10 | nebraska men’s Gymnastics | 2013-14
Chuck
Chmelka
Head Coach | Nebraska (1982) | Fifth Season
Honors & Awards
• 2007 CGA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year
• Three-Time National Championship Team Member
• U.S. National Team Member (1981)
• Nebraska School of Gymnastics Program Director
• USAG Junior National Staff
Chuck Chmelka enters his fifth season as
Nebraska’s head coach, prepared to take a step
forward in the Huskers’ third Big Ten campaign.
Nebraska has produced a trio of top-10 NCAA
finishes in his first three years as NU’s head coach.
The Huskers also return an impressive nucleus of
young gymnasts, ready to help Nebraska climb
the ladder among the nation’s top programs.
Chmelka also led a historic change in
Nebraska’s program in 2011-12, as the Huskers
entered their first season in the tradition-rich Big
Ten Conference.
Historic changes are nothing new to Chmelka.
Before the 2010 season, Chmelka replaced
legendary NU coach Francis Allen, a virtual icon
of U.S. men’s gymnastics.
In his first season as head coach, Chmelka
helped the Huskers improve in 2010. Nebraska
returned to the national top 10 by tying for
ninth with a veteran team. In 2011, the Huskers
continued to build by posting another top-10
national finish despite a lineup made up of
primarily first- and second-year gymnasts.
Chmelka has deep ties to the tradition-rich
Nebraska gymnastics program. He served as an
assistant under Allen from 1986 to 2009, and
assisted with three of the Huskers’ eight national
team championships.
Chmelka also competed at Nebraska from
1978 to 1981 and was a member of NU’s first
three national championship teams in 1979,
1980 and 1981.
Since Chmelka joined the staff in 1986, he has
coached Nissen-Emery Award winners Wes Suter
(1986) and Tom Schlesinger (1988) and helped
Nebraska win eight conference crowns. Chmelka
was named the 2007 CGA West Region Assistant
Coach of the Year and was a finalist for the 2009
CGA West Region award.
Since 1982, Chmelka has been the program
director and head coach for the Nebraska School
of Gymnastics (NSG) boys’ team, producing
such athletes as former Nebraska All-Americans
Dusty Jakub, Blake Bukacek, Derek Leiter, Ryan
McEwen, Burkett Powell and Jason Christie.
NSG athletes have competed in the Junior Pan
American Games, Junior Olympic Nationals,
Olympic Festival and have traveled abroad for
various competitions (Junior Pacific Alliance
Championships and USA vs. Canada).
After completing his eligibility at NU, Chmelka
was a volunteer assistant coach while finishing
his bachelor’s degree in community health,
which he earned in 1982. In 1988, Chmelka
added a bachelor’s degree in education.
An Omaha South graduate and product of
Omaha Sokol and the legendary Phil Cahoy
Sr., Chmelka was a high school and collegiate
teammate of Husker Olympians Jim Hartung and
Phil Cahoy Jr.
Chmelka is married to former Husker gymnast
and Lincoln native Kim Grabowski. A four-year
letterwinner, Grabowski helped the Huskers
win the 1983 Big Eight Championship and was
crowned the all-around champion the same year.
The couple has one son, Alex, who is an aspiring
gymnast.
Q&A with Head Coach Chuck Chmelka
What is your coaching philosophy?
“My philosophy is different with each gymnast
actually. In a nut shell, I want to put the best
team and the cleanest team on the floor, doing
the most difficult skills that we can hit. If we hit
all of our routines and we are clean and we get
10th place, but do as good as we can, then I am
fine with that. Now, in order for it to get to that,
that’s where my philosophy is. I have to first get
this team to believe that what we do in practice
corresponds to how we compete.The gymnasts
have to be mentally and physically ready every
day for practice. If we do that, we will get better
in our meets. If you train correctly day in and
day out, working very hard, doing routines,
doing everything correctly, you’ll hit when the
pressure is on because your body just takes over
and does it because you’ve trained it that way.
That’s where we’re going with this team and this
program. So my philosophy is to work harder
than we’ve ever worked before.”
What do you look for in a recruit?
“I look for character of our recruits. We’re
looking for gymnasts with good families and
good character who aren’t going to get into
trouble, who are going to follow the team rules
and do what is asked of them. To be a studentathlete at Nebraska, you do so many different
things besides just sports and school, so you
have to be smart and use your time wisely. I look
for recruits who have good character and can
manage their time well. And, of course, I look
for their gymnastics ability. I look for their talent
level, how clean their body line is, where are they
going to develop, what are they going to develop
into and how good could they be someday. I look
for overall character, my gut feeling about them
and the talent of the gymnasts.”
COACHES & STAFF | 177 ALL-TIME ALL-AMERICA AWARDS
Nebraska Career Records
Assistant Coach Records
Year Record Pct.
1986
7-1
.875
1987
7-1-1
.833
1988
8-1
.889
1989
6-2
.750
1990
9-0-1
.950
1991
5-5
.500
1992
8-1
.889
1993
10-0
1.000
1994
10-3
.769
1995
5-3-1
.611
1996
5-2
.714
1997
5-4
.555
1998
5-4
.555
1999
6-2
.750
2000
2-5
.286
2001 3-3 .500
2002 1-7 .125
2003
2-7
.222
2004
3-5
.375
2005 3-3 .500
2006 6-8 .429
2007 3-9 .250
2008 4-7 .364
2009 4-7 .364
Career 127-90-4 .584
Head Coach
2010 6-5 .545
2011 5-8 .385
2012 5-9 .357
2013 5-8 .385
Career 21-30 .412