Mark Williams always knew he wanted to coach men’s gymnastics at the highest level. 

After getting his feet wet with coaching at the high school level in Dallas, Williams was presented with the opportunity to serve as the assistant coach at OU in 1988, and even got his master’s degree while serving as an assistant. Williams was promoted to head coach in 1999, and has made Norman his home over the last two and a half decades. 

“At this point, these are my roots,” Williams told the OU Daily. “I’ve lived here longer than any place in my life and I am fairly certain this is where I am going to retire.”

Success for the Sooners came quickly after Williams’ promotion, and OU won the 2002 NCAA National Championship — its first title since 1991. The victory marked the beginning of a stretch where the Sooners won nine national championships in 17 years, including four consecutive championships from 2015-2018. 

But for Williams, coaching is about more than accolades, and, instead is about people and the purpose.

Make no mistake about it, the Sooners still want to win, and will try to at the NCAA National Championship in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, following a qualifier meet Friday at 6:00 p.m. And Williams knows how to win. But in recent years, he has started to comprehend a deeper meaning within the sport.

“Well I hope I’ve become a little bit wiser and I think a little bit more patient,” Williams said with a chuckle when asked about his own growth in his 25 years as head coach. “But I think there’s just been a better understanding of the role that I play in the university, in the athletic department, and how my perspective is not just based on the men’s team on a daily basis.

“I’ve begun to focus more on the student-athletes and their well-being, how their families are doing, their education, how they interact with the communities and prepare themselves for their careers.” 

However, that process has been years in the making, and the lessons Williams learned as an assistant translated when he became head coach. He was young and new to the job, but he was open to change. 

Just like he is now. 

“I wanted to increase the intensity (in practice) for the guys,” Williams said. “I wanted to increase motivation and drive to perform their gymnastics to the best of their abilities.”

That intensity and that drive still exists in the Sooners training facility 25 years later. 

“There is a lot of structure and formatting with our practices,” junior Emre Dodanli told the OU Daily on Monday. “But that structure and formatting shapes each athlete on the team.”

While sitting on top of a sport, it can become easy to grow complacent. Williams understood this and knew how to continue challenging his athletes to further their growth and the dominance of the program. 

“It’s easy to take things for granted and just expect to show up and win,” Williams said. “I just wanted to try to challenge my guys in any way that I could, through altering our schedule or creating personal goals for them to achieve.”

The success that the Sooners have achieved can easily be accompanied by the standard “championship or bust.” 

However, sports, especially gymnastics, aren’t linear, and it is incredibly hard to win a national championship, despite how effortlessly OU made it seem for 17 years. 

“Nothing lasts forever,” Williams said. “All it takes is one wrong injury or a small miss here and there and you’re finishing second at the national championship.”

The Sooners haven’t won a national championship since 2018. Stanford has had a stranglehold on men’s gymnastics for the last four years. But for Williams, coming up short of a championship doesn’t signal a disappointing season. 

The head coach has gradually adopted the mindset of not only crafting his athletes into the best gymnasts they can be, but also the best young men they can be outside of the sport. 

One of the areas where Williams has shined has been building relationships between athletes on his teams as well as his own relationships with his gymnasts. Senior team captain Jack Freeman credits his coach for his ability to create relationships and believes it is one of OU’s greatest strengths.

“When I came in as a freshman, I was incredibly nervous,” Freeman told the OU Daily. “But Mark was incredibly welcoming to me and my personality, and he truly made me feel like I belonged on this team.

“He is not afraid to take a chance on a guy and believe in a lot of guys. He makes dreams happen for a lot of people who would’ve never thought they would be in the position they are in now.”

“He saw the potential in me that I couldn’t really see,” Dodanli said. “He is the reason that I have grown into the athlete and person that I am now, and I am incredibly thankful for him and the impact that he has had on my life”

Freeman and Dodanli echoed messages that Williams conveys to recruits when they come to OU. The head coach knows a college decision goes beyond gymnastics, always keeping their future in mind as well. 

One area where Williams is incredibly proud of his team is their involvement with Cleveland Elementary, a local school in Norman. Gymnasts go once a week to interact with the students, and every year there is a “Cleveland Elementary Night” at McCasland Field House during a Sooners home meet. 

Williams even has a drawing from a student perched above his desk. The drawing was given to him in 2015 following the Cleveland Elementary meet that year. The drawing features a trophy next to the OU logo to symbolize the Sooners collecting a 457.300-434.200 victory over Illinois that night.

But the drawing isn’t meaningful for coach Williams simply because it commemorates the final score of an individual meet. That drawing represents the work his gymnasts have done with the school and the impact his men have had on the students. 

“It was awesome to receive this drawing and it’s been up on my wall for nine years now,” Williams said. “But, for me, it serves as a reminder of the things that my guys are doing that aren’t just gymnastics. Their involvement in the community has been instrumental to the support we’ve had throughout the years, especially with the Cleveland Elementary students.”

For a man who has won multiple championship titles and been recognized nationally for his work as a head coach, Williams knows that winning isn’t the only thing his gymnasts can take away, when they leave Sam Viersen Training Center for the final time. 

Although winning is the ultimate goal and the Sooners desperately want to get back to the top of the mountain, winning isn’t the only barometer for success in the eyes of Mark Williams. 

“I am so proud that we have been able to do more than just gymnastics here,” Williams said.

Alumni still come back and support the Sooners, a testament to the type of program that Williams has built during his time at OU. Senior night for the Sooners this year featured a return of alumni who have competed under Williams, as well as a tribute video commemorating him for his 25 years of service to the team. 

“The video certainly caught me off guard and got me a little emotional,” Williams said. “But this has just been a tremendous family to be a part of and it just continues to grow.

“I wouldn’t trade these years I have been here for anything. It has just been an absolutely fantastic experience.”

Story Reflection: This story was written by me and published on the OU Daily website in April 2024. I was responsible for covering the OU men’s gymnastics team in the Spring 2024 semester, and this story about the head coach Mark Williams was a larger feature that I worked on and had ready to go before the team competed for a national championship. This story helped to enhance my skills of talking to multiple people and bringing all of their perspectives into one story. This was also one of the longer pieces that I have done, so this story helped me to keep a longer story straight and on the topic that I started with.