There's a gym in my area (rivals - growl, growl) and two of their coaches are leaving - they're partners, so, yeah. They're moving away together to the Pacific Northwest, God only knows why. Especially since they can actually get married here now. I have no idea how their girls are going to fare.
Last year, one of everybody's favorite coaches left to go into real estate. She was just DONE with gymnastics - it really stressed her out, as she was the head coach for the compulsory levels, and she has two kids, blah blah. Her husband was coaching gymnastics at the college level, so I guess they made a joint decision that it was OVER. That was probably a good call...she still subs sometimes and she seems a lot more relaxed. Her daughter had a terrible time with her mummy as the coach - they were always yelling and crying and pushing. Sometimes it's not all about the gymmies, ya know.
The transition wasn't hard, since I'd had the other coaches before. It was kind of a "move up" in a way, since the ex-coach only coached compulsories, even though I was still doing level 6. I got to practice with the optionals and work optional skills, which was nice, since I wasn't the only teenager in the gym anymore. We had to get used to some things, though - the strength was run differently, and I may be a liiittle weaker than I was with the old coach. My skills are better, though, especially on beam and vault. I feel like I get more one-on-one with the new coach, since the old one had to deal with soooo many kids at one time.
I will always miss her saying "walkOVER" instead of "WALKover" though. And it was really hard to figure out that she was saying "acro series." I can't mimic a Russian accent as well as I used to since now I've got Midwest born-and-raised coaches. And I miss her stories about "In Soviet Russia..." She's really creative and good with choreography, and just generally awesome, so everyone is really excited when she subs. We'll love her forever! (Sorry, I got off on a tangent. I feel a little teary.)