For 47½ years, Nancy Kirshman has given her heart and soul to Columbus East gymnastics.
Monday, the state’s longest tenured coach decided to call it a career.
“It’s been enjoyable,” Kirshman said. “I made it a priority for the last 48 years of my life. It was the right decision for me to make at the time, and it was the right decision for the girls. That’s what prompted it.”
Kirshman came to the decision following Saturday’s home tri-meet loss to Bloomington North and Roncalli. She met with East athletics director Pete Huse and principal Mark Newell on Monday and informed them that she was retiring immediately.
Kirshman had planned to retire a couple times over the past several years, but ended up coming back when a suitable successor could not be found.
“I had planned at the end of this year, I was going to retire, that this was going to be it,” Kirshman said. “There were just some personal things, I did it earlier. The past four years, I’ve been trying to get that done and find people to take over. That’s not the easiest to do in gymnastics. There aren’t a lot of coaches out there.”
Assistant coaches Katie Menifee and Melissa Dishinger will act as co-coaches through end of the season. Menifee is in her second year with the program, and Dishinger, a former East gymnast, is in her first year.
“We’ll meet with them at the end of the year, and we’ll evaluate everything and see what we want to do,” Huse said.
The Olympians have been hit hard this season by injuries to a couple of their top gymnasts. They are scheduled to compete in the Bloomington South Invitational on Saturday.
Kirshman is the only gymnastics coach in school history at East. She led the Olympians to 15 sectional and 13 regional title, along with a state championship in 1990 and state runner-up finish in 1991.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Kirshman said. “We’ve had a lot of success and a lot of trying times and injuries here and there. I’ve enjoyed it. It’s a little emotional because I’ve done it for so long. My husband has put up with it for 48 years, too. But there’s other parts of life, there’s a lot of things that we’ve missed out on and we’ll be able to do those things now.”
