Cyclone Great Anson Transitions to Coaching

AMES, Iowa?After putting in incalculable time and effort to become Iowa State's most decorated gymnast, Janet Anson continues to rack up countless unpaid hours for the ISU gymnastics team. But now it is as a second-year volunteer coach.

Despite volunteering, Anson does not put limitations on the amount of time she works or the energy and passion she exudes.

Janet Anson ISU Career Recap
Janet Anson Bio	_

“I don't really put any boundaries on what I do,” she said. “I try to do as much as I can with the time that I have. I don't really mind all the work for the college team, because I know it's important and I want them to do the best that they can do. Putting in the extra hours doesn't seem like a job, it's just something that I want to do.”

Her efforts have not gone unnoticed by Iowa State head coach Jay Ronayne.

“Janet essentially has been given the full in-the-gym responsibilities that anyone on my staff has to coach their event,” Ronayne said. “She's our floor coach, and she helps out on vault and all the events. I trust her fully to train our team and have it ready for championship competition.”

While her competitive resume is staggering, the eight-time All-American is concentrating on getting the best out of the current Cyclone gymnasts. And her coaching resume is starting to take shape as a result. Focusing most of her coaching energy on the floor exercise, Anson has helped Iowa State rank 12th nationally in the event.

As Anson continues to gain experience in the coaching ranks, her young career has seen its tribulations.

“At first, I didn't really know that I wanted to do college coaching, but I had an idea,” Anson said. “Last year it was kind of tough because a lot of my friends were the girls still on the team. So, last year was kind of tough to keep a separation between being the coach and being the friend. This year it is a little easier, definitely easier being the coach. I guess you could say I'm a lot stricter on them this year, just because I know what they're capable of accomplishing.”

Adding to the uniqueness of Anson's coaching story is she had known Ronayne for less than a year before becoming a part of his staff. When Ronayne took control of the Iowa State gymnastics program before her senior season, it would have been easy for the already well-accomplished Anson to have a sour mentality. Instead, the Kansas City, Mo., native embraced the change and continues to learn from Ronayne's tutelage.

“I thought they had a lot to offer,” Anson said. “I think Jay's a great coach and he has a lot of experience with a lot of different teams. That's something a lot of coaches don't have. I think he's a great coach and he brought in a great staff with TeShawne (Jackson) and Jay (Santos).”

Anson also feels coaching for her alma mater gives her added incentive to push the Cyclones to success.

“There is a sense of pride,” she said. “This is the only college I've known. Coming up through the program and wanting to get it to the highest level is something that pushes me.”

After initially questioning whether coaching was something she was interested in, Anson now believes it is in her long-term plans.

“I would definitely say it's in the long term,” she said. “I am hoping to get into a full-time assistant position after this year. I said that after last year too, and nothing really came about. I'm going to try again this year and I guess everything else is up in the air after that.”

And she clearly gets a 10.0 coaching score from Ronayne.

“She has the passion and the drive along with quite a tremendous backlog of gymnastics knowledge,” Ronayne said. “She learns every day. I can just see that she picks up stuff every single day, something new and she puts it into practice. She learns from me, and I see that she learns from TeShawne and Jay and she gets better and better every day. It's neat to watch somebody progress this quickly.”

Iowa State University Athletics

Cyclone Great Anson Transitions to Coaching

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