There was a time when a high school boy didn't know which way to turn.

Was it going to be wrestling, or was it going to be gymnastics?

That boy was Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson and, as it turned out, he made the right decision.

Jepson was named the 2004 National Coach of the Year after leading the Nittany Lions to the 2004 NCAA team championship.

Jepson, a native of Oregon, entered college gymnastics at the University of Oregon even though he didn't have a club background like many gymnasts.

However, he competed at Oregon for three years before the school dropped its gymnastics program, which resulted in Jepson's move to Pennsylvania.

"I fell in love with the place," Jepson said of Happy Valley. "I was enamored with the history and tradition, as well as the respect that the program had around the country."

In his year with the Lions Jepson was the team captain and earned All-America status on the still rings, scoring a perfect 10 on the apparatus against a team from the Soviet Union.

Directly following his competitive career, Jepson joined the Penn State coaching staff as a graduate assistant and was promoted to assistant coach during the 1985-86 season.

"I always wanted to coach," Jepson said. "When I finished high school, I loved gymnastics and I wanted to be a coach in some capacity."

Jepson's days of assistant coaching at Penn State came to an end because in July of 1992, just 15 months after being named the Assistant Coach of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches (NACGC), he was appointed to be the head coach at Penn State.

"To be able to put myself in a position to coach at Penn State was just an unbelievable blessing," Jepson said. "There was an expected tradition of success to continue ... This is a very special place in the country for men's gymnastics."

Jepson became just the Lions' third head coach in 64 years, following Gene Wettstone and Karl Schier.

Jepson had an immense reputation to uphold, as the coaching lineage was historically renowned, thanks to Wettstone's nine NCAA championships during his 47-year tenure.

Jepson has done everything expected of him in his 13 years at the helm. He led the Lions to the program's first Big Ten conference championship in 2003 and was also honored as the Big Ten Coach of the Year. He's guided the Lions to seven top-5 finishes at the NCAA Championships, including the national championship in 2000, for which he earned his first National Coach of the Year honor.

This year Jepson coached his team to the top of the gymnastics world once again and won his second national championship, as well as his second National Coach of the Year award. Jepson's two NCAA titles, coupled with Wettstone's nine, give Penn State an NCAA-record 11 team titles.

Jepson says the differences between his two national championship teams are as obvious as the differences between his childhood passions, wrestling and gymnastics.

"The biggest difference was the first team that we had was very experienced and a very, very talented team," Jepson said.

"Coming into the season, I really didn't think we'd have the kind of season we had," Jepson said of 2004. "But, as the fall progressed, we kept getting better and better and the guys were buying into what we were telling them."

After Christmas Jepson started to think he had a real team on his hands, and it was the first time in his career that he can remember feeling that a team was really ready for the season.

Jepson couldn't have been more prophetic as his team finished off the competition in Champaign, Ill., on its way to the NCAA title Saturday night.

When the team finished its vaulting routines the athletes knew they had won and Jepson reflected on the year.

"I just sat back and looked at the team as they celebrated because I'll get that moment again, but some of those guys won't," Jepson said. "It just all culminated in that moment ... it was just really magical."

The expectations of the Penn State program and of Jepson, himself, when he took over as head coach in 1992 were producing a quality product and being a certain person to represent the team.

"I've taken that to heart," Jepson said. "It's very important to me that we do things right."

So far, there hasn't been much he's done wrong.