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My Carolina Experience: Stacy Wood
July 19, 2016 | Women's Gymnastics
My Carolina Experience: Stacy Wood
By Zoya Johnson, GoHeels.com
Believe it or not, Stacy Wood began doing gymnastics in the basement of a family friend's home. Her mother wanted to keep her active, so she was given a choice between ice skating, tennis and gymnastics. Through the highly deductive devices of her five-year-old mind she concluded that doing cartwheels all over the yard looked like fun, so Wood chose gymnastics.
After quickly outgrowing the basement and then local gyms, she started making the commute to a competitive facility an hour and a half away in Syracuse, N.Y. Before long her skill set again called for Wood to make the switch to a more reputable facility in Buffalo, N.Y.
In order for her to make it to 2:30 practice, Wood left school by 12:30 every day and took the bus, and at times, an airplane. During the school year her parents would drop her off at the bus station or the airport and her coach would pick her up. During the summer she lived with families in the Buffalo area to make the commute a little less strenuous, and she saw her family on the weekends.
By age 14 it had all become too much. Wood (who competed at Carolina as Stacy Kaplan, her maiden name) says, “It was no longer fun. So, midway through my freshman year of high school I told my parents, who were extremely supportive, and we decided to finish out the season since I had World Games Trials and a few other big meets coming up. Then I just quit cold turkey.”
Suddenly Wood was a normal high school student, participating on the tennis and track teams and auditioning for a school play. In her sophomore year one of her friends suggested that she consider joining the high school gymnastics team. “I thought it might be a fun way to dabble in gymnastics again. I was still doing the same difficulty, just not under that same level of pressure and in a much more team-oriented atmosphere.” Wood fell in love with the sport again, and those three years of being on her high school team reignited her passion to want to compete at the collegiate level.
“When I was narrowing down my college choices, North Carolina and Michigan rose to the top academically and athletically. I went on a recruiting trip to Michigan first and it was fine, but when I visited UNC there was no comparison. The weather, the people, the academic options—it was all great. On top of that, Derek Galvin was a fantastic coach. I could just tell from our first meeting that he truly cared about mentoring young women and creating well-rounded student athletes. I headed home from my visit knowing that Carolina was where I was going to school.”
Wood has always been extremely goal-driven in all aspects of her life, and that continued during her tenure at Carolina. She says, “When I was in high school I thought I might want to be a lawyer so my dad introduced me to a woman in our neighborhood who was the first female partner in a law firm in Rochester, N.Y. I went to work with her for a day and from that point on becoming a lawyer was my career goal.
“On the athletic front my goal was just to be the best I could be. One of the things my dad always said to me was, 'Promise good, deliver great.' Exceeding expectations is still my mantra today.”
Wood would become the first Carolina gymnast in history to qualify for the NCAA regionals and nationals. She excelled in vault and all-around throughout her Carolina career. She lifted her team at UNC to new heights in the late 1980s and was the most prominent gymnast in the Carolina program in Galvin's early years at the helm.
She says, “That was an honor I wish I shared with my team, but it was also special to feel like I was representing Carolina in something that no gymnast had ever done before. Hopefully it helped pave the way for many to come.
“Socially, I didn't want to fall into just being a student athlete, so sophomore year I decided to rush a sorority. That was completely out of my comfort zone at the time, but I felt it would expose me to a whole different group of people at Carolina who were committed to getting involved with different things. Rushing Kappa Delta really helped make my Carolina experience that much more well-rounded.”
Since graduating from Carolina, Wood has channeled her athletic and competitive focus into distance running. At this point in her life, she has run 41 marathons across the United States as she supports her husband's goal of completing a marathon in all 50 states. She also enjoys supporting her teenage children in their athletic pursuits. “I love watching my family members set goals and achieve or exceed those goals, all while developing a healthy competitive spirit.”
Wood says her biggest takeaway from her Carolina experience is the life skill of learning to balance multiple pulls on your time. “I think it is invaluable. Even now as an employment lawyer at Parker, Poe in Charlotte, N.C., I really believe I am successful because I lead a full life outside of the office. I like to be fully engaged because it keeps me active, fit and focused. I think the more well-rounded you are as a person, the more effective you are in each area of your life.”
Wood reflects, “The validation I received at Carolina that I could excel academically and athletically in an environment that was healthy and productive and full of positive memories means the world to me. Even now in races and in life, it's all about setting small goals to get to the finish line and making sure you're having fun along the way.”