Shayla Hutchins serves Baylor Athletics as an Assistant Coach of the national champion Acrobatics & Tumbling program.
The 2025 season saw the Bears go 12-0 and extended the undefeated meet streak to 50 to end the season. BU swept the DI end of season awards with Jordan Gruendler earning her third-consecutive Specialist of the Year title, Payton Washington being named Most Outstanding Athlete of the Year, and Leavy McDonald taking the Freshman crown. Those three along with Emily Bott were named NCATA All-America and Gruendler also was named to the All-Academic Team. The trio of Washington, McDonald and Gruendler swept the weekly awards three times this season as well. The Championships, taking place in Sioux Falls, S.D., saw BU defeat Limestone, Augustana and Oregon to earn the title before winning a school-record nine individual event titles. The Bears earned 12 perfect 10s on the season, including a record five 10s in one meet, coming against Oregon on Senior Day (4/5).
Baylor’s ninth-straight NCATA Championship title came in the 2024 season, the first championship for Hutchins as a member of the staff. She and the Bears led four student-athletes to All-American status (Riley Chimwala, Jordan Gruendler, Bayley Humphrey, Payton Washington) as well as the three who swept the DI end-of-season awards (Washington - Freshman, Chimwala - Most Outstanding, Gruendler - Specialist). An undefeated season under her belt, the Bears used the 11-0 record to keep their 38-meet winning streak. BU was the only team to score a 280 or higher in a meet, and had nine weekly awards earned from the NCATA, one of which was a sweep. The Bears faced three new teams including Augustana, Iona, LIU and Texas Lutheran. Baylor recorded one perfect 10 score on the season, in the Open Pyramid against LIU (3/5). BU defeated Fairmont State (host), Oregon and Gannon en route to the title. Baylor earned seven individual event titles, one in each event - Five-Element Acro, Six-Element Acro, Seven-Element Acro, Inversion Pyramid, 450 Salto Toss, Six-Element Tumbling, Open Tumbling.
Hutchins, née Moore, returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach in the 2023-24 season after serving as the head A&T coach at Emmanuel College, an NCAA Division II institution in Franklin Springs, Ga. She was the Lions' inaugural head coach and concurrently the first A&T coach in the state of Georgia.
"I'm thrilled to get Shayla back to Waco," said Mulkey in July of 2023. "She is a talented, knowledgeable coach and is a bundle of energy. She will be a huge asset to our staff. I can't wait for her to get on campus and meet the team."
The Atlanta, Ga., native was named head coach of the EC program in March of 2020 after the school announced the addition of A&T as a varsity sport in February of the same year. Hutchins coached the Lions to a 2-6 record in its inaugural season in 2022, defeating Mars Hill and Chowan University on their home mats to mark the first program wins. EC went 2-7 in the 2023 season, gathering wins over Chowan and Presbyterian College.
As a Baylor student-athlete, Hutchins was a four-time NCATA Champion and two-time NCATA All-American. She was the NCATA Freshman of the Year in 2015, helping the Bears to their first NCATA Championship title. A phenomenal tumbler, Hutchins earned multiple Event Finals Champion titles for BU in the duo, trio and quad tumbling passes. A tumbling specialist, she was additionally well-versed as a top, mid-level and main base positions. Hutchins earned event titles in the five-element and six-element acro events with the Bears.
Hutchins graduated from Baylor in 2018 with her bachelor's degree in Sociology and a minor in Forensic Science. Prior to BU, she had competed at the highest level of competition cheerleading for 15 years, including a World Champion team in 2010. Hutchins had a well-rounded background in cheerleading, gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling.
In addition to her coaching of A&T, Hutchins is a champion with Team USA Weightlifting. At the 2022 Pan American Championships in the 55kg competition, she earned gold in the Clean & Jerk with 110kg, fourth in the snatch at 83kg and gold in the total with 193kg. She was part of the 2022 IWF World Championships in Bogotá, Columbia, earning fifth in the total with 194kg with a sixth-place finish in the Snatch at 86kg and fourth in the Clean & Jerk with 108kg. She earned a spot on Team USA for the 2024 IWF World Cup after winning the Texas State Championships in 2024 and won nationals in 2023 in the snatch, clean & jerk and total. At the IWF World Cup, she went 5-for-6 at 59kg, lifting 88/115/203 in just her third international meet.
Shayla Moore was married to Coby Hutchins in May of 2021.
