The Oklahoma Sooners have started their 2025 NCAA gymnastics season with a bang, to say the least. With six straight wins under their belt, K.J. Kindler’s girls are already showing intentions to grab their seventh national title. From Auburn to the defending NCAA champs LSU, Oklahoma has defeated some of the biggest squads in the collegiate scene already. Naturally, hopes of seeing the team go all the way are high.

Saying K.J. Kindler has transformed Oklahoma’s gymnastics program wouldn’t be an overstatement. It was Kindler who brought the Sooners their first-ever NCAA triumph back in 2014. And now, almost two decades later, as the head coach of the program, she continues to lead from the front. But she has some help at hand’s reach to aid her in the arduous task well.

K.J. Kindler’s laurels are many in numbers

Kindler is a 4x National Coach of The Year, that highlights her elite status as a gymnastics pundit. But when she arrived in Oklahoma, her first goal was to put the pieces together for the team that was left behind by the former head coach Steve Nunno. On top of that, Kindler also had to set up a new life in a new place after leaving Iowa State behind. And she did it all while being pregnant! Talk about having an iron mentality!

Results of her strategic mastermind soon started to show, and the Sooners won the NCAA title for the first time in program history eight years after K.J. Kindler took charge of the program. Along with six national trophies, she has also taken Oklahoma to 12 top-three national finishes, 14 Big 12 titles, and 14 straight regional titles.

In addition to this, gymnasts coached by her have grabbed 189 AA honors so far. And with the sensational finish, the Sooners had in 2024, Kindler finished her campaign with yet another National and Big 12 Coach of the Year award. And that too consecutively.

Kindler guided her squad to back-to-back NCAA triumphs in 2022 and 2023, however, the dream of the coveted three-peat was shattered when LSU won its first NCAA Championship the next year. However, all of these laurels came to Kindler all the while she had a trusty person to help her. And this person is none other than assistant coach and future husband, Lou Ball.

K.J. met Lou during her time at Iowa State and soon got him on board to be her assistant coach. When she was approached by Oklahoma, she requested they also brought Ball along. By then, the two had tied the knot and have continued to pursue their mutual love for the sport as the Sooners’ coaching staff today. And now, their passion for the game seems to have impacted the next generation in the household as well!

Gymnastics runs in the family

Before being the coach of Iowa State, K.J. Kindler was a student there. Being an alum of the program, Kindler probably doesn’t look at the Iowa Hawkeyes, their in-state arch-rivals, with kindness. However, her daughter, Maggie Ball, has already committed to Iowa and will soon cross paths with her mom’s alma mater. “It has always been my dream since I was a little girl to compete as a college gymnast. If you told me a year ago, I would be able to fulfill that dream, I’m not sure if I would have believed you,” Ball wrote on social media to express her elation at joining the Big 10 powerhouse program.

With that, fans would be hard-pressed to speculate which side Kindler will be on when her kin will be bearing the banners of the opposing camp. What do you think will happen when the two Iowa superpowers lock horns this season? But even before that, do you reckon K.J. Kindler can lead the team to its seventh national title in 2025? Or do you think there are bigger fish in the pond? Share your thoughts on this season’s NCAA winner in a comment!