Maile'ana Kanewa-Hermelyn - Women's Gymnastics Coach - University of Michigan Athletics

Maile'ana Kanewa-Hermelyn

Title:
Assistant Coach

Maile'ana Kanewa-Hermelyn was announced as the head coach of the Michigan women’s gymnastics team on July 16, 2025, after spending seven total seasons with the coaching staff – six as a full-time assistant (2020-2025) and one as a volunteer assistant coach (2019).

Kanewa-Hermelyn becomes the seventh head coach in Michigan program history, dating back to 1976, and assumes full control of the U-M women’s gymnastics program following the retirement of 36-year head coach Bev Plocki.

Kanewa-Hermelyn was the WCGA Assistant Coach of the Year along with Scott Sherman and Lexi Funk following the Wolverines national title in 2021 and is a three-time Regional Assistant Coach of the Year with her first coming in the 2020 season. During her tenure, Michigan earned its first-ever national title in the 2021 season and has won three Big Ten Championships and four Big Ten regular season titles.

Kanewa-Hermelyn helped coach the Wolverines to their 27th Big Ten Title in the 2023 campaign and earn six scores of 198+. On the beam, Kanewa-Hermelyn led the Wolverines to a program record 49.625 against both Nebraska and Minnesota and was an integral part of Michigan's six weeks ranking No. 1 nationally on floor after choreographing Michigan's routines. In 2024, Kanewa-Hermelyn's beam team ranked as high as sixth nationally, while she helped the Wolverines floor squad to a No. 4 ranking and the vault to a No. 23 ranking. During the 2025 season, sophomore Kayli Boozer was the College Gym News Breakthrough Athlete of the Year after breaking into three lineups with the help of Kanewa-Hermelyn.

After the national championship season, the Wolverines topped the national rankings for nine straight weeks to start the 2022 season and continued to set a new standard for Michigan gymnastics. The Wolverines set a program record with a 198.525 at Rutgers, which at the time ranked as the sixth-highest score in NCAA history. In the same meet, U-M set a program record on the vault with a 49.875, the second highest in NCAA history at the time, which included three straight perfect 10.0s. Michigan also broke its previous floor record, recording a 49.750 at home against Auburn and West Virginia.

In her second season as a full-time assistant coach, she helped Michigan to its first national championship with a program-best 198.2500. The Wolverines eclipsed the 198 mark for the first time in 2021 and ended the season with four scores of 198.000 or higher. U-M also broke the U-M balance beam (49.600) and uneven bars (49.725) records, while notching the second-best score in program history on the vault with a 49.800. The Wolverines finished the regular season ranked in the top 15 in all four events, including leading the nation on the vault, and went into the NCAA Championships ranked second nationally.

Following the 2020 season, she was named the WCGA Northeast Regional Assistant Coach of the Year. U-M won the 2020 Big Ten regular season title before the postseason was canceled due to the COVID-19 illness.

Kanewa-Hermelyn coached the team to a NCAA Championship appearance and fifth-place finish in 2019. The Wolverines finished second at the Ann Arbor NCAA Regional and won both the 2019 Big Ten Championship and Big Ten regular-season title with a 9-0 record. The team had four gymnasts earn eight All-America honors, including a NCAA Champion on balance beam (Natalie Wojcik). Three gymnasts combined for four Big Ten individual titles. Six Wolverines were named to the All-Big Ten team, including Wojcik, who earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Kanewa-Hermelyn was a gymnast at Oklahoma from 2012-16 and was a part of two national championship teams in 2014 and 2016. She earned All-America honors on both vault and floor in 2014 and finished fourth on vault and as the NCAA runner-up on floor. She also was a two-time Big 12 vault champion (2013, 2014).

As a senior, Kanewa-Hermelyn was a member of the captain's table for student-athletes. She earned NACGC/W Scholastic All-America honors all four years and was a two-time Academic All-Big 12 selection. She earned the Athletics Council Achievement Award in 2015-16 and graduated from Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in human relations in 2016.

Upon graduation, Kanewa-Hermelyn was a student assistant coach at Oklahoma where she helped coach the team to the third national title in program history.

Kanewa-Hermelyn received her master's degree in human relations from the University of Oklahoma in May 2018. While in graduate school, she worked as a graduate assistant in athletic development for the Sooners, aiding in fundraising and growing a donor base.