classic and two events at the ECAC championship.
At Cornell, Beckwith’s teams have 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 has also had an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American four of the last six years.
In the past 11 seasons, seven of his teams and 18 individual gymnasts have participated in the USAG Collegiate Nationals.
Beckwith is a former USAG judging member, founder of the Southwest Virginia Gymnastics Judges Association, a safety certified member of the USAG, a current member of the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC) and the U.S. Elite Coaches Association. Beckwith has served on the executive board for the NACGC and served as chairman for six years, and is a member of, the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championship Committee.
Beckwith began his collegiate coaching career in 1984 when he became the first head coach of the Radford University men’s program. He has 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.
