General | 12/22/2016 9:52:00 AM

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – West Liberty University co-interim athletic director Lynn Ullom has announced the hiring of Treasure Fields as the first head coach for the Hilltoppers' Acrobatics and Tumbling program.
 Fields, a former A&T standout at Concordia (Wis.) University, comes to West Liberty after serving as a graduate assistant at Concordia. She will arrive on the WLU campus in January to begin the process of assembling a roster for the Hilltoppers' inaugural season in the spring of 2018. 
"I'm very excited to welcome Treasure to West Liberty," Ullom said. "She impressed us as an individual who is extremely passionate about building Acrobatics and Tumbling into a championship level program at our school. I'm really looking forward to seeing her team in action at the ASRC."
A native of Richmond, Va., Fields was a Dean's List student who maintained a 3.5 GPA at Concordia before graduating with a degree in Justice and Public Policy. She spent the first two years of her collegiate journey at Old Dominion University, which does not have an Acrobatics and Tumbling program, before transferring to the Wisconsin school to pursue her passion with the Falcons' fledgling A&T program.
"I am so excited about the opportunity to begin my head coaching career at West Liberty," Fields said. "I was very impressed by the facilities and the people I met on campus during the interview process. West Liberty is a great university with a very welcoming environment and I can't wait to get down there and get started."
A key member of the Concordia team, Fields competed in every meet as a base during her two seasons with the Falcons. Fields earned national recognition as a senior when she was named to the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association (NCATA) Honor Roll for the week of Feb. 19. 
According to that NCATA citation, "Out of the 12 newly-set program bests, (Fields) helped improve six of those heats. She is a standout in the acro event and helps lead her team in the team event through her strength in tumbling, acro and pyramids."
Those skills were developed through years of dedication and hard work as Fields brought more than 15 years of competitive cheerleading experience to the sport of Acrobatics and Tumbling when she transferred to Concordia. 
The highlight of Fields' competitive cheerleading career came during her high school years when she competed as a member of the prestigious Fame All-Stars Super Seniors team in Midlothian, Va. Fields helped lead the Virginia squad to three consecutive Top 10 finishes in the United States All Star Federation (USASF) World Championships in Orlando, Fla.
"I have been involved with competitive cheerleading and gymnastics since I was a small child," Fields said, "but Acrobatics and Tumbling pulls the best of both worlds together. It's a whole new ballgame. I'm a very competitive person and 'Acro's' focus on the athleticism of its participants and the competitive atmosphere surrounding the meets really resonated with me."
With more than 8 million young women competing in the similar skill sets of gymnastics and cheerleading, Acrobatics and Tumbling has emerged as one of the nation's fastest growing intercollegiate sports. West Liberty is one of 17 schools to add Acrobatics and Tumbling as a varsity sport in the six years since the NCATA was established to serve as the sport's governing body.
"The best part about building a new program at West Liberty," Fields said, "is that I will have the chance to give even more female student-athletes the ability to live that very same dream while competing at the local, regional and national levels."
The Hilltoppers have plenty of potential rivals nearby as Davis & Elkins recently became the sixth West Virginia school to add Acrobatics & Tumbling, joining WLU, Fairmont State, Glenville State, W.Va. Wesleyan and Alderson-Broaddus.
"With so many schools in the state coming on board, West Liberty is perfectly positioned at 'Ground Zero' of this emerging competitive sport," Ullom said. "We're proud to be at the forefront of providing more opportunities for female student-athletes to continue to pursue their passion at the next level while obtaining a quality education."
For more information about West Liberty's Acrobatics and Tumbling program, contact Coach Fields via email at treasure.fields@westliberty.edu. 
ABOUT WEST LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
West Liberty University is a forward-looking, four-year public university steeped in a rich heritage as West Virginia's oldest institution of higher education and offering nearly 70 undergraduate majors and 30 programs. Graduate programs include the Master of Arts in Education, the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, the Master of Professional Studies, the Master of Science in Criminology and the online MBA degrees. For more information on WLU, please call 1.866.WESTLIB (1.866.937.8542)