After a victorious 2024-2025 season, the Linden-Fenton-Lake Fenton (LFLF) gymnastics team finished strong while under the direction of head coach Nancy Holden; however, at the end of the season, Holden announced that she would be retiring after nine years. It was no surprise to the LFLF gymnasts or parents to hear that assistant coach Dani Wolanin would be stepping up into the head coach position for the 2024-2025 season.
The LFLF team is quite familiar with Wolanin as their coach since most of the team members have been coached by her during their time on the Southern Lakes Parks and Recreation (SLPR) Gym Stars Gymnastics program, as well as during her assistant position for the high school gymnastics team.
Wolanin also has an impressive gymnastics background and can relate to her athletes. As a young gymnast, she competed on SLPR’s Gym Stars team where she was trained by Holden until it was time to transfer into high school gymnastics. She attended Byron High School and competed with her school’s team for four years while also continuing to coach the Gym Stars. Wolanin won several awards throughout her high school career and competed at state finals all four years.
“I did high school gymnastics not too long ago, which is to say that I understand how tough the season can be,” Wolanin said. “I remember the mental and physical toll gymnastics season can take on you and a personal goal for myself is to remember to keep this in mind so I can keep my athletes as happy and healthy as possible.”
After high school, Wolanin attended Saginaw Valley State University where she began her career in fitness and coaching. “Outside of my own personal gymnastics experiences, my degree in Kinesiology and athletic coaching has been a major asset as I navigate further into my coaching career.”
“Dani has a lot of experience as not only a gymnast, but a trainer as well,” senior Molly Dixon said. “She offers very valuable coaching attributes and I’m confident in her ability to to lead us through a successful season.”
On Nov. 9, the squad of nine competed at Judges Cup which is a practice meet for the judges to get a feel of the updated rulebook as well as for the gymnasts to showcase their skills before the first official meet and get live feedback from the judging panel. Wolanin was very impressed with how the team looked after only being in season for a couple weeks.
“After seeing the team in action this past weekend, I am feeling super optimistic about this season,” Wolanin said. “We were only two weeks into the season and already managed to put out some big scores.”
Because five of the nine LFLF girls are seniors, they have high goals for their final season. Some of which include becoming back to back conference champions and qualify for the state championship meet as a team.
“If we can keep our work ethic high and stay focused on our team goal, which is qualifying for the state meet as a team,” Wolanin said, “I feel confident that we will have a very successful season.”
Another personal goal for Wolanin is to give the senior team members a memorable final season.
“With so many seniors on our team, my top goal is to keep things fun,” Wolanin said. “I want to provide as many opportunities as possible for my athletes to do the sport they love so they can sign off from gymnastics with no regrets.”
Catch the LFLF gymnastics team in action on Nov. 23 for their first official meet at Lakeland High. For the full 2024-2025 schedule, visit https://fentontigers.org/main/teamschedule/id/3787506/seasonid/4890741
