Army West Point Athletics
MISSION FIRST: An Icon In His Field
December 20, 2016 | General, Men's Gymnastics
Doug Van Everen just put the finishing touches on his 26th season as Army's gymnastics head coach, capped by a second straight ECAC Championship and the school's first Nissen-Emery Award winner.
The senior member of Army's intercollegiate coaching staff, the affable Van Everen looks back over the years and laughs when he starts explaining how he got into coaching.
The hands of fate were set in motion 30 years ago following a stellar gymnastics career at Cal State Fullerton where he helped his school earn a berth to the 1985 NCAA Tournament before picking up his degree in Physical Education in 1987.
Following the conclusion of his collegiate career, Van Everen was offered a position overseeing a recreation gymnastics school program.
"I really did not intend to be a coach and I was not looking in that direction at all," he says. "Then one thing led to another and I went basically from being a poor college kid doing part-time jobs to my first real job."
That job opened doors that a young 22-year-old Van Everen could not have imagined as he would go on to become one of the most respected coaches and administrators in college gymnastics.
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Van Everen has mentored several NCAA All-Americans, two USA Gymnastics collegiate National Champions and 15 ECAC champions who have combined for 29 titles at Army. He has written legislation as President of the College Gymnastics Association and as Chairman of the NCAA Rules Committee and served as a member of the USA Board of Directors just to name a few of his accomplishments in his more than three decades of service.
The Army mentor took a leap of faith in 1987 when the head coaching position at San Jose State University opened. He did not have any collegiate coaching experience, but felt he had nothing to lose by throwing his name into the ring.
Despite his youth, he was offered the head position and spent three years coaching and teaching before there was an announcement that the U.S. Military Academy was looking for a gymnastics coach.
"When the job at West Point opened, I really didn't know where it was," explains an embarrassed Van Everen who grew up in Colorado and went to school in California. "I certainly didn't have any military background to draw upon, so I just threw my name in as I had nothing to lose."
Once again this young coach was impressive in his interview, augmented by a notable showing of eight wins in his third season at San Jose State. All of that resulted in a job offer and decision time for the Van Everens.
My wife and I ultimately decided to move east. Their young son Kirk, who was then about six-months-old, would later go on to graduate from West Point in 2011. Kirk and his younger brother Connor would make West Point their home.
"It was different from working at San Jose as there was a lot more structure at West Point, but the athletes were the same."
It didn't take long for Van Everen to put West Point on the map after taking over the program in 1990-91. There was instant success as he guided the Black Knights to third-place honors at the Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (EIGL) Championships. It marked Army's best finish since 1986.
His reputation as a tireless recruiter and coach drew the praise of his peers who voted him the 1993 East Regional Coach of the Year, for he was not only a talented coach but he also had organizational creativity. He would go on to earn several coaching honors, to include four regional citations along with ECAC Coach of the Year in 2015. He shared the title again in 2016 after leading the Black Knights to back-to-back conference titles.
One of Van Everen's first innovations was the West Point Open which celebrated its 25th season this past winter. He introduced it in 1992 as a tune-up for the Winter Cup. From the onset, it was lauded as one of the elite gymnastics competitions in a field that included members of the U.S. National Team, NCAA All-Americans and champions, along with Eastern League champions.
With over 800 collegiate and club gymnasts participating in Christl Arena for the West Point Open, Van Everen knew how to impress the crowd as he brought in former Olympians, such as John Roethlisberger, Tim Daggett and Blaine Wilson, to demonstrate their skills in various events. Their free-flowing style brought the crowd to its feet as they flew effortlessly through the air with clutch performances to land safely on each turn.
The West Point Open would prove to be the start of the efforts that Van Everen would exhort in developing the program's support systems over the years.
"One of the things I realized was the need to involve the alumni more," Van Everen says. "There was not much alumni involvement. I felt that we had limited resources and I didn't want to be a burden on the department."
The only full-time coach in the program when he accepted the Army job, Van Everen felt that whatever needed to be done to promote his team would be accomplished through the alumni.
"My goal was to try to be self-sufficient," comments Van Everen. "In that regard, we have a good relationship with our alumni. The West Point Open has given us that kind of exposure and is an asset with recruiting.
"We also started the West Point Gymnastics Club to provide an opportunity for the community to participate in the sport and that also helped build a support network. It provided an opportunity to partially fund an assistant coach position, again making it less of a burden to provide a staff."
Another groundbreaking endeavor by Van Everen is development of the West Point Gymnastics Endowment. It has been especially rewarding not only monetarily (it has reached nearly two million dollars), but the outreach and communications with the alumni have been the largest benefit. It brings back the rich history of the program as alumni share with today's gymnasts and future recruits.
The construction of the Gross Sports Center in 2005 brought the program into the national forefront due to the generosity of Lou Gross and Herb Litchenberg along with the efforts of former Army Athletic Director Rick Greenspan and former U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. General Dan Christman.
"They hit a home run providing the program with a gym," notes an appreciative Van Everen. "It has made a huge difference and has been awesome for our program. I think the icing on the cake now is just working with Boo Corrigan (Army's present athletic director). He is just a breath of fresh air. We have had different administrations and different philosophies, but his approach fits well with the way I handle things."
From the time that Van Everen took over the gymnastics program at West Point, he has been at the forefront of every project and involved in every aspect of the logistics including overseeing setting up equipment and stations for each of the events.
Van Everen showed his ingenuity when he first put in the bid to host the NCAA Tournament in 2005. Army won the bid and Van Everen did what he has done throughout his life – knocked it out of the park. His efforts and success in 2005 resulted in West Point earning hosting duties in 2010 and again in 2017.
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"I feel that if we are going to host a championship, we have to do it well for all the kids that come, not only the college competitors, but the little ones and it needs to be one of the most special events that they go to all year long. For the parents, the coaches, the athletes and kids, I want it to look like the Olympics – big and special."
Van Everen never regretted his decision to take the Army coaching position.
"West Point is a challenging place to be great in any one thing," Van Everen says. "You look at two of our outstanding athletes I have coached like Steve Marshall and Jesse Glenn.
Steve was focused on making the national team while Jesse, our first Nissen-Emery Award winner, concentrated on academics. It is hard to be great in both so you have to make choices.
"West Point gives you the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, but it is a balancing act and there are a lot of demands."
Van Everen also explains what he tells recruits – "We are going to put them in a position where they can be successful, and we won't let them down. It is going to be hard, but I tell them that right away. It would be easier to make the Olympic Team or the National Team if you went to Stanford.
"You can do it but it is a challenge, and we have done it before. When Steve made the Senior National Team, there were a lot of people who said, 'No way can he do this.'"
Army has had seven Black Knights nominated for the Nissen-Emery Award (the highest accolade in gymnastics first established in 1966) and this spring Van Everen's efforts were validated with the selection of Glenn.
"Everyone recognized his greatness. Here is an athlete competing at the same level as the other greats while he is driving a tank in the summer – there is no comparison."
Former All-American Dustin Greenhill (USMA '03), who spent two tours of deployment to Iraq, lauds Van Everen for guidance of his gymnastics career at Army, capped by All-America honors after he earned runner-up laurels on parallel bars at the NCAAs his senior year.  Â
"As a high school recruit, Doug commendably shared with me both his respect for West Point as well as the realistic expectation that high levels of training at the NCAA Division I level are more challenging as a cadet," Greenhill says. "His honesty resulted in my decision to entrust him with my gymnastics career and, to an extent, my professional development."
Greenhill is in his fifth year as an orthopedic resident and praises Van Everen for what he instilled in him and his teammates at West Point.
"At West Point, Doug made gymnastics a team sport," continues Greenhill. "He taught us to fight and not give up. He taught us to overcome adversity in the gym which directly translated to our subsequent military and professional careers. Doug took our sport seriously, our team seriously, and our competitions seriously. Â
"Yet, after college Doug remained an excellent mentor and friend. He set a national example within the NCAA community by selflessly establishing an endowment fund that will outlast his term as a coach. In concert with the USMA mission, Doug definitely educated, trained, and inspired us and helped prepare us for a career of professional excellence both in the gym and beyond."
Van Everen jokes that he is still having fun, and that as long as there is a lot of gas left in the tank, he will continue to inspire and drive a program that has made him an icon in his field.
Â
The senior member of Army's intercollegiate coaching staff, the affable Van Everen looks back over the years and laughs when he starts explaining how he got into coaching.
The hands of fate were set in motion 30 years ago following a stellar gymnastics career at Cal State Fullerton where he helped his school earn a berth to the 1985 NCAA Tournament before picking up his degree in Physical Education in 1987.
Following the conclusion of his collegiate career, Van Everen was offered a position overseeing a recreation gymnastics school program.
"I really did not intend to be a coach and I was not looking in that direction at all," he says. "Then one thing led to another and I went basically from being a poor college kid doing part-time jobs to my first real job."
That job opened doors that a young 22-year-old Van Everen could not have imagined as he would go on to become one of the most respected coaches and administrators in college gymnastics.
  Â
Van Everen has mentored several NCAA All-Americans, two USA Gymnastics collegiate National Champions and 15 ECAC champions who have combined for 29 titles at Army. He has written legislation as President of the College Gymnastics Association and as Chairman of the NCAA Rules Committee and served as a member of the USA Board of Directors just to name a few of his accomplishments in his more than three decades of service.
The Army mentor took a leap of faith in 1987 when the head coaching position at San Jose State University opened. He did not have any collegiate coaching experience, but felt he had nothing to lose by throwing his name into the ring.
Despite his youth, he was offered the head position and spent three years coaching and teaching before there was an announcement that the U.S. Military Academy was looking for a gymnastics coach.
"When the job at West Point opened, I really didn't know where it was," explains an embarrassed Van Everen who grew up in Colorado and went to school in California. "I certainly didn't have any military background to draw upon, so I just threw my name in as I had nothing to lose."
Once again this young coach was impressive in his interview, augmented by a notable showing of eight wins in his third season at San Jose State. All of that resulted in a job offer and decision time for the Van Everens.
My wife and I ultimately decided to move east. Their young son Kirk, who was then about six-months-old, would later go on to graduate from West Point in 2011. Kirk and his younger brother Connor would make West Point their home.
"It was different from working at San Jose as there was a lot more structure at West Point, but the athletes were the same."
It didn't take long for Van Everen to put West Point on the map after taking over the program in 1990-91. There was instant success as he guided the Black Knights to third-place honors at the Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (EIGL) Championships. It marked Army's best finish since 1986.
His reputation as a tireless recruiter and coach drew the praise of his peers who voted him the 1993 East Regional Coach of the Year, for he was not only a talented coach but he also had organizational creativity. He would go on to earn several coaching honors, to include four regional citations along with ECAC Coach of the Year in 2015. He shared the title again in 2016 after leading the Black Knights to back-to-back conference titles.
One of Van Everen's first innovations was the West Point Open which celebrated its 25th season this past winter. He introduced it in 1992 as a tune-up for the Winter Cup. From the onset, it was lauded as one of the elite gymnastics competitions in a field that included members of the U.S. National Team, NCAA All-Americans and champions, along with Eastern League champions.
With over 800 collegiate and club gymnasts participating in Christl Arena for the West Point Open, Van Everen knew how to impress the crowd as he brought in former Olympians, such as John Roethlisberger, Tim Daggett and Blaine Wilson, to demonstrate their skills in various events. Their free-flowing style brought the crowd to its feet as they flew effortlessly through the air with clutch performances to land safely on each turn.
The West Point Open would prove to be the start of the efforts that Van Everen would exhort in developing the program's support systems over the years.
"One of the things I realized was the need to involve the alumni more," Van Everen says. "There was not much alumni involvement. I felt that we had limited resources and I didn't want to be a burden on the department."
The only full-time coach in the program when he accepted the Army job, Van Everen felt that whatever needed to be done to promote his team would be accomplished through the alumni.
"My goal was to try to be self-sufficient," comments Van Everen. "In that regard, we have a good relationship with our alumni. The West Point Open has given us that kind of exposure and is an asset with recruiting.
"We also started the West Point Gymnastics Club to provide an opportunity for the community to participate in the sport and that also helped build a support network. It provided an opportunity to partially fund an assistant coach position, again making it less of a burden to provide a staff."
Another groundbreaking endeavor by Van Everen is development of the West Point Gymnastics Endowment. It has been especially rewarding not only monetarily (it has reached nearly two million dollars), but the outreach and communications with the alumni have been the largest benefit. It brings back the rich history of the program as alumni share with today's gymnasts and future recruits.
The construction of the Gross Sports Center in 2005 brought the program into the national forefront due to the generosity of Lou Gross and Herb Litchenberg along with the efforts of former Army Athletic Director Rick Greenspan and former U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. General Dan Christman.
"They hit a home run providing the program with a gym," notes an appreciative Van Everen. "It has made a huge difference and has been awesome for our program. I think the icing on the cake now is just working with Boo Corrigan (Army's present athletic director). He is just a breath of fresh air. We have had different administrations and different philosophies, but his approach fits well with the way I handle things."
From the time that Van Everen took over the gymnastics program at West Point, he has been at the forefront of every project and involved in every aspect of the logistics including overseeing setting up equipment and stations for each of the events.
Van Everen showed his ingenuity when he first put in the bid to host the NCAA Tournament in 2005. Army won the bid and Van Everen did what he has done throughout his life – knocked it out of the park. His efforts and success in 2005 resulted in West Point earning hosting duties in 2010 and again in 2017.
Â
"I feel that if we are going to host a championship, we have to do it well for all the kids that come, not only the college competitors, but the little ones and it needs to be one of the most special events that they go to all year long. For the parents, the coaches, the athletes and kids, I want it to look like the Olympics – big and special."
Van Everen never regretted his decision to take the Army coaching position.
"West Point is a challenging place to be great in any one thing," Van Everen says. "You look at two of our outstanding athletes I have coached like Steve Marshall and Jesse Glenn.
Steve was focused on making the national team while Jesse, our first Nissen-Emery Award winner, concentrated on academics. It is hard to be great in both so you have to make choices.
"West Point gives you the opportunity to compete in the Olympics, but it is a balancing act and there are a lot of demands."
Van Everen also explains what he tells recruits – "We are going to put them in a position where they can be successful, and we won't let them down. It is going to be hard, but I tell them that right away. It would be easier to make the Olympic Team or the National Team if you went to Stanford.
"You can do it but it is a challenge, and we have done it before. When Steve made the Senior National Team, there were a lot of people who said, 'No way can he do this.'"
Army has had seven Black Knights nominated for the Nissen-Emery Award (the highest accolade in gymnastics first established in 1966) and this spring Van Everen's efforts were validated with the selection of Glenn.
"Everyone recognized his greatness. Here is an athlete competing at the same level as the other greats while he is driving a tank in the summer – there is no comparison."
Former All-American Dustin Greenhill (USMA '03), who spent two tours of deployment to Iraq, lauds Van Everen for guidance of his gymnastics career at Army, capped by All-America honors after he earned runner-up laurels on parallel bars at the NCAAs his senior year.  Â
"As a high school recruit, Doug commendably shared with me both his respect for West Point as well as the realistic expectation that high levels of training at the NCAA Division I level are more challenging as a cadet," Greenhill says. "His honesty resulted in my decision to entrust him with my gymnastics career and, to an extent, my professional development."
Greenhill is in his fifth year as an orthopedic resident and praises Van Everen for what he instilled in him and his teammates at West Point.
"At West Point, Doug made gymnastics a team sport," continues Greenhill. "He taught us to fight and not give up. He taught us to overcome adversity in the gym which directly translated to our subsequent military and professional careers. Doug took our sport seriously, our team seriously, and our competitions seriously. Â
"Yet, after college Doug remained an excellent mentor and friend. He set a national example within the NCAA community by selflessly establishing an endowment fund that will outlast his term as a coach. In concert with the USMA mission, Doug definitely educated, trained, and inspired us and helped prepare us for a career of professional excellence both in the gym and beyond."
Van Everen jokes that he is still having fun, and that as long as there is a lot of gas left in the tank, he will continue to inspire and drive a program that has made him an icon in his field.
Â
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