WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Former West Chester University men’s gymnastics coach, Milan Trnka, was awarded the Honorary Lifetime Membership Award from the College Gymnastics Association recently.
The Honorary Lifetime Membership in the College Gymnastics Association is awarded to selected retired collegiate coaches with 10 years or more of active service in the association. Over 300 individuals have coached men’s gymnastics at the college level and a large number have coached at the private club level in over 100 years of the sport in the U.S. and only 78 have been awarded this honor.
Trnka served as the assistant coach at West Chester University for the men’s and women’s program from 1962-1965. He became the head coach for the men’s team from 1965-1987. During his time coaching, he guided the careers of Frank Kudlac, Don Peters, Gary Anderson, and Earl Metzler, with Kudlac and Anderson each earning an election to the West Chester University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Trnka produced four North Atlantic Gymnastics League team champions and four runner-up finishes. His gymnasts captured four all-around championships and 20 other individual event championships.
Before his coaching career had begun, Trnka’s early gymnastics training was as a member of Sokol USA, and he later received training from Olympian Ed Scrobe with the famous Bronx Turners. He competed as a member of the Bronx Turners and Sokol’s in AAU meets though his high school years. In 1950, he won the New York Junior Metropolitan AAU all-around, placing first in all six events.
While attending Syracuse University, he was Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League vault champion in 1953. He placed third in the all-around in 1952, fourth in 1953, third in 1954 and runner-up in 1955. He also placed second on the parallel bars and high bar in 1954 and was second on high bar in 1955. Trnka placed sixth at the NCAA Nationals on high bar (256 pts) and he placed ninth in the all-around (1,367 pts) in 1954.
The award was officially presented to Milan Trnka during the CGA Annual Awards Banquet in conjunction with the 2013 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics National Championships at Penn State University on April 18.
