Romanian Olympic Team Members Join Gymnastics Staff
We're thrilled to introduce our new gymnastics coaches, Daniela Andrei and Robert Ciuculete! Robert and Dana (as she prefers to be called) come to us from Romania where they were both members of the Romanian Olympic Team.
Dana is the Y's new floor exercise and girls choreography coach for the Y's travel team, and Robert is the uneven parallel bars and power tumbling coach. In addition, Robert works with the up and coming pre-team members.
Robert and Dana both became gymnasts at a very young age. Robert was four when he was scouted by a coach from his kindergarten class and Dana was five when her father first took her to a gymnastics class. Both quickly showed a talent for the sport, and grew up with an increasingly rigorous training schedule as they progressed. Both Robert and Dana were invited to join the Romanian National Junior Team, and several years later, the Romanian National Olympic Team. Dana also competed in the World Championships in Tokyo in 2011.
Robert and Dana are thrilled to be at the Darien Y and aspire to be even better coaches than those they trained with in Romania. Dana said that "coming here, you can have a job doing what you want to do, you can be safe here and have more opportunities".
YMCA Gymnastics Director, John Schwartz said that "The YMCA is exceedingly proud of its state-of-the art facility and nationally ranked gymnastics program. The addition of our new, extremely talented Romanian coaches will ensure that the Darien YMCA offers the very best gymnastics not only locally, but on the national stage."
Please join us in welcoming our new coaches!