When Illinois Women's Gymnastics Coach Lynn Crane steps on to the Rec Hall floor Saturday night for the Big Ten Championships, she knows she will experience different emotions than her coaching counterparts. Because Saturday night, Crane returns to the place where she carved out a gymnastics legacy just a few short years ago.

"It will be emotional," Crane said, "I'll feel overwhelmed, but in a good way."

Crane, a Penn State star gymnast from 1988 to 1991, graduated just three short years ago. But she left a lasting impression.

"What a gem," Lady Lion Coach Steve Shephard said, "She was the kind of person that never let anything get her down. Her senior year, she had almost a stress fracture in her wrist and she still competed."

It was that kind of attitude that led the Penn State gymnastics program to immortalize Crane by naming an award after her. "The Lynn Crane Attitude Award," is given at the end of the season to the Lady Lion who best exemplifies Crane's positive attitude and work ethic. However, Crane set such a high standard, that if no gymnast is deemed worthy of the award, it is simply not given.

However Lynn Crane was more than just a role model, she was also a great performer. As a sophomore she set a school record on the uneven bars -- a 9.75, since broken -- and finished in the top 20 of the NCAA's all-arounders. As a senior she finished in the top 15, and co-captained the Lady Lions to fifth in the nation.

"She was a great athlete, extremely consistent and dependable," Crane's college coach Judi Avener said, noting performance similarities between Crane and current Lady Lion junior Tracy Kerner.

Crane has continued to stand out, as evidenced by her meteoric rise to a head coaching job in one of the nation's marquee conferences. It's a job she almost walked into by accident.

After graduation, Crane went to Pittsburgh to put her degree in elementary education to use. She taught until the summer of 1992, when she followed Avener to Florida, acting as a graduate assistant coach while enrolled in the school's exercise and sport science graduate program.

After the season, Crane heard about the opening at Illinois. Although she said she, "wasn't really looking for a coaching job at the time," she inquired about it anyway. Apparently Illinois was looking for the Lynn Crane-type, because they hired her immediately. So at the ripe old age of 25, and with limited experience, she was a Big Ten head coach.

She called her first year at Illinois "fantastic," praising the Illinois athletic department and her gymnasts. Looking back on the season, she thinks her youth helped her relate to her gymnasts and potential recruits.

Crane said she has high goals for Illinois, which in recent years has been a conference weak sister. The Illini finished last among the Big Ten's seven teams at last season's championships and have not qualified for regionals in five years. They also have the lowest seasonal average in the conference. But Crane is still positive.

"I want to get this team in nationals," she said.

And people at Penn State are still positive when it comes to Crane: "Lynn was a really close friend of mine," Lady Lion senior Coby Silver said. "She was like a mentor to me."

Lady Lion Assistant Coach Jessica Bastardi, still one of Crane's closest friends, said, "She's always looking for the positive in everything."

Lynn Crane and the Illinois gymnasts will be arriving in town this weekend, and the State College weather forecast is calling for a warming trend. Perfect. Like the proverb says: wherever you go, you take the weather with you.