'A cool honor'

SUU coach Bauman named Region Coach of the Year

By DAVID DeMILLE
UNIVERSITY JOURNAL

After leading his team to the best record in school history, Scott Bauman was named NCAA North Central Region Coach of the Year Saturday by the region’s coaches.
The decision, made at the regional meet, gave Bauman and SUU recognition for a 12-6 record, including wins against top-25 teams BYU, Iowa, Boise State and Utah State. SUU just missed making the regional meet as a team, but Bauman said the other coaches told him at the meet that they knew SUU had performed well during the season.
“It’s a cool honor,” Bauman said. “I really do think it’s a great honor to be recognized by the other coaches. Some of them came up to me at the regional and told me that they knew what I’d been doing and knew we had a good year. It’s really great to get that respect.”
The 12 wins tied a school record, and the team had the best season, percentage wise, in SUU history. The Thunderbirds also finished with a school-record regional qualifying score of 195.55, but finished seventh in the region, missing out on the regional meet, where the top six teams compete.
Today, less than a week after the SUU gymnastics season ended, Bauman and the rest of his squad will be back at work, working out and preparing for the next season.
Bauman’s strength to those he coaches is his demeanor and his concern for his athletes as people. The T-Birds have won five academic national championships during Bauman’s tenure, and his gymnasts point to his personality as a major reason for his effectiveness.
“He’s just a good coach,” freshman Rachel Tanner said. “He really cares about his athletes. He wants you not just to be a good athlete, but a better person. That’s how a coach should be.”
Bauman, now SUU’s coach for 12 seasons, deflected much of the credit for the team’s success. He said SUU owes its success to the work of the gymnasts, assistant coaches Adam AhQuin and Amber Trapp, trainers Kyle Wilson and Nathan Slaughter, and physician Robert Nakken.
“I know this sounds too modest, but the girls and Adam and Amber deserve all the credit,” Bauman said. “If they didn’t do their job we wouldn’t do anything. It’s kind of weird as a coach to get an award for something I really didn’t have much to do with. I had great athletes, great assistants and they’re the ones who deserve all the credit for their accomplishments.”
AhQuin said Bauman is responsible for all of SUU’s success, and that anything he and Trapp do well was taught to them by the head coach.
“He’s taught me everything I know,” AhQuin said. “So it isn’t true that Amber and I deserve all the credit. If anything, when I’m coaching I’m just using information he gave me.
“What I think he’s really good at is understanding,” AhQuin added. “He respects our opinions. A good leader takes every bit of information respectfully, processes it and uses what’s good. He hasn’t forgotten the importance of good ideas and new ideas. He’s one of the best coaches out there.”
This isn’t the first time Bauman has been awarded for his efforts; he was also named the region’s coach of the year in 1993 when SUU competed in the NCAA Midwest Region.
Now in a tougher region, Bauman has led SUU to new heights — SUU finished the year ranked No. 29 in the nation — and Trapp said his ability to recruit has helped SUU contend with the top