Assistant Coach Kira Montuori made a tremendous impact to the Missouri program from the moment she stepped on campus in 2001. Montuori took the reigns of MU's fitness, choreography and balance beam regimens as a first-year assistant. In addition, she is responsible for coordinating Mizzou gymnastics camps and working with the official judges.
Under her tutelage, the Tigers have made tremendous strides setting various records in the floor exercise, including the school-record breaking performances during the 2002, 2003 and 2004 seasons.
Mizzou solidified the current floor standard scoring a 49.575 last season at both the Cat Classic and Mizzou Invitational. Montuori also coached Alisha Robinson and Lauren Schwartzman to record-breaking 9.975 performances on the floor in 2004.
Coaching the balance beam, Montuori helped the Tigers overpower its five top-10 records set in 2003. Last season the beam squad rewrote the recordbooks scoring eight of the program's top-10 marks, including Mizzou's top five all-time team scores.
Highlighting the feat, Montuori choreographed the routines that helped Schwartzman record the first perfect 10.000 beam performances in the history of the Tiger program. Adding to the accomplishment, Schwartzman won the Big 12 beam title and finished second at the Northeast Regional on the apparatus.
Reinforcing Montuori's influence with the Tiger program, she was honored as the 2004 South Central Regional Co-Assistant Coach of the Year by members of the National Gymnastics Coaches Association of America.
Seeing similar accomplishments, freshman Miranda Boekman earned All-Big 12 beam honors finishing second with a 9.925 conference score.
The Tigers' success under Montuori stems back to her tutelage of beam stand out Leah Gremaud, who tied Mizzou's previous record 9.925 four times during her career. She also helped Rachael Dombart to 9.925 beam routine that turned in a second-place finish at the 2002 Big 12 Championship.
Montuori is a 1996 graduate of the University of Illinois-Chicago where she earned a degree in communications. While at UIC, Montuori was a member of back-to-back Midwest Collegiate Championship teams. As a junior, Montuori recorded a career-high mark in the floor exercise helping UIC to their second MIC championship title. She also recorded a personal-best on the balance beam taking top honors in a dual meet against Illinois in 1995. In addition to excelling in the floor exercise and balance beam, Montuori recorded top marks on the vault during various meets for Illinois-Chicago.
In 1995, she was selected to the NCAA Region III all-region team while also beginning her two-year run as a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. In 1996, the Flames were invited to the National Invitational Tournament where they placed fourth.
A native of the Chicago, Ill. area, Montuori was an assistant coach on the club level at Gym Kinetics from 1996-2000 while working as an account executive at DiMeo & Co., a sports advertising firm that handles the likes of the Chicago Bulls.
Montuori was responsible for the Gym Kinetics recreational gymnastics classes and coaching the club's competitive team. She specialized in choreography for the beam and floor exercises. Montuori was presented with a special coaching award from her Gym Kinetics athletes for her dedication and commitment.
Montuori is working toward a master's degree in broadcast journalism from Mizzou. Formerly Kira Atkinson, she married Chad Montuori in August, 2004.
