By Matt Gade

605 Sports

WALL — Three years ago, when Regan Peterson (Simons) started coaching the Wall/Kadoka Area/Philip gymnastics team, she thought she knew how techniques were supposed to be done, routines perfected and her gymnasts would do it her way.

Now into her third year as head coach of the Eagles gymnastics team, the former Eagle gymnast herself realized that what works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for someone else.

“I think coming in, I was kind of arrogant, thinking that I knew a lot of things. And every year I feel like I just get humbled more and more with like, ‘Oh, this I definitely was doing wrong.’ And then I can turn around and have a different perspective on things. And now I'm better about listening to the girls about the things that they want,” said Peterson, who graduated in 2022. “When I first started coaching, it was like, ‘This is what I want. Yeah, this is what I want. It doesn't matter what you want.’ But now I've come to learn that that doesn't really work too much with girls.”

Wall/Kadoka Area/Philip head coach Regan Peterson, left, and Athena Simons adjust the bars height before warming up during a quadrangular at Hot Springs on Jan. 9. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

When Peterson took over in the 2023-24 season, her middle sister, Athena, was a sophomore on the gymnastics team and her youngest sister, Claire, a sixth-grader.

“I feel like that first year she was super strict with some, and in some cases, it is good, I think. But I think there has been a lot of give and take, just bending,” Athena said. “We sometimes have to bend to her, and she sometimes has to bend to us, but in the end, I think we are really good at respecting her final decision and respecting that she's the coach, and she gets the final say.”

Athena said one of the biggest positives she’s seen from her sister, Regan, was her willingness to advocate for off-season practice.

“When she was my teammate, she was coaching me anyway, so it wasn't a huge transformation,” Athena said. “It just feels like she's done a lot more research on gymnastics and getting more education on it. I feel it really helps us as individuals and as a team, because I think she puts a lot of time into her job, and we've had a lot of coaches over the years, and I think it's important to have a coach that wants to help us get better. Not just at practice, but takes her free time and researches and gets more education on it.”

Wall/Kadoka Area/Philip head coach Regan Peterson, center, talks to the Eagles team in between rotations during a quadrangular at Hot Springs on Jan. 9. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

While during the regular season the Eagles practice at the Powerhouse gym in Wall, the gymnastics equipment has to be taken down in the off-season. 

Despite the equipment being taken down, Regan has the girls come into the gym regularly in the off-season to work on one of the specific events, rotating which one. 

Regan also took the team to Rapid City a couple of times to train at the Rapid City Gymnastics Academy.

“We'll set up the beam or the vault, even the bars, and just kind of work. And then once in a while, I'll take them up to Rapid (City) to RCGA with Tim Trimble, and we'll work on stuff up there,” Regan said. “We did a camp in Hot Springs over the summer. That was the first time I've been to that camp, and that was really good. I thought the girl learned a lot.”

Regan, Athena and Claire are three of Sanden and Elaine Simons' four children. The girls have a brother, Thane, who is between Regan and Athena. 

“Athena has a big, a very big personality. She's very bubbly, very joyful,” Regan said. “She's a big, big leader on our team, obviously, just because she's the senior and then Claire is kind of more quiet and reserved. 

“They're kind of opposites that way. Claire is very meticulous about everything she does and quiet. I think I was somewhere in between. I wasn't one way or the other.”

Wall/Kadoka Area/Philip head coach Regan Peterson hugs Claire Simons after her routine on the beam during a quadrangular at Hot Springs on Jan. 9. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

For Claire, being eight years younger than Regan, she said, despite not being able to compete with Regan, she said having her as a coach has been a fun experience.

“I wish I would have gotten to compete with her, because I didn't understand what she was doing well when she was competing,” Claire said. “But now, when I look back, I think it would have been really cool to have done that, to compete together. But to have her as a coach is really nice.” 

On Dec. 29, the Eagles celebrated their lone senior, Athena, with Regan recognizing how much she’s enjoyed being able to coach her the past three seasons.

“It means the world to me,” Regan said of getting to coach her sisters. “It's all these extra hours that I got to spend with them in the gym that mean a lot to me, because I could have been gone for all those extra years, and now I'm here, and I get to watch them grow in ways that I would have never gotten to watch them grow. Not just as gymnasts, but also as people.”

Even though, at times, that might include an eye roll or side eye glare from her sister.

“It's just a sister thing,” Athena said of her eye rolls. “I totally respect her as a coach, and I'm so appreciative that she took the job, and I think over the years, as she continues, I think it's really going to help our program, because she really puts a lot of time and effort into it. I think the eye roll thing is kind of just some frustrations between sisters, but we always get over it.”

Regan said, despite the occasional eye roll in her direction, her sisters are good about giving her respect as the coach.

As the season winds down, Regan said she’s taking in her last year getting to coach both her sisters together.

“I'm really glad that she's our coach,” Claire said. “She still comes over every once in a while without being a gymnastics coach, but sometimes after practice she'll come and hang out with us, and we get to see her kid a lot more. I feel like it's brought a lot of joy to our family.”

Wall/Kadoka Area/Philip senior Athena Simons hugs head coach and her sister Regan Peterson ahead of a dual against Hot Springs dual on Dec. 29, 2025 at the Powerhouse in Wall. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)