CARLY DOCKENDORF

Assistant Coach

4th Year/5th Overall

Carly Dockendorf is entering her third season as an assistant coach of the Utah gymnastics program and her fifth overall as a member of the staff in 2021-22. Prior to entering her role as an assistant, Dockendorf served as the team's director of recruiting and player development, as well as Utah's volunteer coach and choreographer.

Dockendorf has taken Utah's beam team to new heights in her two years as the primary event coach, leading the lineup to back-to-back top-3 finishes in the nation. The Utes finished No. 2 in the nation on beam in 2020 and backed up the performance with a No. 3 ranking in 2021 at the end of the regular season. Dockendorf guided her lineup to a 49.700 on beam in the NCAA Finals, marking the highest beam score at NCAAs in program history after besting the 49.450 mark set in 2002.

The team success brought individual success once again for Dockendorf's gymnasts where she coached Maile O'Keefe to an NCAA Regional balance beam title, as well as guiding O'Keefe, Abby Paulson and Cristal Isa to regular season All-American honors on beam for the second-straight year. All three Red Rocks have earned first-team All-Pac-12 honors in consecutive seasons as well. O'Keefe and Paulson became the first pair of teammates at Utah to both have recorded 10.0s on the event after Paulson earned the perfect mark at UCLA in 2020 and O'Keefe did so against Washington in 2021.

In her first season as assistant coach, Utah's beam team broke the school beam record that had stood since 1995 when the squad posted a 49.775 against UCLA on the road. The 49.775 was the highest beam score in the NCAA in the 2020 season. Dockendorf's beam athletes scored an event score of 49.600 or higher in four-straight meets and were just one of two teams in the nation to hit the mark at least four times.

While primarily serving as the beam coach, Dockendorf also contributed to the floor choreography and music selections. Sydney Soloski has earned three All-American honors to lead the floor lineup in two years, while Soloski's other All-America award came in 2018 when Dockendorf was aiding the floor efforts as the volunteer assistant coach. She also helped see O'Keefe earn her first All-American honor on floor this past season.

Dockendorf has helped lead Utah gymnastics to back-to-back Pac-12 Regular Season Championships, the 2021 Pac-12 Championship, a NCAA Regional title and a third-place finish at the NCAA Championships.

The Utes rattled off their second-consecutive season going undefeated against Pac-12 opponents with a 7-0 record in the regular season and first place finish at the conference championships. Dockendorf took part in coaching O'Keefe in a breakout season to earn the Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year - the program's first since 2015. Along with O'Keefe, she aided Alexia Burch in earning Utah's second-consecutive Pac-12 Specialist of the Year honor.

Dockendorf saw her first season as assistant coach in the shortened 2020 season end with an overall record of 11-0 for the first undefeated regular season since 1993 and second all-time. Utah also claimed the inaugural Pac-12 Regular Season Championship. The season's success was noted by coaches around the nation, leading Dockendorf to be named a Region 2 Assistant Coach of the Year.

In her first year at Utah in 2018, Dockendorf's work as a choreographer and volunteer coach was especially beneficial on floor, where the Utes picked up four All-America awards and two postseason apparatus titles. MyKayla Skinner and Sydney Soloski won All-America honors on floor at the NCAA Championships and Skinner and MaKenna Merrell-Giles were regular season All-Americans. Skinner won the 2018 Pac-12 and NCAA Regional floor titles, tying with Merrell-Giles for the regional floor title.

Prior to becoming an assistant coach, Dockendorf became Utah's first director of recruiting and player development. In that full-time role, she was involved in all aspects of recruiting, including strategy, database management, on-campus official and unofficial visits. She also served as a liaison between the Utah gymnasts and campus departments, tracked academic progress reports, study table hours and mentor meetings, and assisted the incoming freshmen in their transition to the collegiate environment.

Before joining the Utah gymnastics staff, Dockendorf spent nine years coaching at Seattle Pacific—six as an assistant gymnastics coach (2009, 2013-17) and three as an assistant track and field coach (2010-12). During her time on the SPU gymnastics staff, Dockendorf was the head vault and floor coach, floor choreographer, recruiting coordinator and strength and conditioning coach.

During her three-year break from gymnastics in 2010-12, Dockendorf served as SPU's assistant track and field coach while also training for a berth on the Canadian Olympic team in the pole vault. While she narrowly missed making the team, she broke the Canadian indoor pole vault record by clearing 14 feet, 6 inches (4.42 meters) and competed for Canada at the Commonwealth Games in India, where she won a bronze medal. In 2011, she won the pole vault title at the Canadian National Track and Field Championships and set the British Columbia Provincial record, jumping 4.45 meters.

Dockendorf returned to the SPU gymnastics staff in 2013 and would leave with three USA Gymnastics national champions on floor and two on vault (the USAG Championships are for Division II and Ivy League schools). She coached 21 USAG All-Americans (11 on vault and 10 on floor). The Falcons set a number of school records while Dockendorf was there. They placed third at the USAG National Championships from 2014-16 and three individuals advanced to the Division I NCAA Championships, including one on vault and two on floor.

As an undergraduate at Washington, Dockendorf won the 2003 Pac-12 uneven bar title, scoring a 10.0, and was a second-team All-American that season. She set a school record with six 10.0 scores in her career, including five on floor. She won 48 total event titles from 2002-05, including a school-record 24 titles on floor, and was a three-time regional champion.

A two-time All-Pac-10 selection, Dockendorf was Washington's MVP in 2003 and 2005. She won the team's Most Inspirational award in 2002 and 2004 and served as the Huskies' captain in 2004 and 2005.

Dockendorf took up pole vaulting as a sophomore, earning All-America honors with her sixth-place finish at the 2005 NCAA Championships. She placed 11th at the 2006 NCAA Track & Field Championships.

Dockendorf earned a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in communications from Washington in 2006, where she was a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection. She coached one year of gymnastics at Shorecrest High School and three years of track and field and soccer at the Seattle Academy of the Arts and Science before accepting the post at SPU.

Dockendorf became USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Certified in 2016 and earned a certificate from the NCAA Women's Coaching Academy in Denver that same year.

The Port Moody, B.C., native is married to Henry Ruggiero, who also works in the Utah athletics department as its executive director for Olympic sports performance. They have two daughters: Crosby and Hayden.