Rick Suddaby, a three-time NCGA Coach of the Year, completed his 40th year as Ithaca's head gymnastics coach in 2025. One of the Bombers' longest tenured coaches, he was inducted into Ithaca's Hall of Fame in September of 2015.
Since becoming the head coach of Ithaca's gymnastics program in 1986, the Bombers have made 32Â trips to the National College Gymnastics Association (NCGA) championship meet in the meet's 36-year history. Under Suddaby, Ithaca has recorded 11 top-four finishes at the NCGA meet, which includes an NCGA Team Championship during the 1998 season. He has also guided the program to 12Â ECAC titles and 24 top-three finishes at the ECAC Championships overall.Â
Suddaby was named the NCGA East Regional Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons in March of 2020. He would be named East Region Coach of the Year once again in 2023.
The Bombers qualified six gymnasts to the 2025 NCGA Championships in St. Paul, Minn. Grace Murray took fourth overall on floor with a 9.850 for her third career All-American performance.
In 2024, Ithaca sent seven gymnasts to the NCGA Championships as individual competitors, the most individual qualifiers in the championships. Emily Kobusky and Grace Murray were named WGCA Regular Season All-Americans to highlight the season. The Bombers also set a new school record on floor with 48.925, while Kobusky posted a new standard on beam with 9.875.
In 2022, IC hosted the NCGA National Championships and finished fourth overall with a program record score of 192.325. The Bombers also set team records on bars and beam during the season.
In 2019, Suddaby guided the Bombers to back-to-back NCGA Nationals appearances, as the team punched the ticket to Wisconsin-Oshkosh with a runner-up finish at the NCGA East Championships at SUNY Cortland. In total, Ithaca had 11 gymnasts earn placement on the association's newly-formed NCGA All-Championships Team. The group formerly would have been individual event finals qualifiers under the old two-day format. Highlighting the Bombers' trip to Wisconsin in March as the performance of sophomore Courtney Christoforo, who became the eighth gymnast in program history to earn an individual event title and the third to ever do so on Uneven Bars. Additionally, senior Rachel Lee was selected as the NCGA Senior Gymnast of the Year, also the third gymnast from IC to ever take home the award.
Suddaby led a resurgence of the IC program onto the national stage during the 2018 campaign, as the program snapped a three-year run of not earning a team qualification to the NCGA National Meet. The Bombers broke every team scoring record throughout the season en route to earning first-place in the NCGA East Regional Championships. It was the first time that the Bombers had taken home a regional title since it was formerly competed under the ECAC name back in 2006. Suddaby was named NCGA East Coach of the Year at the conclusion of the meet.Â
In 2011, Suddaby's gymnasts placed third at the NCGA championships and Jessica Bolduc won the national championship on floor exercise. It was the team's highest finish at the national meet since 2006 and the highest finish among all Eastern-based programs. Suddaby was awarded the Doris Kostrinsky Coach of the Year award, which annually recognizes outstanding coaches from Ithaca's varsity teams.
Suddaby was a two-time national qualifier in gymnastics and captain of Cortland's 1979 NCAA championship team. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Cortland and served as women's gymnastics coach for one season. Suddaby served as head coach at Fayetteville-Manlius High School before coming to Ithaca. In 1994 he was inducted into the Otis E. Sennit Baldwinsville Athletic Hall of Fame. He was inducted into Cortland’s Hall of Fame in 2009.
In 1997, he participated in an NCAA Youth Education through Sports (YES) gymnastics clinic at the University of Florida.
Updated: 6/11/25
