Bryan Raschilla
5/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Bryan Raschilla
Assistant Coach
The time has gone by so quickly for Bryan Raschilla, now in his 11th year as an assistant coach with the Alabama Gymnastics Team. It seems like just yesterday he was making the move to Tuscaloosa with his wife Laura. But that was a decade and thousands of memorable moments ago.
“Day to day it doesn’t really seem like 10 years,” Raschilla said. “And a big part of that is that I absolutely love what I am doing. I get to meet and build relationships with some really wonderful people. The chance to meet and work with this caliber of student-athlete, I don’t think you get anywhere else. And what I like the most is that it’s not just about gymnastics and it’s not just about the four years they’re here on campus. Being at Alabama is about creating lifelong relationships.”
Most importantly to him, Raschilla has seen class after class of Alabama gymnasts come through the program, grow as athletes and people and graduate, ready to make something great of their lives.
“I'm at Alabama to be a part of a program that does things the right way,” Raschilla said. “I have the good fortune to coach athletes who excel in academics, athletics and community service. To be able have some part in their development is really at the heart of why I coach.”
Since he joined the Tide for the 1997 season, Raschilla has helped coach Alabama to nine top-5 national finishes, including the 2002 NCAA Championship and a pair of NCAA runner-up finishes, as well as Southeastern Conference titles in 2000 and 2003. Alabama gymnasts have won eight individual NCAA titles, earned 105 All-American honors and 91 Scholastic All-American honors.
Raschilla's gymnasts haven't been the only ones to grow and prosper. He and wife Laura have a son, Adam born in 1998, and a daughter, Kathryn, born in 2001. Adam and Kathryn seem to grow every time they turn around and with their infectious smiles, are team favorites when they visit in the gym.
“If I ever wonder how long I’ve been here, all I have to do is look at my kids and how fast they’re growing up,” Raschilla said. “They are at a really neat age right now where they understand what daddy does and they really enjoy the meets and being around the girls. And I certainly couldn’t think of better role models for my children than our gymnasts.”
Raschilla's duties with the Crimson Tide are as wide ranging as his talents. In addition to in-the-gym coaching, the Mineral Ridge, Ohio native also develops the Tide's strength and conditioning program and coordinates, along with David Patterson, Alabama's recruiting efforts.
“Bryan not only brings his keen technical analysis to the team,” said Crimson Tide Head Coach Sarah Patterson. “He also brings the sort of stability that is expected of this program. After all, he is now in his 11th year with us, and he is only the third coach to serve as an assistant. He adds a comforting continuity for the athletes.”
He also brings a talent for graphic design to the Tide. Before joining the collegiate coaching ranks, in addition to coaching club gymnastics, Raschilla worked in the art department of one of Ohio's top advertising agencies. Every year, Raschilla brings his skills to bear on the Tide's posters, logos, advertising, media guide covers along with a host of other projects.
“I've always been able to draw,” Raschilla said. “And I've always been interested in computers. What I am able to do for the team is a great marriage of those two things.”
So how did the 6-foot, 5-inch redhead with a degree in graphic design get involved in the one sport he'd never tried?
“I probably get asked that question a hundred times a year,” Raschilla laughed.
Asked to spot for his high school team, Raschilla's interest continued to develop throughout his time at Youngstown State University in Ohio when he coached age-group gymnastics. After eleven years of club gymnastics and countless state champions, national qualifiers and national team members, he moved into the collegiate arena. “I started in 1983,” Raschilla said. “And I've been coaching ever since.”
Following a two-year stretch at the University of Michigan, where the Wolverines were second and sixth at nationals during his tenure, Raschilla moved on to The University of Alabama.
In the years that have passed in Tuscaloosa with the Crimson Tide, Raschilla has accumulated masses of great memories, but for him, it’s not just the championships, the titles and the victories that stick with him.
“As a coach, I think some of my greatest memories come from those moments that no one else sees,” Raschilla said. “It’s those moments in the gym when someone is having a hard time, but they push through anyway. It’s breakthroughs in practice, and all the hard work along the way that sets up the championship moments. Those are some of my best memories.”
But Raschilla's greatest memory thus far is the birth of his children. “They are the first Southern-born Raschillas,” he said.
Raschilla believes he is fortunate to have the opportunity to raise his children in Tuscaloosa with the collegiate atmosphere.
“I just really like Tuscaloosa a lot, and bringing up my children where they can be positively influenced by these collegiate athletes is just great,” Raschilla said.
