After nine seasons as head coach of the Penn State women’s gymnastics team, Sarah Brown has left to become the first women’s gymnastics head coach at Texas State University. She was introduced as the Bobcats’ inaugural coach on Tuesday afternoon.
Brown will direct a brand-new program at a school that officially joins the new and re-imagined Pac-12 Conference on Wednesday, and is located in a gymnastics hotbed. The TXST team, slated to begin competing in 2028, will be the first NCAA Division I women’s gymnastics program in Texas.
According to Texas State, “The state of Texas has established itself as one of the premier talent pipelines in the country for women’s gymnastics, producing 19 Olympians, 19 Olympic gold medals, and 43 world champions, yet the state has never had a Division I program…Texas is home to more than 100 current NCAA gymnasts, and it trains 25% of the nation’s elite talent.”
Brown, in a TXST press release on Tuesday, said, “I am incredibly honored to be trusted with building the first-ever Division I gymnastics program in the state of Texas. …The energy at Texas State is palpable — from my very first visit, I could feel a campus-wide culture of support that assures me this program will reach the highest of highs. I look forward to meeting the Bobcat family and can’t wait to get started.”
Under Brown in 2026, Penn State earned a berth into NCAA Regionals for the fourth consecutive season and was ranked No. 19, the second-highest finish during Brown’s tenure, bested only by a No. 15 in 2024 — Penn State’s best ranking since 2014. Her sons, Isaiah and Elijah, were both born while she and her husband, Antonio, were at Penn State.
After transferring to Missouri from the University of Utah, Brown was a four-time All-American and the Big 12 Conference Gymnast of the Year in 2009 and 2010.
THE COACHING CAROUSEL
Brown, hired in May 2017 by former athletic director Sandy Barbour, was the second-longest tenured women’s head coach at Penn State, behind women’s soccer coach Erica Dambach, who has been at Penn State since 2007. Dambach has been a head coach at PSU longer than any of her colleagues, male or female. The Top 4 Penn State head coaches with the longest tenure as head coaches were all hired by former athletic director Tim Curley (AD from 1993-2011); all have been uber-successful:
1. Dambach, women’s soccer, 2007
2. Cael Sanderson, wrestling, 2009
3. Jeff Tambroni, men’s lacrosse, 2010
4. Guy Gadowsky, men’s ice hockey, 2011
Ranking No. 5 is John Gondak, head of the PSU men’s and women’s cross-country and track and field programs. He came to Penn State as an assistant in 2006 and has been on the PSU athletics’ staff in one form or another longer than any other head coach. He was promoted from his interim head coach role by Barbour in September 2016. Jeff Kampersal was named women’s ice hockey head coach in 2017.
Sanderson has guided the Nittany Lions to 13 national championships, while Dambach has one national title to her credit and has led PSU to the NCAA tournament in every one of her seasons. Tambroni has twice taken the Nittany Lions to the lacrosse final four. Gadowsky guided Penn State to the Frozen Four in 2025, and Kampersal took the PSU women to the 2026 Frozen Four. Both were Penn State firsts.
Five head coaches on Penn State’s current staff were hired by Barbour (2016-2022): Gondak, Kampersal, Alexandra McIntyre (women’s tennis), Clarisa Crowell (softball) and Katie Schumacher-Cawley (women’s volleyball).
KRAFT-Y HEAD COACHES: 15 OF 24
Wednesday will mark the four-year anniversary of the July 1, 2022, start date for Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft, who came to PSU after stints at Temple and Boston College. With Brown’s departure and the subsequent hiring of her replacement, 15 of the 24 head coaches in Penn State’s athletic program will have been hired since Kraft started.
In his introductory press conference on May 1, 2022, Kraft mentioned four head coaches by name: Sanderson, Gadowsky, football coach James Franklin and men’s basketball coach Micah Shrewsberry.
Franklin was 37-11 under Kraft. But Franklin was fired on Oct. 12, 2025, after Penn State was No. 2 in the preseason and then began the year 3-3, losing Franklin’s final three games.
Shrewsberry was 23-14 in 2022-23, his only season under Kraft, then left for Notre Dame, where he has been 41-56 in three seasons. Kraft hired Mike Rhoades to succeed Shrewsberry. In his three PSU seasons under Kraft, Rhoades has been 44-52 overall, including an 18-42 record in the Big Ten, with a conference mark of 3-17 in 2025-26.
Brown’s successor will be the seventh new head coach at Penn State since Kraft hired Matt Campbell on Dec. 5, 2025, 54 days after firing Franklin. All the while, Kraft has been overseeing the $700 million renovation of Beaver Stadium and the negotiating with and onboarding of adidas as Penn State’s apparel partner, beginning on Wednesday. In the flurry of those 208 days, Kraft hired these head coaches:
• Campbell, football, Dec. 5, 2025
• Rob Dow, men’s soccer, Dec. 11, 2025
• Hannah Prince, field hockey, Jan. 13, 2026
• Tanisha Wright, women’s basketball, March 19, 2026
• Colin McMillan, men’s volleyball, May 5, 2026
• Tony Beck, men’s gymnastics, May 15, 2026
• TBA, women’s gymnastics, tbd
Both Beck and McMillan were longtime assistants at Penn State who were promoted to succeed Penn State coaching icons. McMillan succeeds Mark Pavlik, who retired, and Beck follows Randy Jepsen, whose contract was not renewed.
