When Bob Conkling arrived as Illinois State’s women’s gymnastics coach, he wasn’t looking 20 years into the future, or even a week ahead. There was no time for that.
Conkling was the program’s only coach in 2005 and constantly on the go. He had no assistant coach to help train ISU’s existing athletes or recruit new ones.
“I knew that I had some work to do,” Conkling said. “You really do need at least a minimum of two coaches with four different events. I knew that had to happen soon.”
Overnight would have been nice. It didn’t come that quickly. Yet, progress was made and ultimately, help arrived.
“We worked really hard with the administration to start bumping up the program and trying to get assistant coaches,” Conkling said. “Now we have two full-time, paid assistant coaches. I really feel like these last four or five years that we’ve had that … that is when we’ve really increased and done a lot better.”
Megan Harrington just completed her sixth year as a full-time assistant and Kendra Combs her second. They helped Conkling hit the finish line of his 20-year Redbird tenure in style.
He announced his retirement after a season in which ISU won its second Midwest Independent Conference championship in three years and third overall under Conkling. He was named the league’s Coach of the Year for the third time.
He leaves the program better than he found it.
“It was a good year for me to retire,” he said. “I turned 65 this year. There were just a lot of things that fell in place. It was my 20th year, which is really good retirement wise with ISU. I just felt like, ‘Leave on a high note.’”
A Rockford native, Conkling racked up more than 100 wins and had 33 gymnasts qualify for the NCAA Regionals. He saw 44 of his athletes win conference individual event or all-around titles, with six named MIC Gymnast of the Year. The Redbirds won MIC team championships in 2012, 2023 and this year.
Conkling competed in trampoline, tumbling and as a diver as a youth and in high school. He began coaching gymnastics while in college at Indiana Wesleyan and was program director at the Gymnastics Academy of Rockford before coming to Illinois State.
He said his time with the Redbirds has gone quickly.
“I thoroughly enjoyed every single year at ISU and working with the gymnastics team,” Conkling said. “Each group brought something different and special. The season starts in January and finishes in April and those few months are the fastest months of the year. It just flies by. Every year it seems to go a little quicker.”
Changing landscape
Conkling has seen a lot of changes in college athletics, most notably the transfer portal and athletes being paid for their Name, Image and Likeness (NIL).
He said he has relied on Cindy Harris, ISU’s executive associate athletic director for compliance and student services, to help him navigate it all.
“It’s been difficult honestly with NIL and the other stuff,” Conkling said. “It was a lot. It was a learning curve for me obviously. It’s kind of gone back and forth with what the rules are and it changes weekly it seems like.
“I kind of just lean on other people who know what they’re doing because it changes constantly. With Cindy Harris being my boss, it’s made my job a lot easier because she gets that information pretty quickly.”
Portal, NIL activity
Conkling said the gymnastics program has had limited participation in the transfer portal.
When MIC member Lindenwood dropped its gymnastics program, ISU picked up two of its athletes from the portal. The Redbirds had a gymnast enter the portal for her fifth year and landed at Temple. This year, for the first time, a Redbird underclassman entered the portal. She was picked up by Arizona State.
“It’s just now starting to hit a little bit more with the portal that we just didn’t have to deal with before,” Conkling said.
NIL deals have been more prevalent at bigger schools, Conkling said, with some gymnasts making huge money. LSU’s Olivia “Livvy” Dunne earned an estimated $4.1 million in NIL deals.
Conkling said the Redbird coaching staff has not had to deal with NIL much in recruiting, but added, “I can see it coming that we’re going to have to, especially to compete with the big schools because they are offering it.”
“Probably one of the biggest benefits for anybody in college athletics is NILs now,” Conkling said. “Unfortunately, I feel like the power four schools, especially the gymnastics programs, they’re going to just get bigger and better and stronger and it’s going to be harder for the mid majors in the future.”
Cream of the crop
Among the top ISU gymnasts in Conkling’s era is Sami King Geringer, a 2015 graduate who was inducted into Illinois State’s Percy Family Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024.
Conkling listed Gabi Cooke (2020 graduate), Angelica Labat (2024) and current senior Jaye Mack as other elite performers in his tenure. Labat and Mack are the only Redbird gymnasts to advance to the NCAA Championship, a feat Conkling called “extremely difficult.”
“There are many more conference all-around champions,” he said. “But those three for sure are probably future Hall of Famers here.”
What’s next?
Conkling officially retires June 30. His final gymnastics camp at ISU is in June and he will be available as needed to help search for his successor.
After that?
“I'll probably still coach here and there. I’ll probably do some camps and some clinics,” Conkling said. “But I really kind of want to take a break for at least a few months. It will probably drive me crazy.
“I’ll miss coaching. I still love to be in the gym. I have a feeling that’s where my part-time work is going to take me is coaching.”
