Fernando Villa
Born and raised in Bakersfield, California. Started coaching gymnastics in 1995 at California Flips Gymnastics in Bakersfield as a Level 1 and Level 2 Coach. After a month he was responsible for a Level 3 and Level 4 group. Within the year, Fernando was assisting with the Optional gymnasts. Fernando always arrived at least an hour early to observe and absorb as much as possible from the older coaches.
In 1996 Fernando started working with Lavinia Agache, Romanian Olympian (1984 Team Gold), at Star Gymnastics in Bakersfield. Lavinia was a former student of Bela and Marta Karolyi before their defection to the United States. After 3 years of assisting Lavinia, due to her leaving for Florida, Fernando coached at AGA Long Beach from 1999 to 2001 and then at another gym until 2006.
After 11 years of coaching non stop, often long stretches of spotting 7 days a week, Fernando left coaching briefly in late 2006 to find himself and physically recover in the Northwest. After a month of rest, Fernando was inundated with coaching offers and began flying back to Bakersfield to coach weekly.
Fernando and West Coast Elite Gymnastics first crossed paths in 2007 shortly after WCEG opened. Fernando agreed to come out weekly to work with a couple of our gymnasts. In June 2009, Fernando and Toni Angelova, his soul mate in Coaching, agreed to head up the program at WCEG.