ASU Gymnastics: Santoses proving to be just the spark the Gym Devils needed

(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)

At the end of the 2016 season, the Arizona State gymnastics program found itself in the need of an entirely new coaching staff.

It was not long after that that ASU Vice President for Athletics Ray Anderson named Jay Santos the new head coach of the program with his wife Jess Santos as the associate head coach.

The two previously spent two years at Eastern Michigan where they led the Eagles to a record-setting 2016 season. Together, they coached EMU to the 2016 Mid-American Conference title and to the program’s first NCAA regional appearance.

After their accomplishments at EMU, it seemed as though the Santoses would be the perfect fit to take over the ASU program and return it to its former glory.

“When you take over something that’s not going well, generally people are looking for change so, I mean they’re usually open to it,” Jay Santos said. “They embrace changed and tried to do it differently. It was a little bit of a rocky road here and there, but I think ultimately everybody wanted to get to, kind of, what happened last year.”

Last year, ASU made one of the greatest improvements in all of NCAA gymnastics. The Santoses turned the Gym Devils into a top-25 team for the entire season. The program finished the season ranked No. 23 which was 18 spots higher than its 2017 finish.

This kind of turnaround is not easy to come by, but the Santos’ made it happen. In their first season at ASU, the Gym Devils had only one first place finish and did not break the 196 mark for a team score the entire season.

Jump ahead just one year, and the Gym Devils had four, first place finishes while boasting seven scores of 196 or better. ASU posted its highest finish at the Pac-12 Championships since 2012, and it was there that Jay Santos was honored with being named the 2018 Pac-12 Coach of the Year.

In 2018, the Gym Devils were ranked as high as 11^thin the nation and earned themselves a trip to the NCAA regionals for the first time since 2014.

One of the biggest individual successes thus far in their coaching career has been Cairo Leonard-Baker. Last year, the freshman took the gymnastics world by storm and earned Pac-12 Freshman/Newcomer of the Year.

Leonard-Baker credits Jay and Jess’ guidance for a lot of her and her team’s overall improvements and success.

“They honestly work so hard on focusing on our goals and keeping us on there, and they focus on the little details,” Leonard-Baker said. “They help us focus on all the little things, and being together, and we do a lot of more meetings this year to really try to keep everyone on the same page, working really hard, all together.”

The team chemistry has been a crucial factor in the Santos’ success at ASU. The duo has enforced a great family atmosphere in the gym that is more than evident during meets.

“I think it’s just them changing the culture and coming in here with a vision and knowing that they can accomplish it if we can just buy into what they’re saying,” redshirt junior Morgan Wilson said. “I think them just being able to help us get on board with their vision and their goals has helped the program turn around.”

Their vision of success have shined threw in just the short time the two have been in Tempe, but there’s no doubt that their plans reach much higher than what this team has accomplished so far.

“Jess and I coming in, Stephen [Buckner] coming in, just trying to have a plan, be on the same page, really trying to map it out for the kids,” Jay said. “This is where we want to go. This is how we think we should do it. How we can get there and then continue, just continuing to work through that.”

The Santos’ and the Gym Devils’ first test of the 2019 season will be Friday, January 4 when they take on Minnesota, Missouri and UIC in a quad-meet at Wells Fargo Arena.