JT Okada may have one person to thank for his continued rise through the gymnastics coaching ranks – 1992 California men's gymnast Shin Green.
 
Green was not only Okada's first coach as a competitive gymnast, but he's become a prophetic presence for the first-year head coach.
 
"I remember this so well, because right before I was hired as the assistant coach at Cal, I saw him at a restaurant for the first time in 15 or 20 years," Okada said of Green. "And then right before I got hired to be the head coach, I happened to see him again. It's almost this weird, uncanny, coincidental thing that before I get a new position in gymnastics,

I see him randomly."
 
What has not been random, however, is Okada's fit at the helm. In fact, his connections to the Golden Bears program began when he was eight years old, competing in the same gymnasium he now coaches the current members of the longstanding program.

"My parents thought it would be a great base for me to learn all types of sports," Okada recalled. "It was like any other day here in Berkeley, where you get to the top of the hill and go into this crowded gym. It was a lot of fun and really nerve wracking. I started before I could even remember."
 
Those early moments in the gym set the course for a young Okada's future. However, that future would not include competing as a gymnast after a while.
 
"I was never the best gymnast. I wasn't very talented; I wouldn't even call myself very hardworking," Okada said, laughingly. "When I went to high school, it was the first opportunity to play football and I really wanted to try. I grew up watching the 49ers and loved the game. I stopped doing gymnastics to try football.
 
"Football is a lot easier than gymnastics - I'm going to come out and say it. I had to relearn how to run though. Coming from gymnastics, you run with straight locked arms and I didn't know how to run on a football field."
 
While he gave up flipping for four years of tackling (as well as diving, but had difficulty not landing feet first during competitions), Okada still felt the pull of gymnastics.
 
"As soon as I stopped competing, I started coaching," he said. "Gymnastics is one of those things that I was like 'Yeah, I'm just going to do it for a while,' and then you get competitive and then you're doing it for a team all the time.

I started coaching just to put some money in my pocket in high school, then it went from once a week for an hour to six days a week for four hours or more."
 
While Okada did not compete collegiately, the 2009 Cal graduate coached at Golden Bear Gymnastics and Head Over Heels Athletic Arts often sharing practice space with Cal gymnasts and coaches, many who were his friends and colleagues. His efforts were with beginning gymnasts, which has made a significant impact on his coaching.
 
"It was really good to get my foundation for coaching, coaching young kids who've never done gymnastics, before trying to coach the higher levels," Okada said. "Because I know how gymnastics is developed, when anything is not going well for the high level gymnasts, I can take a step back and we can go back to progressions and the fundamentals. I think it's important and that every coach should go through that."
 
Also unique to Okada is his experience as the sports psychology coordinator for Cal Athletics, where he was able to put his master's degree from San Francisco State to use.
 
"I'm really into understanding the mind-body connection and team cultures," Okada said. "There was a lot of overlap between sports psychology and coaching. I can credit a lot of my coaching abilities as well to having learned things in the classroom."

Okada also credits mentors Michael Ashe, who was a Cal gymnast from 2000-04, and former Cal head coach Brett McClure

for helping his coaching journey.
 
"Michael was a huge mentor for me showing me how to coach younger kids. He showed me how to develop the gymnastics from the bare bones," Okada said. "We coached together for quite a while, too. He taught me to be very technical with the corrections I'm giving and physical preparation. That was really big for me to learn from him.
 
"Brett has been really, really huge in developing me as a college coach. I hadn't been to the Olympics before, but Brett had been there and done everything you can do as an athlete in the sport and transitioned into being an assistant, then head coach and now working at the highest level in gymnastics.  Just to see his career and for him to help me along the way, it really helped me as a coach at this level and beyond. I credit them with putting up with me."
 
Now that Okada is running the show, he has recognized the nuances that go along with the position.
 
"It's been great in a lot of ways and challenging in a lot of ways," he said. "You really don't know what it's like until you're actually in the role. As an assistant for five years, there were definitely times that I thought 'I know what it takes; I can do it pretty easily.' But I'm filling some big shoes and that has taught me that there is always more to someone's job than what you see them doing."
 
As the team prepares for its final home meet of the season and then heads on the road for the postseason slate, Okada is proud of the team's focus.
 
"There are good and bad weeks, but I'm so happy for this team and how they came together to recover from a poor performance earlier," Okada said. "They're really focused in the gym. I think they're in a good spot. We have to continue to prepare for things we will encounter in the post season."

Okada is happy to tackle and teach in the place where it all started.

"There was always this connection with Cal," Okada said. "There were a lot of opportunities to go to different places for coaching, but Cal was where I grew up."
 

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DID YOU KNOW:

• JT's best man at his wedding was a friend he met as an eight year old gymnast.
• JT was a competitive paintball player during college and would travel the nation to compete for a sponsored team out of San Jose.
• JT chose Cal over attending West Point and Hawaii.
• JT was the head coach for the South Africa team at the 2016 Olympics in Rio that featured former Bear Ryan Patterson.