Women's Gymnastics
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Phone:
- 230-0636
- 2025 WCGA West Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year
- 2011 NACGC West Region Co-Coach of the Year
- 2003 NACGC West Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year
- 1999 NACGC West Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year
- Two-time All-American at UCLA
- Four-year member of the U.S. Senior National Team
- 1987 World Championship team alternate
- 1987 Pac-10 Champion – Still Rings
- Two-year member of the U.S. Junior National Team
Associate head coach Michael Chaplin will enter his 28th season coaching at Oregon State in 2025.
After spending his first seven seasons at OSU as an assistant coach, Chaplin was elevated to associate head coach prior to the 2005 season. Chaplin serves as OSU’s bars and tumbling coach and is the Beavers’ recruiting coordinator.
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OSU’s vaulters have had a wealth of success since his arrival. Chaplin coached the Beavers to some of their best-ever finishes on vault at the 2001 and 2007 NCAA Championships. On both occasions two Beavers earned first team All-America honors on the event. In 2001, Katrina Severin’s second-place finish on vault is the best ever by an Oregon State gymnast, while Lara Degenhardt’s sixth place finish is OSU’s fifth best performance. In 2007, Mandi Rodriguez vaulted to a fifth place finish while Tasha Smith finished 11th. Those performances marked only the second and third times OSU has had two first team All-American vaulters in the same season.
In 2023, the Beavs earned their second-straight Pac-12 Regular Season Title, advanced to the postseason for the 48th-straight season, while breaking through to the NCAA Regional Finals for the first time since 2019. OSU broke the school beam record, tied the second-highest floor score in program history and posted then season-bests on all four events en route to a program record 198.075 in a win at Stanford. Chaplin's bars group finished the season rank at No. 21 in the event. With routines coming primarily for freshman and sophomores the bars squad posted back-to-back scores of 49.300 or higher for the first time since the 2019 season. Oregon State went over the 49.500 mark on bars twice, with the 49.550 against Utah ranked as the third-best total in program history and highest score since 2003, while the 49.500 at the Denver Regional Finals tied for the fifth-highest mark. The Beavs finished the season ranked No. 12 overall going 49.000 or higher in 52 of 56 rotations on the year. The Beavs completed their second-straight perfect season in Gill in 2023, going 6-0-1 on their home floor, averaging 5,659 fans per home meet, including breaking the gymnastics attendance record with 8,859 of Beaver Nation's best watching the GymBeavs take down No. 4 Utah on Senior Day. The Beavs finished the regular season with their highest NQS in program history with a 197.650.Â
In 2022, Oregon State captured their first ever Pac-12 Regular Season Championship. Chaplin's bars group finished 25th in the country with a season-high 49.275 against Arizona State. Chaplin assisted Jade Carey in finishing the regular season with the top average in the country on bars, averaging a 9.955, while tying for second with a NQS of 9.955. Assisting with floor, the group finished the regular season at No. 14 in the country. Carey was once again in the top five for both average and NQS scores in the event.Â
2021 brought a historic season for the country. Due to the previous season's cancelation and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the gymnasts were unable to train year long as they normally do. The 2021 season closed with Madi Dagen at the NCAA Championships as an individual qualifier on vault. She finished 15th overall after scoring a 9.875. He also coached Lacy Dagen (vault) and Kaitlyn Yanish (floor), as well as M. Dagen (vault, beam) to all-conference nods in their respective events. Chaplin's teams of focus - the vault and floor team - finished the season ranked 10th and 14th, respectively, in the nation.
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In 2020, Chaplin filled the role of acting head coach in eight out of 10 meets while his wife and head coach Tanya Chaplin took a leave of absence to attend to health-related issues. Michael led the Beavers to a final ranking of No. 15 before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. OSU’s floor team, one of his areas of focus, finished the year ranked No. 11 in the country.Â
The 2019 season brought and unprecedented finish to the season since Chaplin arrived on campus, with the Beavers earning a sixth place finish at NCAA Championships. OSU’s floor exercise lineup finished the season ranked 10th in the nation and the vault was 15th. OSU gymnasts Mary Jacobsen (vault) and Isis Lowery (floor) each earned second team All-America honors while sophomore Kaitlyn Yanish secured Regular Season All-American accolades for the second straight season.
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In 2017, a couple of Chaplin’s charges earned All-America honors. Dani Dessaints earned Regular Season All-America accolades on the vault while Kaytianna McMillan was honored on the floor exercise. McMillan went on to earn All-America status on the floor at NCAA Championships.
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Chaplin’s collection of vaulters made vast improvements in 2013 making the apparatus one of the team’s top events ranking 10th in the nation. The improvement on the vault helped the Beavers to set a school-record 197.850 en route to winning the Pac-12 Championships for the second time in three years. Kelsi Blalock earned All-Pac-12 First Team and was an NACGC Regular Season All-American on vault. In addition, Makayla Stambaugh was a first team all-conference selection on vault and floor, Melanie Jones earned first team on floor and Hailey Gaspar earned second team honors on vault. Chaplin’s vault and floor expertise aided in the Beavers sending a program-record three individuals to the NCAA Championships when Brittany Harris and Chelsea Tang qualified as individual all-arounders and Stambaugh qualified on the floor.
In 2012, Chaplin developed what was thought to be a makeshift vault lineup into a solid rotation for Oregon State. The Beavers’ improvement on the vault helped Leslie Mak earn Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year honors for the second straight season, becoming the first gymnast in conference history to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons. In addition, Blalock earned all-conference acclaim on the vault for the second time and Mak, Jones and Stambaugh were first team all-conference selections in the all-around. His coaching on the floor exercise helped Jones and Stambaugh to earn All-America honors and Jones finished fourth overall in Individual Event Finals.
Chaplin helped lead the Beavers to a second straight eighth place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2011 as well as NCAA Regional and Pac-10 Conference titles. One of Chaplin’s greatest projects came in 2011 when he added Mak to the vault lineup after she had stopped working the event four years prior. Mak went on to win a Pac-10 title in the all-around and was named Pac-10 Gymnast of the Year. His leadership also helped Stambaugh earn All-America First Team honors on the floor exercise for the second year in a row. Stambaugh ended the Individual Event Finals with an eighth place finish.
In 2010, Rodriguez reached event finals for the third time in her career finishing third overall – the second-best vault finish in OSU history – in earning the ninth All-America honor under Chaplin’s instruction. On the floor exercise, Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, Stambaugh, also reached event finals finishing 13th. In addition, Becky Colvin earned All-Pac-10 honors on the vault.
In 2009, Rodriguez and Jami Lanz earned the seventh and eighth All-American honors under his supervision. Rodriguez, who advanced to event finals for the second time in her career, finished seventh overall. In addition, Rodriguez and Smith also became the third and fourth gymnasts to earn All-America honors on the floor exercise since his arrival at OSU. Rodriguez also became the fourth gymnast to win the Pac-10 title on vault and fifth to win on floor under his tutelage.
Chaplin was named the West Region Co-Assistant Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003, sharing his most recent honor with former Oregon State assistant Dick Foxal. In 1999, the Beaver vaulters tied the school record with a 49.475 at the Pacific-10 Championships and ranked 10th in the nation as a team. Three of his vaulters scored a 9.925 or better that year, and the Pac-10 and NCAA Region 1 vault champions came from OSU.
The 2003 vault team was ranked among the nation’s best. Six vaulters competed a 10.0-valued vault, and the Beavers scored a 49.00 or better nine times after doing so just twice in 2002.
Chaplin arrived at OSU after spending three years as an assistant coach at Seattle Pacific, where he primarily coached bars and vault. During his three years, SPU had two national champions on bars and one on vault. In 1997, SPU won the USAG Division II national championship, making Chaplin part of a second national championship team.
Chaplin earned his first national championship as a student-athlete at UCLA. A two-time All-American and four-year letterman, he was a member of UCLA’s 1987 national championship team. In 1989, he was the Pac-10 champion on the still rings and finished fifth in the nation on the event. During his collegiate career, Chaplin also made the U.S. Senior National team and represented the United States in meets in England, Brazil, China and against the former Soviet Union. Chaplin was an alternate on the 1987 World Championship team and he place 13th in the all-around at the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials.
In 1990, Chaplin began coaching men’s and women’s gymnastics at the club level. In 1992, he served as gymnastics program director and head men’s coach at the Tacoma/Pierce County YMCA. During his three years at the YMCA, he had several athletes qualify for the U.S. Junior National championships.
In high school, Chaplin trained at Gold Cup gymnastics in his hometown of Albuquerque, N.M., and was a member of the U.S. Junior National team his junior and senior years.
Chaplin, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., graduated from UCLA in 1990 with a degree in political science. His wife, Tanya, also in her 26th season as head coach at OSU. The Chaplin’s have one daughter, Alana.Â
