Ashleigh Clare-Kearney is one of the masterminds behind the LSU gymnastics team’s floor routines.
Clare-Kearney, who was a gymnast at LSU from 2005-09, was the national champion in both vault and floor during her senior season.
In 2010, she graduated with a master’s degree and went on to earn her law degree from Southern University in 2013.
Clare-Kearney began as a volunteer coach for the Tigers in 2010, handling choreography for floor and beam.
“Gymnastics have been a part of my life since I was five years old, so I’ve always been really passionate about it,” Clare-Kearney said. “I wanted to be able to give back and do as much as I can, stay involved in the sport and help out in any area that I could so I could maintain a role in LSU gymnastics.”
Throughout her seven-year tenure with the Tigers, she has consistently improved LSU’s floor performance.
They finished No. 1 in 2016 and currently sit at No. 2 in the rankings.
A lot goes into creating Clare-Kearney’s “masterpiece,” but it all centers around the music.
The process begins with the gymnasts sending her music in May of the previous year. Afterward, she develops each routine from scratch to fit the individual gymnast.
“Something that I pride myself on is making the routines unique for each individual,” Clare-Kearney said. “I don’t want it to ever look like I just came up with the routines that are kind of similar, and I put the girl to the routine. The music is so important. It’s the most important piece.”
Clare-Kearney danced until her sophomore year of high school, which has helped with her ability to choreograph the dance moves to the music, but she believes it to be a more natural ability.
“She’s amazing. The way that she hears music is completely different than anything I’ve ever experienced,” senior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat said. “We’ll do a floor routine, and she’ll say ‘Oh, did you hear that?’ and I’m like ‘No, I don’t hear that,’ because she hears things differently, and that’s what makes her more creative. It makes her choreography more innovative, and I think that it gives us a competitive edge.”
Clare-Kearney dissects each piece of music even before she starts thinking of the choreography and takes three days with each gymnast to complete an entire routine.
“She takes so much time in perfecting it, like she will not leave a floor routine unless it’s perfect,” senior all-arounder Shae Zamardi said. “I think we have some of the best choreography in the nation, and she’s just amazing in what she does. I’ve never met anyone who can choreograph the way she does.”
LSU coach D-D Breaux describes Clare-Kearney as the “voice of reason” on the coaching staff.
Clare-Kearney provides a different point of view as Breaux has been coaching much longer, giving the girls the perspectives of “varying people with varying background.”
“She’s just a calm presence,” Gnat said. “She’s kind of like an in between of what D-D is and what we are because, like I said, she’s been on both sides, but she’s able to mediate for us and towards D-D.”
Apart from her help in the gym, Clare-Kearney has become a “big sister” for the team.
As someone who has been on both sides, she knows what to say and how to give constructive criticism from another perspective.
“We love any opportunity to have her on the floor. She is such a light and got a really calming presence,” Gnat said. “I talk to her before floor in the PMAC. She’s just in a position where she’s been where we are, and now she’s on the other side of it and she can relate to how we’re feeling before we compete.”
Clare-Kearney, both in and out of the gym, provides a much bigger opportunity to an already thriving LSU team.
“The fact that she’s choreographed the routines, has made the routine up and has a real feel for how the routine matches the music and how both of those components match the athlete, it’s always great to have her in and out of the gym,” Breaux said. “When you have the kind of championship pedigree that she does, you want her with you on the floor.”