In some ways, they stand out like three skyscrapers in the middle of a Nebraska cornfield. In other ways, they blend seamlessly into a kaleidoscope of leotards, braided hair and chalk dust.
They are never far from UF head coach Jenny Rowland.
"We are all super passionate in our own ways and I think that's what makes us work so well together,'' Rowland said. "I'm just super grateful to do something I love with my friends — and they are my best friends."
In her seventh season, Rowland has relied on the friendship, expertise and coaching ability of the three men of Gators gymnastics: assistant coaches Adrian Burde, Owen Field and Jeremy Miranda. The group has been with Rowland since she took over the program, with Burde and Miranda already at UF when she arrived. Field joined the staff soon after Rowland was hired.
As the Gators compete on Saturday night for a trip to the NCAA Championships, the fiery Burde will ooze intensity as he watches the UF gymnasts in the power events.
"I like to be on the floor,'' Burde said. "That's what I live for. On the floor, you feel so alive."
Nearby, the stylishly dressed Miranda will serve as an enthusiastic cheerleader and might even tell Rowland a joke if he senses she could use a laugh.
"I'm kind of an outsider when I step into a meet because I wasn't there all week for practice,'' said Miranda, whose full-time job is with Disney. "When I step in there, I'm just trying to be hyper aware of what everyone needs. I try to be that chameleon to make the environment light."
And when the stress rises, others will look to the calming presence of Field, reassured by his fist pumps and analytic mind.
"Everybody knows what they're going to get from me every single day,'' Field said. "It doesn't really change. I look to lighten things up sometimes. That's a big part, too. It's just gymnastics. It doesn't have to be that serious. I think sometimes people like to make it more serious than it has to be. We like to have a good time."
Each has a specific role. Burde is the vault and floor-exercise coach. Field coaches uneven bars. Miranda is the team's choreographer and volunteer assistant. As for that Nebraska cornfield reference earlier, that was not by accident.
Before they joined forces at Florida, their individual journeys took them through Lincoln, Neb.
"All three of us,'' Field said.
Burde has known Rowland the longest.
"In a different universe, an alternate world, Adrian and I met when he first moved to the United States," Rowland said.
The two go back to the late 1990s when Burde, who is from Romania, came to America to better his prospects back home. He took a job in Oklahoma coaching at the Bart Connor Gymnastics Academy, a training center owned by Connor and Nadia Comaneci, Connor's wife and star of the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Rowland was a coach at the academy when Burde got a job there. Burde had contacts at home who knew Comaneci, a fellow Romanian, and that is how he began his American adventure in Norman, Okla.
The former coach of Romania's junior national team, Burde planned to save money while coaching in the U.S. and then return to Romania to buy his own place and maybe start a family.
"Then I met a girl,'' he said. "I met my wife and everything changed. The rest is history."
Burde and his future wife, Darcie Lee, met after he left the Connor Gymnastics Academy to become an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska. Burde made an instant impact with the Cornhuskers and was named National Assistant Coach of the Year in 2003.
Romania was under communist rule from 1948-1989, and a way for young people to claim perhaps a more rewarding life was through sports. The communist regime offered educational and athletic programs geared toward building its future Olympic teams.
The tryouts drew hundreds of kids and only a few were selected. The day Burde attended, he initially got in line to try out for the track and field program. When that coach was late, and with Burde's mother rushed to get to work, she urged Burde to move over a line to try out for gymnastics.
"The system there is very centralized,'' Burde said. "If you choose a sport, you better be good at it. It was a privilege to be an athlete back then."
Burde passed the physical tests that existed on that day for a 6-year-old to be considered a budding young gymnast in Romania's eyes. He later competed for the Romanian Junior National Team and started his coaching career while with the team. Still, he couldn't live the life he wanted on the government's $250 monthly coaching salary, which prompted him to seek an opportunity in the U.S.
More than 20 years later, Burde is in his 16th season with the Gators and has helped the program become one of the best in this country.
"That's how I started gymnastics,'' Burde said. "It's pretty much by mistake. That brought me to the United States, because without gymnastics, I couldn't be here."
During Burde's five seasons at Nebraska, he not only met his future wife, he crossed paths with an eager, charismatic young elite gymnast interested in helping the Cornhuskers women's team. Burde didn't know anything about Jeremy Miranda, but he soon wanted to learn more.
Miranda clearly knew the sport and he connected with the gymnasts.
"They gave me a shot," Miranda said.
Miranda made such an impression on Burde during their season together at Nebraska in 2006 – Burde left after the season to come to Florida – that when the job of Gators choreographer opened after Burde's first season at UF, he recommended the kid he had met at Nebraska.
Miranda, once a pre-med major about to start his junior year of college, wondered what his parents would think about him dropping out of school for a semester to move to Florida and teach the Gators how to dance.
"Everything happened fast,'' Miranda said. "I did the interview. And then it was, 'when can you start?' There wasn't even any time to transfer. Thankfully, after I made the switch and got going at Florida, I was able to transfer to Florida that spring. I got my degree in dance performance.
"I don't what it is about Nebraska gymnastics, but the pipeline is everywhere, especially at Florida."
Miranda's impact is palpable each time a Gators gymnast pulls off an outstanding floor routine and the crowd at the O'Dome erupts.
"When he was at Nebraska, I did not know how good a choreographer he was,'' Burde said. "Honestly, I think he is the best in the country. The way he cuts the music and everything, it's just unbelievable."
A native of South Dakota, Miranda is in his 15th season with the Gators. He grew up around gymnastics and early on discovered a knack for recalling visual sequences related to movement and dance. He became the go-to guy when other gymnasts had trouble remembering their moves during practice.
Miranda could show them from memory. He became a gym favorite, which remains true to this day.
"He just brings so much energy to the team,'' Gators senior Savannah Schoenherr said. "I'm so thankful for him being at all our of meets and the positiveness that he brings to everyone."
Miranda will start the process of creating next season's music and choreography about two weeks after this season ends. There is a lot of back and forth with the gymnasts on the music, and once that is settled, the routine has to be developed.
Miranda considers himself fortunate to combine two of his passions – gymnastics and dance – into a career.
One that happened by showing up one day in Nebraska and asking if he could help out.
"I love it. It's a great way for me to give back to a sport that has given me so much," Miranda said.
Field is in his seventh season at Florida, which makes him the newest member of the staff. But like Burde and Miranda before him, Field worked at Nebraska under former Cornhuskers coach Dan Kendig.
However, Field's stint with the Cornhuskers came after Burde and Miranda had left, so he was the outsider when he first joined the Gators. In fact, he was a stranger to Rowland until his phone rang unexpectedly in 2015.
"I had never met her before,'' Field said. "Adrian and I sort of had a connection, and I knew Jeremy a little bit as well."
Field grew up in Wisconsin and his mother owned a gymnastics training facility. He played other sports, too, but Field's interest in gymnastics was too strong to overcome. Like Miranda, Field started college as a pre-med major.
That soon changed. He couldn't stay away from the sport, serving as a student manager at Nebraska and for one season as a volunteer assistant at Southern Utah while still an undergrad student.
In the gym, Field projects the image of a professor of the sport, watching and analyzing each move. He takes center stage when the Gators perform on uneven bars. Field provides assistance before each performance, and a hearty fist pump and hug afterward.
He is known as the team's Zen, and Miranda's morning-coffee partner on road trips.
"Owen's like a numbers man,'' Miranda said. "He is brilliant."
Field chuckles at his reputation amongst the team, but he admits there is some truth in it. That's who he is, a gym rat who embraces the big and small details the sport has to offer.
"I'm pretty consistent every day no matter what," he said. "I do let out a bit of excitement when they finish a routine. I know everything they put in every single day and all the hard work to turn around that performance."
The men of Gators gymnastics are part of the team behind the team. They arrived at different points and via different paths, the one common thread colored red and white, and located in the heart of Nebraska.
The trio forms a strong team for the Gators to lean on.
"I'm probably a little biased, but I honestly feel like we definitely have one of the best coaching staffs in the nation,'' Schoenherr said. "Each of them is so different but have the same goals in mind. And even though sometimes reaching those goals might look different for them in the way they carry out their coaching tactics, they are all so awesome and bring so much to the team."
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