Fisk University made history in 2022 with America’s first HBCU gymnastics team. The Lady Bulldogs, aka “Gymdogs,” are expanding on that history by hosting a gymnastics tournament that pits the country’s only African-American women head gymnastics coaches at HBCU’s against each other in addition to Division I Black women head coaches.
Corrinne Tarver is the head coach of Fisk University gymnastics and Aja Sims-Fletcher is the head coach of Talladega College, the nation’s first HBCU gymnastics programs. William & Mary’s Kelsey Hinton and Rutgers’s Umme Salim-Beasley are the only Black head coaches of Division I gymnastics programs.
Held on Martin Luther King’s birthday, January 15, 2024, at Vanderbilt University’s Memorial Gymnasium, the coaches are part of a unique tournament organized by Tarver and hosted by Vanderbilt and the Nashville MLK Day Committee.
Black Girl Mat Magic
The tournament features Brown University, Iowa State University, Rutgers University, Talladega College, William & Mary University, and Fisk University.
“This will be the first event of this kind in the history of our sport,” said Fisk head gymnastics coach Corrinne Tarver in a statement. “There are some more exciting things that will be happening around it. Vanderbilt has been a great partner. We are glad that the Nashville MLK Day Committee is also a partner. We want the whole city to come out to watch.”
Tarver hopes the event will further highlight the contributions of African-Americans in gymnastics and advance and encourage more inclusion in the sport. Last year, when Talladega College launched the nation’s second HBCU women’s gymnastics team and hired Aja Sims-Fletcher as its head coach it was a testament to the growth of the sport within the HBCU ecosystem.
In 2019, Kelsey Hinton replaced former William & Mary University head coach Mary Lewis, who retired after 25 seasons. Hinton had been a team assistant for the previous four seasons. On the Division I level, of the 62 head coaches in women’s gymnastics, Hinton is one of only two African-American head coaches. Umme Salim-Beasley of Rutgers is the other coach.
The Future Looks Bright
According to the NCAA Demographics Database, the percentage of African Americans on Division I rosters has increased from 7.8% in 2012 to 10.4% in 2020.
“So many African-Americans have been left out of the history books used in the school system,” Hinton said in a 2020 ESPN story. “In the schools I attended, I learned about individuals who are not of color. But I didn’t learn about those who paved the way, who invented things we use every day, who fought and struggled to make my life easier.
“This is information I want my daughter to know, and what I will continue to teach in my household. I can’t leave that up to the school system.”
The data shows that the quest for further inclusion is working. Half of the U.S. women’s team was of color in the 2020 Olympics. Organizing this tournament on MLK Day shows the prowess of athletes coached by Black women and Fisk’s whole gymnastics program, which is a testament to the growing power of Black girl magic on the mat.