Release via Ohio State Athletics

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Gene Smith, Ohio State senior vice president and Wolfe Foundation endowed athletics director, announced women's gymnastics coach Carey Fagan has accepted a promotion within the athletics department.

Fagan leaves her coaching position to become Ohio State Assistant Athletics Director for Sport Administration and Student-Athlete Well-Being.

Smith said Fagan will add a welcomed dynamic to the department in her new role.

"Carey brings a unique perspective to our leadership team with both experience as a student-athlete and a coach at the highest level," Smith said. "This new role will allow her to affect a positive influence on both our coaches and students."

Fagan said it will be difficult to leave coaching but looks forward to this new challenge.

"It is an incredible honor to accept this position at The Ohio State University," Fagan said. "I have had the privilege of coaching hundreds of remarkable student-athletes and have learned many valuable lessons that have helped prepare me for this role.

Although it was a difficult decision to leave coaching, this is truly an opportunity of a lifetime and I am extremely excited and grateful to be a part of Gene's vision for our department. I want to thank Gene Smith and the leadership team for this incredible opportunity and I look forward to continuing to serve the great coaches and student-athletes at this incredible University.

Shaun Richard, Ohio State associate athletics director for sport administration, worked with Fagan as the women's gymnastics sport administrator.

"I want to thank Carey for all she has done for our current and former student-athletes within our gymnastics program," Richard said. "She has built this program into a constant contender in the Big Ten and the NCAA overall. She is leaving the program in great shape for the next leader. I am extremely excited to work alongside Carey in her new role in administration. She will be able to apply the leadership and coaching experience into our decision making process to help us better serve all of our student-athletes and coaches."

Fagan will be assigned sports to oversee, become part of the athletics department leadership team, maintain awareness of team cultures and dynamics to provide guidance, programming and education where needed and act as a mentor for all student-athletes and coaches. 

Over the last 13 years, Fagan guided the Ohio State women's gymnastics program as the head coach after spending two seasons as an assistant with the Buckeyes.

She earned 2012 National and Regional Coach of the Year accolades as well as Big Ten coach of the year honors in both 2007 and 2011 and regional coach of the year in 2009 and 2012.

Fagan produced five of the eight All-Americans in the program's history, and led the Buckeyes to the NCAA National Championships for the first time in 23 years in 2012. 

Fagan came to Ohio State in 2002 to join the OSU coaching staff as an assistant coach. She assumed the head coaching duties following the 2004-05 campaign. She began her coaching career as an undergraduate assistant at Penn State.

A 1994 graduate of Hoover High School in North Canton, Ohio, Fagan graduated from Penn State in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in speech communication and a Bachelor of Arts in media studies and also was a full-scholarship gymnast at Penn State. The Nittany Lions won the NCAA Northeast Regional championship all four years of Fagan's career (1995-98) and also qualified each year to the NCAA national championships.


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