Don Houlton - Gymnastics Coach - Central Michigan University Athletics

Don Houlton

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
hoult1d@cmich.edu

Veteran gymnastics coach and gym administrator Don Houlton is in his third year as an assistant coach with the Central Michigan gymnastics program.

The 2021 season saw the program finish 25th in the nation at the end of the regular season and earn its 12-straight NCAA Regional Championship berth. A pair of individuals, Hannah DeMers, bars & Morgan Tong, beam, earned a trip to the NCAA National Championships and both won Mid-American Conference individual titles.

DeMers and Katie Kowalski were named to the All-MAC First Team, while junior Sierra DeMarinis earned a spot on the second team. DeMers had the MAC's top national qualifying score (NQS) on bars (9.894), floor (9.913) and in the all-around (39.350). She also had the second-best NQS on vault (9.850). Kowalski, a freshman from Freeland, Mich., was recognized because she had the MAC's top mark on vault (9.869), while DeMarinis, a junior from Montgomery, Mass., garnered recognition after recording the conference's second-best NQS on floor (9.906) and third-best mark in the all-around (39.213).

CMU finished the season with a 12-9 overall record, going 6-3 in MAC regular season action.

The program posted a 3.718 team grade point average, the highest mark in program history, over the past year and sixteen members of the team were recognized as WCGA Scholastic All-Americans. Nine Central Michigan gymnasts were named to the Academic All-MAC team.

In 2020, Houlton helped lead the Chippewas to a 5-5 dual-meet record including a 3-2 mark in a shortened Mid-American Conference season. He helped Denelle Pedrick earn MAC Gymnast of the Year honors, making her the first two-time winner in CMU history. Pedrick was also named MAC Senior Gymnast of the Year and earned first team All-MAC honors on vault, bars, floor and in the all-around.

In 2020, Morgan Tong also received first team All-MAC honors on beam while Hannah DeMers earned second team recognition on vault and bars.

The Chippewas displayed consistent improvement throughout the season, recording a season-best 196.075 score in a victory over rival Western Michigan.

Among the other highlights was a 49.300 score on the floor exercise in that win over the Broncos, and a 49.450 score on uneven parallel bars in a quad meet at New Hampshire. That mark was just one-10^th off the program bars record.

The Chippewas finished the shortened season with a 195.173 average, ranking first among MAC programs and 38^th nationally.

Houlton served from 2011-19 as an assistant coach with IGI Gymnastics in Westmont, Ill., and from 2010-12 he was the gymnastics program director at Lake Owen Camp in Cable, Wis.

He served as a college assistant coach from 2008-11, first at Yale, then at California and finally at Arkansas. He was the owner/head coach of Nebraska Gold Gymnastics in Omaha from 1993-2008 and before that served as the gym’s director/head coach for six years.

Houlton has served in several administrative capacities with USA Gymnastics and holds many certifications from the organization. He spent 11 years each on the National Junior Olympic program committee and as the organization’s Region 4 training camp coordinator. He served on the Nebraska State Board of USA Gymnastics from 1990-97, the final three years of which he was the board chairman.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Nebraska-Omaha.