DANNA DURANTE • HEAD COACH
Danna Durante was named the head coach of the North Carolina gymnastics team in June 2021, becoming the fourth head coach in program history. The 2024-25 season marks her fourth year at the helm.
Durante's Coaching Career:
At North Carolina:
Under Durante's leadership in her first season at UNC, the Tar Heels put together one of the best seasons in program history, earning the team's first NCAA Women's Gymnastics Championship regional berth since 2017.
Carolina opened the 2022 season with the highest season-opening score in program history, setting a new program record for single-meet attendance. The Tar Heels were crowned the EAGL regular season champions, going a perfect 7-0 against conference opponents.
UNC recorded its highest NQS since 2004, finishing the season with its best final NCAA ranking since 2012. As a team, the Tar Heels earned 11 All-EAGL regular-season and 12 All-Tournament honors.
Carolina also excelled in the classroom in 2022, with 17 gymnasts named to the EAGL All-Scholastic Team. Junior All-American Elizabeth Culton was named the EAGL Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The Tar Heels defended their EAGL regular season crown in 2023, again going undefeated at 6-0 before finishing third at the league championships for their highest finish since 2011. The team saw 10 All-EAGL regular-season and 15 All-Tournament selections. UNC also earned its second-straight NCAA Regional team berth.
Lali Dekanoidze was named WCGA Regular Season First Team All-America on bars, Durante's first at Carolina. Dekanoidze, who first broke the school record in the home opener at 9.975, finished the season ranked eighth nationally based on her NQS of 9.955.
Durante successfully led the Tar Heels into their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. Four gymnasts earned All-ACC Championship Team honors at the first ACC Championship in 40 years. Dekanoidze and Isabelle Schaefer, who went 1-2 on the uneven bars at the ACC Championships, garnered All-ACC First Team praise and earned individual berths to NCAA Regionals.
At Georgia:
Durante led Georgia’s gymnastics program from 2012-2017, where the Gymdogs made five straight NCAA Championship appearances (2013-17), including Super Six appearances in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Durante coached Georgia to a fifth-place NCAA Championship finish in 2014, sixth-place finishes in 2013 and 2016, ninth in 2015 and 12th in 2017.
In 2016, she coached two NCAA individual national champions - Brandie Jay (vault) and Brittany Rogers (bars).
Twenty-four individual athletes earned 38 first-team All-America awards during her tenure at Georgia.
The Gymdogs earned a 100 percent graduation rate and 39 individuals made the SEC Academic Honor Roll. Her teams also garnered 30 NACGC Academic All-America awards, and Noel Couch earned a postgraduate scholarship in 2013.
Prior Coaching Stops:
Prior to her five-year stint in Athens, Durante served as the head gymnastics coach at the University of California in 2011-2012.
From 2002-2011, Durante spent nine seasons at the University of Nebraska and worked as the Huskers’ beam coach and choreographer. In 2007, she was promoted to associate head coach, a position she held until 2011.
Under her tutelage, Nebraska gymnasts earned 23 All-America awards and a fourth-place finish at the 2011 NCAA Championship.
Before coaching at Nebraska, Durante was an assistant coach at the University of Washington, where she guided the Huskies to a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championship and a 1999 NCAA West Regional title. For her efforts with the Huskies, she was named the West Regional Assistant Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2002. Prior to her time at UW, she coached the Arizona Sunrays and Royal (Fla.) Gymnastics Clubs.
As a Gymnast:
An impressive gymnast in her own right, Durante was a two-time member of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation in 1988 and 1990 and qualified for the 1988 Olympic Trials. In addition to competing globally in Bulgaria, France, Germany, South Africa and Canada representing the United States, she won top honors in the all-around in the 1986 and 1987 South African Cup.
An Elite Level Judge from 1996-2000, she graduated from Arizona State in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. She turned in an illustrious collegiate career with the Sun Devils where she was an All-Pac 10 gymnast from 1992-95 and scored five perfect 10s.
Personal:
Durante and her husband, Joe, have a daughter, Samantha, and two sons, Jaxson and Jordan. Samantha was a gymnast at LSU from 2017-22.
The Tulsa, Okla., native returned to coaching after spending four years recruiting top talent for executive teams for Fortune 500 companies and serving as operations director for What Drives Winning.
MARIE DENICK • ASSOCIATE COACH
Marie Case Denick will begin her eighth season at North Carolina in 2024-25, and her fourth alongside head coach Danna Durante. In Summer 2024, she was elevated to Associate Head Coach.
Denick was named the 2022 East Atlantic Gymnastics League Assistant Coach of the Year in her first season with Durante. In 2024, she successfully helped lead the Tar Heels into their first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Denick served as the interim head coach for the Carolina gymnastics program in 2020-21. After one year as an assistant coach and two as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, Denick’s impact has been evident.
Despite the shortened 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic, Denick helped Khazia Hislop receive her third All-America recognition of her career and her first on vault. In both 2018 and 2019, Hislop earned second team All-America honors and the EAGL championship title on floor exercise. Denick also coached back-to-back EAGL champions on vault with Hislop winning the event in 2019 and Madison Nettles in 2018. In 2018, Carolina also finished the season ranked sixth in the nation in floor exercise, largely due to Denick.
In 2024 – UNC's first season in the ACC – Denick served as the primary bars coach where she led Lali Dekanoidze and Isabelle Schaefer to a 1-2 finish on the uneven bars at the ACC Championships. Both gymnasts ranked in the top-6 on bars in the Southeast Region and earned individual berths to the NCAA Regional Championships.
Off the mats, Denick serves as the team's academic liaison and motivates her student-athletes to find just as much success in the classroom. In the spring semester of 2020, the team earned a cumulative grade-point average of 3.616 and regularly boasts one of the highest GPAs on campus.
Denick comes to Carolina from Bowling Green State University in Ohio where she served as an assistant coach the last two seasons. Her primary duties at BGSU included coaching the vault and floor exercise and coordinating the team's academics and community service. The Falcons finished second in the MAC last year, the team's highest finish in the conference since 1987. One of Denick's athletes won the floor exercise and another was the MAC's Freshman of the Year. In addition, the team improved its grade point average to 3.65 and recorded more than 1,000 hours of community service.
In Denick's first year at BGSU, the Falcons set a school record team score for a single meet and one of her athletes won the all-around at the MAC Championship.
The Erie, Pa., native began her coaching career as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater, Kent State, in 2015. She was the MAC Gymnast of the Year in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the MAC Freshman of the Year in 2011 and the conference's all-around champion as a junior and senior. She qualified for the NCAA Championships in the all-around in 2014 and was the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches Regional Gymnast of the Year.
MATT DEGRANDPRE • ASSISTANT COACH
The 2024-25 campaign marks the first year Matt DeGrandpre is on the North Carolina gymnastics staff as an assistant coach.
DeGrandpre arrived in Chapel Hill having spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Texas Woman’s University. At the conclusion of both the 2023 and 2024 seasons, DeGrandpre was part of a coaching contingent which was named the WCGA Division II Regional Co-Assistant Coaches of the Year.
During his time in Texas, DeGrandpre was the primary vault and bars coach for the Pioneers while also overseeing academic success and team travel. In 2024, DeGrandpre guided the team to their highest bars score in a decade and coached two individual athletes to school records on vault and bars, both with scores of 9.95.
With DeGrandpre on staff, the Pioneers earned back-to-back runner-up finishes at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championship Finals. TWU took fourth at the Midwest Independent Conference Championship in 2023 before a second-place showing this past season. Additionally, DeGrandpre coached a total of five TWU gymnasts to a combined seven Division II WCGA All-America honors on bars and vault.
Prior to his time at Texas Woman’s, DeGrandpre served as a graduate assistant coach with the men’s gymnastics team at Springfield College – his alma mater – from 2020-22. His duties included helping coordinate practices, planning routines and contributing to the overall success of the program.
In 2022, DeGrandpre helped lead the Pride to their first appearance in the NCAA National Collegiate Championships, becoming the first DIII program to ever compete at the meet. The Springfield coaching staff, including DeGrandpre, was named the ECAC Coaching Staff of the Year.
DeGrandpre competed at Springfield College from 2016-20 where he specialized in vault, pommel horse and floor, earning respective career-highs of 11.5, 11.8 and 12.65. He helped his team finish fourth at the ECAC Championships for three consecutive seasons.
A native of Westfield, Massachusetts, DeGrandpre received his bachelor’s degree in movement and sports studies with a concentration in physical and health education from Springfield in May 2020. He earned his master’s degree in athletic administration during his time as a graduate assistant. He was also named a USA Gymnastics Academic All-American as an undergraduate.
SAMI DURANTE-money • ASSISTANT COACH
The 2024-25 season will mark the second year for Sami Durante-Money as an assistant coach with Carolina Gymnastics after being hired in July 2023. In this role, she assumes all director of operations responsibilities as well as assists on all four events.
Durante-Money was the primary beam coach during her first season in Chapel Hill in 2024. She coached freshman Jessica Naranjo to ACC All-Championship Team honors on beam at the conference meet, the first ACC Championship in 40 years. Under her direction, UNC's beam squad put together a season-high 49.225 in the regular season finale on the road at LSU, her alma mater.
Then known as Sami Durante, she was a standout gymnast at LSU from 2018-22 where she specialized in bars, beam and vault. She served as LSU’s anchor on bars for three straight years and earned WCGA Regular Season All-America recognition on bars in both 2021 and 2022.
She was part of an NCAA Championship squad each year during her time in Baton Rouge, finishing as high as second in the team final as a sophomore. She was also a member of two Southeastern Conference championship teams and was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team as a rookie. Durante was twice nominated for the prestigious AAI Award, given to the top gymnast in the nation.
At the conclusion of her competitive career, Durante stayed on staff with LSU as a graduate assistant during the 2022-23 season where she aided the staff with day-to-day operations of the program. The Tigers experienced a successful season with her on staff, winning their NCAA semifinal and advancing to the team final for the ninth time in school history.
A native of Athens, Georgia, Durante competed for Georgia Elite Gymnastics and was a three-time Junior Olympic Nationals qualifier prior to donning the purple and gold.
A two-time graduate of LSU, Durante earned her bachelor’s degree in sport administration with a double minor in business and leadership and human resource development in May 2021. She earned her master’s in sport management in May 2023.
Excelling in the classroom just like on the mats, Durante was a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll selection, LSU President’s Honor Roll recipient and earned WCGA Academic All-America honors. She was also the SEC Community Service Award winner.
She married Blake Money in December 2024. The two met at LSU where Money was a member of the baseball team which won the national championship in 2023.