From perfect 10s and All-Academic selections to acting and coaching — there doesn’t seem to be much that ASU’s assistant coach Kari Ward can’t do.
Ward competed for the Sun Devils from 2002-2005, during which she netted two perfect 10s, was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection and served as team captain her senior year.
“It’s a dream job of mine to coach collegiate gymnastics,” Ward says of her position, which she has held since the summer of 2009. “I just try and take each day as a learning experience, try and take in [ASU coach John Spini’s] experience, and just help this team get better every day.”
Ward coaches the balance beam and the choreography aspect of floor exercise. She is a coach that identifies well with her athletes.
“Kari’s a great person,” sophomore Tina Salavec said. “She’s like a best friend, kind of. She’s been through what we’ve been through, she was here, she knows what it’s like to be a gymnast and do school and all that. She can just relate and is really understanding and has our best interests in mind all the time.”
This ability to relate to her gymnasts has made her popular on a team that has two older male coaches.
“I feel like she understands what we’re going through,” senior Beaté Jones said. “It’s not that she just knows from the coaching perspective, she knows from the gymnastics perspective, also.”
While Ward’s coaching record is nowhere near as extensive as Spini’s, who is in his 31st year with ASU, she has plenty of experience as a collegiate gymnast. While at ASU, Ward registered a perfect 10 on floor and the beam in 2004.
“It just makes the job more important to me,” Ward said of her Sun Devil career, “as opposed to somebody who didn’t graduate from here.”
During her time at ASU, Ward was a model student as well as a standout gymnast. This work ethic in the classroom is something she tries to pass on to her athletes as a coach.
“I think a lot of them listen to me a little more because I’ve been there,” Ward said. “You just kind of got to remind them that [gymnastics] eventually ends, so what you do in school matters going forward.”
The 28-year-old also landed a role in the 2006 gymnastics movie “Stick It” shortly after her athletic career ended at ASU.
“I got an e-mail from Disney saying they wanted me to come try out for the movie,” Ward said. “Then I got a callback, and I ended up being in LA filming for four months. It was so much fun, but it was a lot of hard work.”
It’s easy to see how the outgoing Ward, who had no previous acting experience, landed a role in a major Disney film on a whim.
“I love working with Kari. She’s very bubbly and very enthusiastic about what she does,” Jones said.
This enthusiasm carries over to every aspect of her coaching, which she approaches with a loose but extremely dedicated attitude.
“She’s a lot of fun to work with on floor,” Jones said. “I feel like our floor routines are the best floor routines we’ve had since I’ve been here. [With beam], she’s very inventive with the things that we do. She tries anything to get us to stay on the beam and to get us to understand that it’s a team effort on beam.”
The Sun Devil gymnasts pay close attention when Ward is instructing because they consider her not only a coach, but a genuine friend as well.
“I love working with her,” said freshman Samantha Seaman, who was recruited by Ward. “She’s encouraging, and it’s just really easy to be around her.”
Ward looks to continue having an impact on ASU’s gymnastics team for years to come.
“I hope to be with ASU for a really long time and to get us back to the successful program that we deserve to be,” Ward said.
Reach the reporter at kyle.j.newman@asu.edu
