Alabama Gymnastics Coach Cuts Back Schedule

David Patterson, who has helped his wife, Sarah, build the Alabama gymnastics program into a national power for the past 30 years, is cutting back his schedule due to a chronic back injury.

Sarah Patterson announced a reorganization of her staff Tuesday. David Patterson will become the staff’s volunteer assistant coach, while volunteer coach Dana Dobransky Duckworth, a past NCAA balance beam champion at Alabama, becomes the full-time assistant.

David Patterson had surgery after the 2005 season to fuse four vertebrae in his spine to help chronic back problems that had been bothering him for years.

“They wanted to do it when I was in college,” he said. “I guess I waited a little too long.”