For more than 40 years Linda Gooch has been the Head Coach for our UCF Spirit Team. During that time she has led the program to five College Cheerleading National Championships with the most recent in January of 2024. Additionally, her teams have finished in the top three in the nation in 21 of the past 30 years.
Nationally recognized among her peers, Linda Gooch is one of the most decorated cheerleading coaches of all-time. In 2011 she was recognized on ESPN at the college national championships with the Gene Mollar Award, naming her the Division IA coach of the year. An alumna and former four-year letter-winner, Coach Gooch earned the “Shining Knight Award” as a distinguished alumni in 2020, in 2022 she was inducted into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame, and in October of 2024 she became the first and only cheerleading coach ever inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame.
The longest-tenured employee in the UCF athletics department, Coach Gooch was instrumental in the creation and design of the UCF athletics mascot Knightro in 1994 and in 1996 she also established the UCF Dance Team. Linda Gooch graduated from UCF in 1985 with a degree in Social Science Education and is married to former long-time UCF Football coach (also an alumni and hall of fame member) Alan Gooch. Alan and Linda have two adult children: Zach and Natalie.