New coaching team excited to get started
MEDFORD GYMNASTICS
Medford’s high school gymnastics program, no doubt, lost a good one when head coach Steve Cain stepped down from the position in March following the Raiders’ fifth straight appearance in WIAA Division 2 state competition.
But the transition to new leadership might be about as seamless as Medford’s gymnastics community could have hoped.
One-time varsity assistant Andrée Brushaber was the new hire by the school district in May and Megan Yanko is the new assistant, replacing Jaylene Lannet who also stepped down at season’s end after two seasons with the team.
Brushaber assisted Cain in the 201617 and 2017-18 seasons just as the high school program started to take off on its recent run of success, fed by athletes who came through the Rainbow Gymnastics program started in the mid-2000s by then-high school coach Lisa Brooks.
Brushaber stepped away from the assistant position in 2018 feeling she needed to focus on her children at the time. But she remained close to the sport, coaching at the Rainbow facility. Yanko, a 2022 graduate of Rib Lake High School and an avid gymnast while growing up in southern Wisconsin, started coaching and working at Rainbow more than two years ago.
They’ve formed a bond they believe can keep the Raiders rolling at the highschool level. They are a duo that Cain was comfortable with handing the program over to after he had invested so much time in, first as an assistant under Brooks for more than 15 years and then the last seven seasons as the head coach.
“I’m really excited,” Brushaber said last week. “I’m not nervous because I have Megan. It had been a thing for Steve, when to go, when to retire. He wanted to spend time with his kids, his grandkids. He had some things that were bothering him physically. He was holding on. Before he even made the decision, he was like ‘I need to talk to you.’ I couldn’t let it go to just anybody. It’s a very dangerous sport and that’s very important. It’s a love of mine and I’ve been an assistant coach before.
“My kids are at an age now where I think I still have more yet to give,” she added. “I was coaching in the summer with some of the high school girls and I was like, ‘I miss this.’” Yanko competed in club gymnastics growing up and was a freshman member of Elkhorn High School’s WIAA Division 2 state-qualifying team in 201819, also qualifying individually for state that year on vault. After that school year, her dad, Paul Yanko, returned home to coach and teach and the family move to Rib Lake left her without a high school program to compete in, but she was able to fill that void by working with Rainbow Gymnastics.
“I’m very excited,” Yanko said. “It was different at first (not competing), but then I started coaching and I almost liked that as much as I did competing. It’s nice to be around it.”
“I knew that the pickings would be limited and I knew that we’d need the right pairing,” Brushaber said. “So when Megan told me she would put her hat in the ring I was like ‘oh my goodness.’ It went from I was nervous about who was going to be the other person to I was excited when she said she would put her hat in the ring. Then I was super excited. I was just nervous about who was going to be that person with me, but once I knew it was going to be Megan I thought this is going to be great.’” Brushaber is an Antigo native who competed at the varsity level for four years for the Red Robins under coach Julie Langseth.
One of the advantages both coaches believe they have in taking over is already-established relationships with many of the team members, most of whom are at the club frequently throughout the year, whether it’s practicing and competing for the club, working out on their own or working as coaches with the younger kids.
“The majority of them will do high school and club gymnastics, which definitely helps because you can lose your skills super quickly if you don’t keep doing them,” Yanko said.
Brushaber added that having a younger coach in Yanko will be a big plus, giving the high schoolers someone they hopefully can easily relate to.
“I got some time off (from high school coaching) and was able to focus on my kids and get through that personal period that I needed to get through,” Brushaber said. “(Rainbow was) like, you want to come coach in the summer? So I started coaching and it was coaching the high schoolers and getting to know them. It was like one foot in the door. I’m just super excited. I’m glad that I know the girls from coaching last summer. I’m excited for the year. Hopefully they’re excited. I know it’s going to be different being the head coach. It’s a year-round thing.”
The first day of practice, Nov. 6, will be here before Brushaber and Yanko know it and the expectation is to keep the Medford-Colby co-op among the area’s elite squads at the high school level.
“We’re very lucky to have Rainbow,” Brushaber said. “It’s a great facility and they have great coaches and the people that manage it down to the board. It’s put together so well. This is running very smoothly. We’re getting girls that are very committed to this sport coming through. We have girls that are so committed, they have friends that say well I’m going to do it too. That’s great.
“I look forward to helping the kids target certain goals,” she added. “I don’t want them getting relaxed but I also don’t want them feeling pressured. I want them to enjoy the sport again and love it. I want them to be excited and feel like this is great. I want them to say to other kids, you should join gymnastics. I hope that if there’s kids out there that aren’t in the club but they really want to join, I hope they feel it’s comfortable enough for them to join. I work with anybody at all skill levels and I know Megan would too.”
Under Cain, the Raiders won four GNC Small Division championships and took second in 2022-23 in their first season in the GNC Large Division, won consecutive WIAA Division 2 sectional championships the past four years and placed as high as fifth in its current fiveyear run of state team berths.
