Gymnastics Announces Coaching Staff Updates
First year head coach Chris Brooks’ staff is complete as he’s announced the addition of one assistant coach, Zan Jones, and promotion of two coaches, Kyla Ross and Catelyn Branson.
Jones comes to the Gymbacks after two excellent seasons with the Texas Woman’s University Pioneers. With Jones’ assistance, the Pioneers won back-to-back WCGNIC national titles in 2025 and 2026. Jones has been named a WCGA DII Assistant Coach of the Year three times, the most recent this spring. Jones was also tabbed MIC (Midwest Independent Conference) Assistant Coach of the Year in both seasons with TWU.
In the 2026 slate, he was the Pioneers’ primary vault and bars coach. The team set a new program record of 49.350 on bars in March and athletes in his events earned a combined WCGNIC 10 All-America honors and three WCGA honors.
Prior to his time at TWU, Jones spent a year with Talladega College in the program’s inaugural season and also spent time as a recreational and team coach at Trussville Academy of Gymnastics. He graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in human performance and exercise science and served as a student manager for the Crimson Tide gymnastics team.
Along with the addition of Jones, Brooks has announced the promotion of Kyla Ross and Catelyn Branson from assistant coaches to associate head coaches.
Ross has been with the program since the 2022 season, first as a volunteer assistant and working her way up since. She began her time with the Gymbacks coaching beam in her first two seasons, in which time the team posted then-program records in back-to-back years, and still rank within the program’s top 10 beam scores ever.
Kyla has since taken over the vault squad and most recently helped the Gymbacks set a new program record of 49.675 on the event in 2026. Arkansas did not rank lower than seventh on vault in 2026 and checked in as high as No. 2 in the nation. Arkansas ended the season at NCAA Championships, where the Gymbacks scored their highest mark on the event at NCAAs since 2012 and third highest ever, 49.375.
Freshman Allison Cucci earned a 9.9375 on vault, tied for fourth in the session for First Team All-America honors and tied for sixth overall. Her score is the third highest ever by a Gymback on vault at NCAAs, and the best for Arkansas since 2014. Both Morgan Price and Leah Smith also earned All-America nods, bringing Ross’ coaching total to five on the event, along with two SEC All-Freshman honors and one All-SEC.
Ross’ leadership culminated in a historic first for the program in February, when she helped guide Morgan Price to the first-ever Perfect 10 in program history on vault against Kentucky.
Catelyn Branson returned to the Arkansas staff ahead of the 2025 season, helping to lead the Gymback floor squad. In that time, Branson has led the Gymbacks to two of their top five best floor scores ever and Arkansas has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country on floor in the last two seasons. In 2026, over 60% of the team’s scores on floor were 9.850+.
Arkansas earned one All-America nod at nationals this season and Branson has coached four athletes to five to All-SEC honors on the event over the last two seasons. Four in 2026 was the most all-conference nods for Arkansas on any event and the most All-SEC floor honors for the Gymbacks ever.
Branson served as Lindenwood’s head coach from 2022 to 2024, where she was named 2024 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) South Central Region Coach of the Year and the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC) Coach of the Year. She led the Lions to their second consecutive and fifth overall USAG national championship and seventh MIC title in 2024 and collectively oversaw two individual national titles, two MIC champions, 20+ All-America nods and 20+ All-MIC honors.
Branson had a prior stint at Arkansas from 2020 to 2022, in which time the Gymbacks ranked as high as third on beam and second on floor.
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