In René Cook's first eight seasons as a head coach, she's taken an Arkansas program from non-existence to seven consecutive NCAA Regional appearances, four trips to the NCAA Championship in eight years, including four in the last five seasons, one trip to the NCAA Super Six, one NCAA regional title, and helped produce 21 All-America selections and 10 NCAA individual event participants. 

Cook has also coached three first-team All-Americans on balance beam at Arkansas, including Casey Jo Magee, the 2009 SEC champion, a two-time NCAA Regional champion and No. 1-ranked beam worker in the nation in 2010. The primary beam coach, Cook has guided Arkansas to four straight top 15 overall national rankings. The 2010 squad was No. 9 on beam and produced the first No. 1-ranked Razorback in school history. Magee was No. 1 in the country on beam on March 1 and March 8, and tied for the top spot on March 22.

Arkansas was No. 11 overall in the nation in 2010, finished second in the NCAA West Regional, advanced to the NCAA Championship for the third consecutive season, placed No. 11 in the nation in average attendance for its eighth straight top 15 ranking, led the SEC in team grade point average and ranked No. 16 in the country, set school records for overall team score and on bars, recorded five of the top eight overall team scores in program history and had wins over eight top 25 ranked opponents.

Individually, Magee and Jaime Pisani combined for seven All-America honors with Magee a first-teamer in the all-around, on bars, beam and floor; and Pisani a first-teamer on vault and floor, and a second-teamer in the all-around. The pair also combined for six appearances in the NCAA individual event finals. Magee was second in the nation in the all-around, the highest finish ever for a Razorback, and fourth on beam, tied for fifth on bars and 12th on floor. Pisani was 10th on floor and 12th on vault.

In 2009, Arkansas advanced to the NCAA Super Six for the first time in school history, finished fifth in the NCAA Championship and had a No. 5 final ranking, and recorded wins over No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Utah, No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 LSU, No. 6 Oregon State, No. 7 UCLA, No. 7 Oklahoma and No. 9 Alabama. Alexandra LaChance and Sarah Nagashima earned first-team All-America honors while Magee was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection. Magee also won 2009 SEC and NCAA South Central Regional beam titles.

In 2008, Arkansas had wins over No. 6 Alabama, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 9 UCLA, No. 12 Penn State and No. 14 Auburn. Arkansas finished second in the NCAA North Central Regional and advanced to the NCAA Championship. Arkansas finished the year ranked No. 10 in the nation.

The 2007 squad finished third in the NCAA Northeast Regional and had regular-season wins over No. 14 Auburn and No. 14 Penn State.

The Razorbacks were ranked No. 15 at the end of the season with a No. 10 ranking on beam.

Cook also spearheads Arkansas' commitment in the classroom with the Razorbacks leading the SEC and placing 16th in the country in 2010 with a team grade point average of 3.4369. Arkansas was also No. 16 in 2009 with a 3.4309 GPA, No. 14 in 2003, No. 10 in 2004, No. 7 in 2005 and No. 21 in 2007.

Cook's teams have posted a 3.30 GPA or better each year. She has coached five All-Southeastern Conference selections, five All-Americans to 21 selections, 60 SEC Academic Honor Roll members, 54 National Association for Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches for Women Academic Scholar Athletes and numerous Arkansas Women's Athletics Department Honor Roll selections.

Cook also oversees production of floor music, floor choreography, team building, and assists on vault and floor exercise coaching.
In addition to her full complement of coaching duties in the gym, she spends numerous hours recruiting and coordinating the staff's recruiting efforts.

STARTING A PROGRAM
When Cook moved to Fayetteville in 2001, her assignment was to turn Arkansas gymnastics into a nationally competitive, academically superior crowd-pleasing program - from scratch.

When she arrived, there was no gym, no equipment, no leotards and no team, but on May 7, 2001, she accepted that challenge and quickly built Arkansas into a program any coach would be proud of. Cook's initial duties included consulting on the construction of one of the nation's best practice facilities and assembling a team good enough to compete in the country's toughest gymnastics conference, the Southeastern Conference.

Cook, along with husband and co-head coach Mark Cook, inked a recruiting class of 11 freshmen, convincing the team to take a chance on building a program from the ground up.

The first team finished the year with a No. 41 national ranking, including a No. 38 rating on beam. The second season, 2004, Arkansas made its first NCAA appearance and was ranked No. 20 overall and tied for No. 16 on beam. The 2005 team also advanced to a regional, and finished with an overall ranking of No. 26 and a beam ranking of No. 13.

In 2006, the first recruiting class in school history helped Arkansas upset No. 9 UCLA in the NCAA South Central Regional, took the Razorbacks to their first NCAA Championship and ended the year ranked No. 12 with a No. 18 beam ranking.

PRIOR TO ARKANSAS
Together with her husband Mark, René helped lead Stanford to its first Pac-10 championship in women's gymnastics in 1998 and repeated the feat in 2001. Under the Cooks' tutelage, the Cardinal had its first national champion gymnast, Larissa Fontaine, on vault in 1997. Cook also coached numerous All-Americans while at Stanford, including three on beam. Among those, Lindsey Wing finished second in the NCAA Individual Even Finals and Katy Herbert finished third.

In addition to coaching Magee to the 2009 SEC beam title, she coached two Pac-10 champions and two NCAA Regional title winners at Stanford.

The Cooks produced Stanford's first NCAA Regional champions as well, picking up four in their four seasons with the Cardinal. Stanford enjoyed success in the classroom as well with 14 Scholastic All-America selections and 17 selections to the Pac-10 All-Academic Team during the Cooks' time in Palo Alto.

Before moving to Stanford as the assistant coach, Cook was the assistant coach at Penn State for the 1997 season. She helped the Lady Lions to the NCAA Northeast Region title and an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Championship.

Cook worked for three seasons as the assistant coach at Massachusetts prior to Penn State. At UMass, she was responsible for balance beam and assisted with recruiting.

She also coached an NCAA Regional beam champion at both Penn State and UMass.