Bermuda Rejuvenated Gymnastics Coach
Former University of Maryland coach Bob (Duke) Nelligan says although he “wasn’t ready for the rocking chair” when he retired from the college, putting Bermuda’s young gymnasts through their paces for the last two years has rejuvenated him.
Mr. Nelligan, who spent 30-year running Maryland’s NCAA gymnastics programme, was hired as Bermuda’s National Coach in 2009.
“When Nelligan was offered the position, he saw another opportunity to take a programme to new heights,” says the university’s campus newspaper “Diamondback Online” in a report on its former coach today [Feb. 10]. “He knew he’d be building from the ground up — again — but this time, there’d be an oceanside view. ‘While I was at Maryland, we didn’t have our own gym or our own locker room’, Nelligan said from his home on St. David’s Island, Bermuda. ‘So coming here, I understood that my job was going to be about developing the program’ …
When Mr. Nelligan arrived in Bermuda in September 2009, he says gymnasts were training in a portion of a former US Naval Air Station’s recreation center. The team’s facilities were so limited that when the girls practiced on vault, they could only run 65 feet before reaching the apparatus — a far cry from the usual 80-foot runs most competitive gymnasts take.
“I’ll never forget the time I took two of my gymnasts to vault at the World Championships in London a couple months after I got to Bermuda,” Mr. Nelligan recalled. “My girls walked to 65 feet and turned to me and said, ‘Why is everyone else starting at 80 feet?’ They had no idea.”
Despite his gymnasts’ naïveté, both of Bermuda’s representatives at that event — Caitlyn Mello and Kaisey Griffith –placed within the top 80 of the world-class field, “a benchmark achievement for a country boasting a population of less than 70,000 people,” remarked “Diamondback Online.”
Mr. Nelligan, 61, told the newspaper the opportunity to train Bermudian athletes as young as seven had provided him with newfound inspiration.
“It’s so fulfilling to see these kids every day and to watch them grow,” Mr. Nelligan said. “Even though it’s tough being almost 900 miles away from home, seeing that look in their eyes when they’re learning something new makes it all worth it.”
Mr. Nelligan, a self-proclaimed “outdoors guy”, told the newspaper he spends his free time whale watching, snorkelling with octopuses and visiting Bermuda’s beaches.
“The days here are absolutely stunning,” Mr Nelligan said. “We have flowers year-round, 60-degree winters and a constant breeze. You really can’t put it into words. I can’t imagine a better way to wind down my career. Life is good.”
