Associate Head Coach
2nd Year/7th Overall
Coaching Timeline
| 2018-present |
Utah |
| 2024-Present |
Head Coach |
| 2023 |
Associate Head Coach |
| 2020-22 |
Assistant Coach |
| 2019 |
Director of Recruiting and Player Development |
| 2018 |
Volunteer Assistant Coach |
2012-17 |
Falcon Gymnastics Center |
|
Assistant Coach |
2009-17 |
Seattle Pacific |
| 2013-17 |
Assistant Gymnastics Coach |
| 2010-12 |
Assistant Track and Field Coach |
| 2009 |
Assistant Gymnastics Coach |
2006-08 |
Seattle Academy of the Arts & Science |
|
Head JV Soccer Coach |
|
Assistant Track and Field Coach |
2007 |
Shoreline High School |
|
Head Gymnastics Coach |
|
|
Coaching Highlights
NCAA Region Assistant Coach of the Year: 2020, 2022
NCAA All-Americans: 13
NCAA National Champions: 1
USAG National Champions: 5
USAG All-Americans: 21
Education
Washington, 2006
Bachelor’s in English
Carly Dockendorf is entering her first season as the head coach of the Utah gymnastics program and her seventh overall as a member of the coaching staff in 2023-24. Prior to entering her role as an assistant coach, Dockendorf served as the team’s director of recruiting and player development, as well as Utah’s volunteer coach and choreographer.
Dockendorf has continued to take Utah’s beam team to the next level year after year, and is coming off consecutive seasons with the nation’s top-ranked beam team. The Red Rocks finished with a 49.670 National Qualifying Score (NQS) on beam in 2023, while the previous year’s team recorded a 49.675 NQS. The beam team scored a 49.5 or better in all but two competitions in 2023, which included four scores of a 49.7 or higher. The top finish in the country by the beam team marked the first time since the 2005 season that a Utah beam team has led the nation.
Under Dockendorf’s guidance, the Utes posted a 49.7375 on beam at the 2023 NCAA Final, marking the program’s highest beam score in postseason history. Maile O’Keefe continued to cement her place in history as one of the program’s best beam workers after winning the NCAA beam title from the program’s first Perfect 10 on beam at the NCAA Championships in history. Her 10.0 also pushed her to an NCAA All-Around title, becoming Utah’s first national all-around champion since 1999. She also recorded a 10.0 in the NCAA Final to finish the year scoring a 10.0 in three of her last four routines. O’Keefe finished the 2023 season as the program record holder for most 10s on beam in a career with 10 perfect scores, along with the single season record holder (6).
Since Dockendorf took over the apparatus, Utah has had four gymnasts earn NCAA All-America honors on beam and four gymnasts score at least one Perfect 10. O’Keefe, Cristal Isa, Abby Paulson, and Kara Eaker have all earned All-Pac-12 and All-American honors on beam in their careers. The Ute beam team has not posted below a 49.525 in any postseason event the past two seasons.
Utes finished No. 2 in the nation on beam in 2020 and backed up the performance with a No. 3 ranking in 2021 at the end of the regular season. Dockendorf guided her lineup to a 49.700 on beam in the NCAA Finals, marking the highest beam score at NCAAs in program history after besting the 49.450 mark set in 2002 and then eventually breaking the new record set in 2023 (49.7375).
In her first season as assistant coach, Utah’s beam team broke the school beam record that had stood since 1995 when the squad posted a 49.775 against UCLA on the road. The 49.775 was the highest beam score in the NCAA in the 2020 season. Dockendorf’s beam athletes scored an event score of 49.600 or higher in four-straight meets and were just one of two teams in the nation to hit the mark at least four times.
Dockendorf has helped lead Utah gymnastics to four consecutive Pac-12 Regular Season Championships, three-straight Pac-12 Championships, three NCAA Regional titles and three consecutive third-place finishes at the NCAA Championships. She has been a key member of a pair of undefeated conference seasons (2020, 2021) and has helped guide O’Keefe to back-to-back Pac-12 Specialist of the Year honors and a Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year honor, as well as Alexia Burch to a Pac-12 Specialist of the Year honor. The success during the past few years has been noted by coaches around the nation, leading Dockendorf to be named a Region 2 Assistant Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2022.
While primarily serving as the beam coach, Dockendorf has also contributed to the floor choreography and music selections. Sydney Soloski earned four All-American honors to lead the floor lineup in two years, while Soloski's other All-America award came in 2018 when Dockendorf was aiding the floor efforts as the volunteer assistant coach. She also helped see O’Keefe earn her first All-American honor on floor and a NCAA title in 2021, while Grace McCallum pulled in floor honors in 2022.
In her first year at Utah in 2018, Dockendorf’s work as a choreographer and volunteer coach was especially beneficial on floor, where the Utes picked up four All-America awards and two postseason apparatus titles. MyKayla Skinner and Sydney Soloski won All-America honors on floor at the NCAA Championships and Skinner and MaKenna Merrell-Giles were regular season All-Americans. Skinner won the 2018 Pac-12 and NCAA Regional floor titles, tying with Merrell-Giles for the regional floor title.
Prior to becoming an assistant coach, Dockendorf became Utah’s first director of recruiting and player development. In that full-time role, she was involved in all aspects of recruiting, including strategy, database management, on-campus official and unofficial visits. She also served as a liaison between the Utah gymnasts and campus departments, tracked academic progress reports, study table hours and mentor meetings, and assisted the incoming freshmen in their transition to the collegiate environment.
Before joining the Utah gymnastics staff, Dockendorf spent nine years coaching at Seattle Pacific—six as an assistant gymnastics coach (2009, 2013-17) and three as an assistant track and field coach (2010-12). During her time on the SPU gymnastics staff, Dockendorf was the head vault and floor coach, floor choreographer, recruiting coordinator and strength and conditioning coach.
During her three-year break from gymnastics in 2010-12, Dockendorf served as SPU’s assistant track and field coach while also training for a berth on the Canadian Olympic team in the pole vault. While she narrowly missed making the team, she broke the Canadian indoor pole vault record by clearing 14 feet, 6 inches (4.42 meters) and competed for Canada at the Commonwealth Games in India, where she won a bronze medal. In 2011, she won the pole vault title at the Canadian National Track and Field Championships and set the British Columbia Provincial record, jumping 4.45 meters.
Dockendorf returned to the SPU gymnastics staff in 2013 and would leave with three USA Gymnastics national champions on floor and two on vault (the USAG Championships are for Division II and Ivy League schools). She coached 21 USAG All-Americans (11 on vault and 10 on floor). The Falcons set a number of school records while Dockendorf was there. They placed third at the USAG National Championships from 2014-16 and three individuals advanced to the Division I NCAA Championships, including one on vault and two on floor.
As an undergraduate at Washington, Dockendorf won the 2003 Pac-12 uneven bar title, scoring a 10.0, and was a second-team All-American that season. She set a school record with six 10.0 scores in her career, including five on floor. She won 48 total event titles from 2002-05, including a school-record 24 titles on floor, and was a three-time regional champion.
A two-time All-Pac-10 selection, Dockendorf was Washington’s MVP in 2003 and 2005. She won the team’s Most Inspirational award in 2002 and 2004 and served as the Huskies’ captain in 2004 and 2005.
Dockendorf took up pole vaulting as a sophomore, earning All-America honors with her sixth-place finish at the 2005 NCAA Championships. She placed 11th at the 2006 NCAA Track & Field Championships.
Dockendorf earned a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in communications from Washington in 2006, where she was a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection. She coached one year of gymnastics at Shorecrest High School and three years of track and field and soccer at the Seattle Academy of the Arts and Science before accepting the post at SPU.
Dockendorf became USA Weightlifting Sports Performance Certified in 2016 and earned a certificate from the NCAA Women’s Coaching Academy in Denver that same year.
The Port Moody, B.C., native is married to Henry Ruggiero and they have two daughters: Crosby and Hayden.
