Valorie Kondos Field, who has coached the UCLA women’s gymnastics team to seven NCAA championships — including a dramatic win earlier this year — will retire after the 2019 season, she and the school announced on Thursday.
A former ballerina who began her coaching career as an assistant coach and choreographer in 1983 and became head coach in 1991, Kondos Field is among the most successful coaches in NCAA gymnastics history. In addition to the seven national titles, her Bruins teams have won 19 NCAA regional titles and 14 Pac-12 titles. Kondos Field, 59, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, was inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame in the class of 2010.