Linda Burdette-Good
September 01, 2008 01:50 PM | General
Head Coach
Linda.Burdette@mail.wvu.edu
(304) 293-9891
With more than 600 career wins, 35 years in the gym, 10 conference champions, 31 trips to regionals and four trips to nationals, West Virginia University coach Linda Burdette-Good has sealed her legacy as one of the most influential collegiate women’s gymnastics coaches of all time.
One of the hardest-working coaches is enjoying the fruit of her work. In her 36th season, Burdette-Good has molded the Mountaineers into national prominence.
The 1996, 1998 and 2001 East Atlantic Gymnastics League (EAGL) Coach of the Year is one of the most respected coaches in the country. She also was the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1989. In addition to those accolades, she was the 1981 and 1982 regional AIAW Coach of the Year. In 1982, Burdette-Good guided the Mountaineers to a third-place finish at the AIAW national championship.
She served on the six member NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee and was the chair of the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee. Burdette-Good also was the driving force behind the foundation of the EAGL and is that conference’s chair.
But Burdette-Good’s top priority is her nationally ranked gymnastics team. The only WVU coach to earn 600 career wins with a Mountaineer team, she eclipsed the benchmark on Jan. 31, 2009, with victories over George Washington and Rutgers at the WVU Coliesum. Burdette-Good previously surpassed former baseball coach Dale Ramsburg’s mark with her 541st career win in 2006.
With 2008’s 23-8 record, Burdette-Good has guided 14 teams to 20-win seasons since 1981. Since her first 20-win season in 1981, none of her teams have posted a losing record and just four had winning percentages less than .600.
Mehgan Morris, the 2009 EAGL Outstanding Senior Gymnast, became the 17th Mountaineer, and 13th all-arounder, to qualify individually for the NCAA Championship under Burdette-Good’s guidance in 2009. The Mountaineers finished 15-8 overall, 10-2 in conference, second at the EAGL Championship and fourth at the NCAA Southeast Regional, the squad’s 31st championship appearance. Four gymnasts earned six EAGL titles, matching a program-best mark first set in 1998. Additionally, WVU was ranked in the Top 25 of the GymInfo Poll each week.
Including this past year, her 35th at West Virginia, Burdette-Good boasts a career record of 612-244-4 and a .714 career winning percentage.
Burdette-Good led her sixth squad in 13 years to an EAGL Championship title in 2008, as the Mountaineers laid claim to the conference championship with a first place finish at the WVU Coliseum. WVU finished fourth at the Southeast Regional.
In 2007, Burdette-Good guided her team to a school-record 28 wins, including 17 against EAGL foes, as her team narrowly missed a trip to nationals after hosting the Southeast Regional.
On the brink of yet another conference championship and trip to regionals, Burdette-Good notched her 500th career win in the 2004 regular season finale with a home victory over Bowling Green on March 13, 2004.
Despite having just two seasons under .500 in her career, Burdette-Good had to provide a jolt to the program following a 15-12 record in 2003. The team responded by living up to its own lofty standards. In 2004, Burdette-Good and the Mountaineers made their 26th appearance at regionals in 27 years and won the EAGL championship for a league-record fifth time with a meet-record score of 197.05. The future of the program also seemed intact with star freshman and EAGL Rookie of the Year Janáe Cox becoming the ninth WVU gymnast in school history to qualify for NCAA Championships as an individual.
Cox, who also qualified in 2005 and 2007, was the first Burdette-Good-coached gymnast at nationals since 2002, when TeShawne Jackson qualified after leading the Mountaineers to a 22-6 record and a second-place EAGL finish.
Nine seasons ago was one of the best ever for Burdette-Good’s Mountaineer gymnastics program. Three different Mountaineers scored perfect 10s, with sophomore Jackson scoring five by herself, including two meets with 10s on vault and floor. The 17th-ranked Mountaineers regained the EAGL championship after a two-year drought without the title. While the team did not qualify for the NCAA Championships, two of Burdette-Good’s charges earned the right to compete (Dinorh Boyd as an all-arounder, Kristen Macrie on floor).
Having entrenched her Mountaineers on the national gymnastics scene, the 1995 NCAA Southeast Regional Coach of the Year has guided her team to a steady stream of winning seasons, conference championships, NCAA Southeast Regionals, and in 1995, led WVU to its first-ever NCAA Championships appearance.
In 1999, after a 19-7 overall record and a sixth-place finish at the EAGL meet at Maryland, the Mountaineers hosted the NCAA Region 6 Championships, finishing second to No. 2 Alabama and earning the Mountaineers their second trip to the NCAA Championships.
The 2000 season was arguably Burdette-Good’s most challenging, yet most rewarding as a coach for West Virginia. With the WVU Coliseum closed for asbestos abatement and some injuries to key contributors, the Mountaineers could have struggled. But instead WVU turned in three of the top four team scores in school history at Morgantown High and advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third time in program history.
The Mountaineers have averaged 20 wins per season since 1990, while registering consecutive 20-win seasons from 1990-92. Included in that stretch was a then school-record 26 wins, and its first Atlantic 10 title during the 1992 campaign. Burdette-Good guided the Mountaineers to three straight EAGL championships from 1996-98 and seven consecutive conference titles overall from 1992-98.
Since the NCAA incorporated gymnastics as a sport in 1983, Burdette-Good-coached teams have qualified for 25 of the last 26 regional meets and the national championships three times.
Burdette-Good is responsible for mentoring the best gymnast in school history, Kristin Quackenbush, who became the school’s first AAI American Award winner and a six-time NCAA All-American. She holds or shares school records on the vault, floor and all-around, and owns five career perfect 10s. Burdette-Good’s first two NCAA All-Americans came in 1994 as Quackenbush (vault and floor) and Lajuanda Moody (beam) earned second-team honors in Salt Lake City.
Burdette-Good’s gymnasts have fared well in the classroom as well. Sixty-seven have earned NACGC/W scholastic All-America status, including five for the 2009 squad.
Burdette-Good guided the Mountaineers to their best season ever in 1982 when they won the EAIAW championship and then finished third at the AIAW national championship. It also was during that season that Shari Retton became the Mountaineers’ first All-American. For these accomplishments, Burdette-Good was honored as the EAIAW Coach of the Year.
While a member of the Atlantic 10 from 1983-95, Burdette-Good guided the Mountaineers to four conference championships (1992-95) and never finished lower than third in any year. Burdette-Good was honored after the 1986 and 1989 seasons as the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year.
Her gymnasts have been no strangers to conference laurels, either. Burdette-Good has coached 55 conference champions and 116 all-conference selections, including 17 in 2009. Burdette-Good also honed the skills of Quackenbush and Umme Salim, who both garnered EAGL Outstanding Senior and Gymnast of the Year honors. She has guided Kelly Foley and Kristen Macrie, who was the 2000 and 2002 EAGL Outstanding Senior Gymnast of the Year, respectively, and Boyd, the 2001 EAGL Gymnast of the Year. In 2003, Halovanic was named the EAGL Scholar Athlete of the Year, and in 2004 Cox was named EAGL Rookie of the Year. Cox would finish off her career with the 2007 Gymnast of the Year and Most Outstanding Senior awards before earning All-America honors on floor at nationals. Burdette-Good also guided Morris to 2009 EAGL Outstanding Senior Gymnast and 2006 EAGL Rookie of the Year honors. Since joining the EAGL, 56 Mountaineers have earned EAGL all-academic recognition 616 times. Burdette-Good also coached seven Atlantic 10 Gymnasts of the Year, five A-10 Seniors of the Year, five league freshmen of the year and seven of her gymnasts also earned Atlantic 10 All-Academic honors.
Burdette-Good is married to Lee Good and the couple resides in Morgantown. The couple also has a home in Uniontown, Ohio. Burdette-Good has one daughter, Anna Burdette, a WVU graduate, and one grandson, Ashton.
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Burdette's Record |
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| Year | School | Record |
| 1975 | West Virginia | 7-5 |
| 1976 | West Virginia | 7-4 |
| 1977 | West Virginia | 5-6 |
| 1978 | West Virginia | 7-2 (OAISW) |
| 1979 | West Virginia | 6-10 (Regional) |
| 1980 | West Virginia | 15-5 (Regional) |
| 1981 | West Virginia | 20-3 (Regional) |
| 1982 | West Virginia | 18-7 (AIAW Finals) |
| 1983 | West Virginia | 24-8 (Regional) |
| 1984 | West Virginia | 13-9 (Regional) |
| 1985 | West Virginia | 23-5 (Regional) |
| 1986 | West Virginia | 16-11-1 (Regional) |
| 1987 | West Virginia | 13-7 (Regional) |
| 1988 | West Virginia | 16-11 (Regional) |
| 1989 | West Virginia | 19-10 (Regional) |
| 1990 | West Virginia | 21-11 (Regional) |
| 1991 | West Virginia | 23-7 (Regional) |
| 1992 | West Virginia | 26-7-1 (Regional) |
| 1993 | West Virginia | 17-5 (Regional) |
| 1994 | West Virginia | 18-5 (Regional) |
| 1995 | West Virginia | 15-6 (National Finals) |
| 1996 | West Virginia | 17-9 (Regional) |
| 1997 | West Virginia | 22-3 (Regional) |
| 1998 | West Virginia | 23-4 (Regional) |
| 1999 | West Virginia | 19-7 (National Finals) |
| 2000 | West Virginia | 19-10 (Regional) |
| 2001 | West Virginia | 21-3 (Regional) |
| 2002 | West Virginia | 22-6 (Regional) |
| 2003 | West Virginia | 12-8 |
| 2004 | West Virginia | 20-6-1 (Regional) |
| 2005 | West Virginia | 18-12 (Regional) |
| 2005 | West Virginia | 17-7-1 (Regional) |
| 2006 | West Virginia | 22-8 (Regional) |
| 2007 | West Virginia | 28-9 (Regional) |
| 2008 | West Virginia | 23-8 (Regional) |
| 2009 | West Virginia | 15-8 (Regional) |
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