500 and Counting
March 13, 2004 11:21 PM | General
March 14, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Linda Burdette says it was a matter of being in the “right place at the right time” 30 years ago when she was hired to coach the West Virginia University gymnastics program in the fall of 1974.
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| Linda Burdette poses with her team and coaching staff following her 500th career victory Saturday against Bowling Green. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Coach Nanette Schnaible left after one season in August to take a job in New York, leaving the athletic department without a coach right before the start of school. Furthermore, the school of physical education was also in need of a dance teacher and Burdette, teaching part-time at Fairmont State, fit the bill perfectly.
“Leland Byrd hired me,” she recalled.
Still, after a couple years into it Burdette wasn’t sure coaching was what she wanted to do, “I wanted to teach but I wasn’t sure about coaching,” she said. “But by about the third year I knew I wanted to coach and I loved it.”
Now 27 years and 500 wins later, Linda Burdette is still going strong.
She earned her 500th career victory Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum against Bowling Green, her team producing a score of 197.3 for the third highest total in school history. Her career record now stands at 500-204-3.
Burdette joins volleyball coach Veronica Hammersmith (503) and the late baseball coach Dale Ramsburg (540) as the only three coaches to reach the 500-win mark in school history.
“It’s quite an honor when I look at what they’ve accomplished and to be able to do that, too,” she said after Saturday’s meet. “I’m so honored to be someplace where I’ve had the success to be able to accomplish 500. In particular, I’m in there with Veronica and one of my favorite persons of all-time in Dale, who had an office next door to me for it seems like forever.”
During the time she’s been at WVU a lot in the Mountaineer gymnastics program has changed for the better. The schedule no longer features schools like Slippery Rock, Frostburg State and Fairmont State like it did when she first took the job. Now WVU travels all over the country to face the nation’s top programs. Yet perhaps even more importantly, Burdette finally has a wonderful facility for her athletes to train in.
Today West Virginia practices in beautiful $1.5 million Cary Gym located below the Coliseum and adjacent to the Natatorium and WVU Shell Building. Cary Gym is as impressive as any facility in the country, and Burdette is always the first to point that out after fighting long and hard for many years to get that building constructed.
For the majority of her 30 seasons at WVU, her teams worked out at old Stansbury Hall where the basketball team last played in 1969. Recreation basketball players often stopped their games and watched above in amazement as Burdette’s girls ran down Stansbury’s balcony to perform their vaults.
“When I think about how we recruited back then I’d say to them, ‘I’m sorry but we just don’t have time to go see the gym.’ We had it always timed down to where we never let them see the gym,” she laughed.
“Then they would come to school and go, ‘Oh my God!’”
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| Burdette shows a picture commemorating her 500th victory at a post-meet reception. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
After years of promising her a facility, WVU Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong finally came through six years ago.
“For years I always joked with Eddie that it was going to be called the Linda Burdette Memorial Gym,” she said. “And when it finally came true I just couldn’t believe it. I checked the obituaries and thankfully I wasn’t in there: this is for real.”
What Burdette has been able to accomplish at WVU in the last 30 years is nothing short of extraordinary. She has led four teams to NCAA nationals in 1982, 1995, 1999 and 2000 and has been named conference coach of the year five times. The Mountaineers had their streak of going to 20 straight NCAA regionals snapped last year and have gone to 25 in all.
Burdette has developed four NCAA All-Americans and seven individual NCAA regional champions. Although research in the sport is sketchy, Burdette is believed to have the most regular season wins of any active NCAA coach; West Virginia does not count post-conference meet victories as some other schools do in their victory totals.
Burdette wasn’t aware of the fact that she probably has more wins than any of her current colleagues, “Win-loss really has nothing to do with our sport,” she admitted. “In other sports win-loss makes a big difference of whether or not you get into a conference championship or a big meet, but for our competition it’s the average score.”
That said Burdette is still pleased to get number 500.
“It’s a testament to longevity and some great assistant coaches I’ve had through the years,” she said.
Including Joanna Parent and Dave Kuzara on this year’s staff, Burdette counts Cari DuBois (now head coach at Cal) and Jay Ronayne (top assistant at Auburn) among those responsible for helping the Mountaineer program grow to where it’s at today.
“We have always had great assistant coaches here,” she said. “I’ve always been smart enough to hire people who compliment my weaknesses and we try to find a group that works well together. To me that’s how you’re successful. You can’t do it by yourself: you have to have lots of support people.”
Now with number 500 in the bag, can Burdette hang around for another 500?
“No,” she laughs. “I’ve got 500 more rounds of golf in me, though. I don’t know how much longer I’ll do this. As long as I still love it and as long as I’m still learning and as long as I’m still creative … you have to be creative in this sport.”
Creative she may be, but Linda Burdette is also a winner. Five hundred is ample proof of that.
