Michigan 2020 Hall of Honor: Cain's Drive to Improve Exemplified All-American Career
10/20/2021 9:00:00 AM | Women's Gymnastics, Features
A 12-time All-American with eight first-team citations, the two-time Big Ten Gymnast of the Year (1997, 2000), 1997 Big Ten Freshman of he Year and holder of 11 career perfect 10.0s, Sarah Cain will be inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor during a Friday, Oct. 22 ceremony as a member of the Class of 2020 along with Kelli Gannon (field hockey), Ty Law (football), Jim Paciorek (baseball), Tripp Welborne (football) and Lexi Zimmerman (volleyball).
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When a weakness becomes a strength, it reveals much about the determination and work ethic of a student-athlete. It says that they enjoy a challenge and are anything but complacent.
When Sarah Cain arrived at the University of Michigan from Grand Island, Neb., during the 1996-97 school year, the uneven bars were her weakest event. But she was driven to make improvements there that helped catapult a memorable career which brought 12 NCAA All-American gymnastics honors.
She ended up gaining the most recognition as a superb performer in that competition, taking place on two parallel bars about 18 inches apart that are set horizontally at different heights on upright posts. Gymnasts swing and glide from one bar to the other while performing routines before making acrobatic dismounts.
Cain won more of her All-America honors on those uneven bars than any other event, claiming first-team recognition nationally in three separate years. She also was a two-time first-team All-American in the all-around, and the Big Ten Gymnast of the Year as both a freshman in 1997 and a senior in 2000.
She became one of the most decorated gymnasts in head coach Bev Plocki's highly-accomplished program, and Friday (Oct. 22) will be inducted into Michigan's Hall of Honor.
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Sarah Cain was a featured guest on the Oct. 21 edition of the Conqu'ring Heroes podcast, where she discussed her journey to U-M back in the late 1990s and reflects on the meaning of last year's team winning the program's first national championship.
Cain accomplished so much in gymnastics, but what she did on those uneven bars contributed the most to her developing into a Wolverine legend. Working with longtime Michigan assistant coach Scott Sherman helped that come about.
"He's an incredible technical coach," Cain said of Sherman. "He made my (uneven) bars what they became. Before coming to Michigan, I was not consistent on the bars. I wasn't putting it together and really struggled, and Scott made me the bar worker that I was.
"Ironically enough, it is the event that I ended up performing the best at the national level. I was second twice in nationals on the uneven bars. The other huge impact after Scott on the bars were my teammates. Prior to coming to Michigan, I trained by myself in the mornings and with teammates in the evenings, but never trained or competed at the level that I did. But a lot of my competing and traveling, I did by myself. It was rather lonely. Coming to Michigan, I had 12 to 17 other athletes who were at my skill level or better that me, who pushed me and really helped with my success."
Cain becomes the program's fourth Hall of Honor inductee.
"It's a huge honor," she said. "It's an incredible honor. I was shocked when (athletic director) Warde (Manuel) called to give me the news. That Beth Wymer (Humbles), Wendy Marshall (Martin) and Elise Ray(-Statz) are in it really means a lot. Beth was a little before my time but really big in making the program what it is today. Wendy was a senior when I took my recruiting visit to Michigan and so I got to spend some time with her. Elise was an incoming freshman after I was a senior, and some of us drove to Boston in 2000 when she made the U.S. Olympic team (and won a bronze medal)."
They all helped Plocki -- whose 25 Big Ten championships are the most for any conference coach in any sport -- build a gymnastics dynasty. Cain was on three of those Big Ten title teams, and also on three of Plocki's 10 NCAA Super Six squads, which included a No. 2 finish at the national meet in 1999.
"Bev's biggest impact was helping to boost my confidence and consistency," said Cain. "Prior to coming to Michigan, I had a lot of the skills, but was not nearly as consistent in competition."
Cain scored the perfect 10.0 from judges 11 times in her career, and won six Big Ten individual championships in addition to her dozen NCAA All-American honors. She won those in the all-around, floor exercise, vault and uneven bars. Yet, the balance beam remains her favorite event.
"I loved the balance beam," said Cain. "And it was the only event that I was not an All-American in. So, (laughter), the elusive balance beam. But I loved competing and practicing balance beam.
"I liked the challenge of that event. It's a very skinny apparatus. Being able to stay on and being consistent meet after meet. I really enjoyed it, and it was fun to practice and to perform."
Cain went from winning 1997 Big Ten Freshman of the Year and those two conference gymnast of the year awards to being named Michigan's Female Athlete of the Year as a senior in 2000.
What did she enjoy most from her college career?
"Twenty years later," said Cain, "two things really stand out. The experience was outstanding, and I felt lucky to be part of such an extraordinary program.
"The two team memories are winning the Big Ten championship in Minnesota my freshman year -- back when it was the last year that they combined the men's and women's championships. That was very special. The other was when we placed second in the NCAA Tournament in Utah. We had an incredible year my junior year, and it was just an incredible group of women, too."
Cain could have taken a completely different route to Michigan. She competed in the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival, and was invited to train at a more national setting. But she elected to stay home and compete for the Grand Island Twisters and coach Ricardo Appel.
"I had no interest in that at all," Cain said. "I did not want to leave my hometown, my club coach. I wasn't talented enough to really compete and be part of that Olympic level, and I realized that at 16 or 17. That wasn't my path. What was important to me was college, and in order to go to college, I knew I didn't have to move away."
Plocki once told the Michigan Daily: "Nebraska really felt they had a lock on her." Cain grew up just west of Lincoln, and many assumed she'd become a Cornhusker."
"I visited Nebraska, and they had a wonderful program, too," said Cain. "I had known the coach and program for a while, and was a big Nebraska sports fan. But after visiting Michigan and meeting the girls on the team, and the coaching staff, and just the university itself, I felt it was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. It felt like the best fit for me.
"I also took a visit to Stanford, and California felt very foreign to me. Michigan was still the Midwest and felt like home. And the whole combined package was exactly what I was looking for."
She graduated with a degree in organizational studies and was a volunteer coach for Plocki for two seasons.
"I really loved the two years I was able to spend coaching alongside Bev and Scott," said Cain. "It is pretty incredible that they are still a part of the program because a lot of coaches move along or retire. But it was really a fun experience coaching with them, and looking at it from a coaching perspective, rather than as an athlete.
"It didn't work out with schedules and things like that with my family to pursue it further. But I'll always be super grateful that I had the opportunity to do it at Michigan, and coach some really incredible talented athletes. So, it was a very positive experience."
Cain found a new home in Ann Arbor, where she still lives with husband, Sean, and three children: Jake, 15; Kellan, 12; and Scarlett, 11. She worked in photography and prepared-meals ventures, but has settled in over the last five years with an administrative position in the University of Michigan's Diabetes Research Center and the Elizabeth Weiser Caswell Diabetes Institute, which opened in 2020.
"I help with the pilot feasibility program, a summer student program that I facilitate, and a number of administrative-type duties," said Cain.
"I've stayed and I love Ann Arbor. It's a great community."
She's looking forward to the Hall of Honor induction with football players Ty Law and Tripp Welborne along with volleyball's Lexi Zimmerman, field hockey's Kelli Gannon and baseball's Jim Paciorek.
"I can't wait to get a picture with Ty Law," said Cain, who began chuckling at the thought of meeting the three-time Super Bowl champion and NFL Hall of Famer. "I told my family about who was going in with me, and my brother said, 'I have not bragged about anybody as much as I bragged about you the last couple of days. Those are some huge names you are being inducted with. That's a really big deal!'
"It's pretty cool. I'm a big fan of all the great people to come out of Michigan, and I'm really looking forward to meeting them all."
