Valorie Kondos Field, retired UCLA women’s gymnastics team head coach and author of “Don’t Wait to Dance,” teaches a graduate level class on leadership on Monday, Mar. 10, 2025, at UCLA in Westwood. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Life and death. Senior citizen sex. Alex Rodriguez and performance-enhancing drugs.

This is Education 472: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching. Valorie Kondos-Field is in charge – and it’s a learning environment unlike any other.

“She’s just so … herself,” UCLA women’s basketball player Charlisse Leger-Walker said. “The very first class, I thought she was crazy.”

Kondos-Field, known affectionately as Miss Val, won seven NCAA championships and collected more than 800 victories in her 29 years as head coach of the UCLA gymnastics team

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