Raising the Bar for Carolina Gymnastics
by Andrew Stilwell // March 4, 2026
This story is a part of our 2026 Women's History Month series – highlighting the stories and relationships of the women and women's programs here at Carolina Athletics.
This story is a part of our 2026 Women’s History Month series – highlighting the stories and relationships of the women and women’s programs here at Carolina Athletics.
In college athletics, championship teams aren’t built on the talent of student-athletes alone. Programs are built on belief, investment, and talented people who are willing to push something forward long before the results appear. For Carolina Gymnastics, that momentum is taking shape, thanks in part to a growing relationship between Head Coach Danna Durante and Tracy Knowles Lutz, a former Tar Heel gymnast turned passionate program supporter.
“Being a gymnast at Carolina has served me so well in the rest of my life. The education I received from being a student-athlete was just as important to my business life as the actual classes I took,” Lutz said. “This program and this University gave so much to us, and now it’s time to give back to it.”
JOINING THE ROTATION
Following a successful career as an attorney, Lutz had recently retired and found herself with an abundance of time and in need of a project. It was an email from The Rams Club during the fall of 2025 that connected the former gymnast to the current leadership of the program.
“The Football team was headed down to Florida to play UCF, and I think they wanted to meet and connect with alumni and donors in the area,” Durante said. “They came across Tracy, who had recently retired and the conversation was essentially ‘I have time, and I need a project, and I’m so ready to give back to Carolina and want to be involved with the Gymnastics program. I want to help, how can I do it?’”
“I had given to the program in the past as an alum, but the timing of that email couldn’t have been any better,” added Lutz. “Being in business for as long as I was, I know people, and I have a sense for people. After our first conversation, I just knew that Danna has the potential to take this team to the top; it’s just a matter if she has the resources to do it.”
When Lutz saw what Durante was building in Chapel Hill, she recognized something familiar. It took her back to her days as a collegiate gymnast at Carolina, where she learned that the sport was less about individual accolades, but rather the success of a team.
“When I came to Carolina, it was such an eye-opening experience,” she said. “When you’re a club gymnast, it’s very focused on the individual and what you’re doing. In college, it’s all about the team. Danna has the right mentality. She’s focused on the things that matter to the team. She’s not just training gymnasts, she’s raising young women, and it translates organically and naturally into their performance. She’s giving that gift to this next generation of women, and she’s setting them up for a life of success.”
POWER IN EVERY CORNER
A key goal for Durante is continuing to grow the support and connection with alumni within the gymnastics program, an area that the fifth-year Carolina coach admits hasn’t been fully explored – yet.
“I’ve always wanted to get better at growing our alumni connection, and we’ve tried to do some different things, but we wear 1,000 hats here at Carolina, as all coaches do. It’s an area where we’ve scratched the surface a bit but have not gotten anywhere close to where we’ve wanted to get from an alumni connection,” said Durante. “And Tracy has said ‘I’ll help you build out that database and get connected.’ We want her to be as involved as she would like to be, and we’ll start with this alumni connection and database, making sure we have all of the correct information.”
“I know having her help us with this alumni connection is already paying dividends,” Durante continued. “In the next several years, I feel like we’ll be able to grow that alumni night. Would love to have 30, 50, 100 alumni come back and be able to see each other and connect with not only our current student-athletes, but also their former teammates and other generations.”
With Tracy’s support, opportunities that once felt out of reach have begun to take shape, giving the program the ability to move forward in ways it simply hadn’t before.
“We’ve been able to do some things this year that we haven’t been able to do before, which are tremendous. I think part of our team’s success is, you know, Tracy jumping in and going, ‘Hey, let me help with this, this, and this.’ I don’t think it’s a shock that we’re ranked higher than we’ve ever been when we have people like Tracy coming along and helping us. Whether it is with alumni connection or financial support, it all makes a difference for these student-athletes.”
Lutz’s pitch to her fellow alums is two-fold – first, help the team to succeed, and second, match the gift that Carolina gave to her and her teammates.
“I tell them, ‘Hey, we have the potential with this coaching staff to take this team to be a top-level team, and selfishly, we should want to see our team out there competing with the best.’” Lutz laughed. “But my second pitch involves how much the program and the University gave to us, and it’s time that we give back to it. To build a team like that, you have to have successes. Danna’s taking care of the successes, and it’s just the resources you need to have in order to get there.”
While rebuilding alumni ties has strengthened the program’s foundation, Durante believes Tracy’s greatest impact is something less tangible – and far more powerful.
IMPACT THAT STICKS: WOMEN SUPPORTING WOMEN
As the coach of a women’s Olympic sport, it’s not lost on Durante the impact of having a strong support system that also happens to be female.
“I often think about how we bring other strong, successful, and empathetic women like Tracy, who have the life experiences and can articulate them. It means so much more to the student-athletes,” Durante said. “Yes, the student-athletes trust us as coaches. They listen to us. They’re coachable, but sometimes, that other voice, a strong female voice that has lived that journey to come alongside us and say ‘Hey, let me tell you about my experience,’ has a significant impact.”
“I do feel very passionate about surrounding our program with women like Tracy, not just because she’s an alum or a donor, but because she is strong and she is successful,” Durante continued. “At Carolina we’ve been able to find more women who’ve been a part of that program before and say, ‘Hey, let me come alongside you. Let me talk to your team. Let me support you in some form or fashion. How can I help?’”
For Lutz, what started as a simple desire to give back has become something far larger – a lasting investment in the future of Carolina Gymnastics and the young women who will shape the program’s future for years to come.
“I’m perfectly comfortable being a behind-the-scenes type of person,” she said. “I just want to continue to support Danna and what she and the program need.”
