Oregon acrobatics and tumbling assistant coach Karly Nowak is leaving the program, the team announced on Thursday in an Instagram post. The former All-American will pursue a career path in nursing.

Nowak spent four years at Oregon as an athlete, where her honors included a National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) All-American selection in 2023 and selection as the Athlete of the Week following the Ducks’ win over then-second ranked Azusa Pacific University during that season. Her career also included four selections to the NCATA Academic Honor Roll. 

Following her graduation from the university with a degree in human physiology and the completion of the 2023 season, Nowak returned to Matthew Knight Arena that summer as an assistant coach under Taylor Susnara. Susnara told The Daily Emerald in 2024 that Nowak, “Knows my good qualities [and] the qualities that I could work on as a coach.”

Nowak’s connection with the athletes she coached — many were her former teammates — was consistently cited as one of her key skills. 

“I think that I have a good connection with a lot of them, and I know them really well,” Nowak told The Emerald in 2024, “and I think I know how to get to them and know how to talk to them and what they need at certain times.”

“I’m just so grateful for Karly and Taylor (and) that they’re putting me in the spot that I’ve been in,” Oregon base Bella Swarthout told The Emerald in 2024. “They trust me in certain skills, because it really is just accomplishing such a dream for me.”

Susnara remains under contract with the university, with whom her contract runs through the 2028 season. Assistant coach Jacie Van de Zilver, who joined the program for the 2024 season on a one-year contract that was set to expire on June 30, has not yet been confirmed to return.

This is a breaking story, and may be updated.

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