He remembers the accident like it was yesterday. Hit by a car that ran a stop sign, Josh Nilson flew off his motorcycle, landed on his back, and slid 10 yards down the concrete road. Though the car was only going 25 miles per hour, the accident took a significant toll on his body, and he decided it was time to close the curtain on his gymnastics career at the age of 17.
"It could have been way worse," Nilson said. "You hear about people breaking their backs and losing limbs and whatever. My lower back took an absolute beating, to the point where doing gymnastics wasn't worth it anymore. I could do some gymnastics, but not at the level I wanted to. I had actually qualified for nationals, but the accident took me out."
Already in college after graduating one year early to accept a student coaching role under Utah State Hall-of-Famer Ray Corn, Nilson did not anticipate continuing his coaching career once his time as an undergraduate came to an end.
Fully expecting to use his degree in law and constitutional studies to become a lawyer, Nilson once again grappled with the accident that forced him to retire from participating in competitive gymnastics. After taking the other driver to court following the collision, a process that took three years before reaching trial, Nilson realized a career in the courtroom was not right for him.
At the same time, Corn decided to retire, and an assistant coaching spot needed to be filled. The new head coach, Jeff Richards, opted to keep Nilson on staff, this time in a full-time role, and the rest is history.
"I wasn't planning to be a coach. I was coaching to get myself through school as a student," Nilson said, "but after going through litigation, I lost in court. I realized, 'I could never do this for a living. There's no way I could take someone to court knowing that they were wrong or right, and either lose for them or win for them.' At that point, I was like, 'Well, I don't know what I'm going to do. I guess I'll coach.' It's been 18 years, and now I do this for a living."
Staying on staff at his alma mater until 2011, Nilson – a native of Cache Valley, Utah, less than a 30-minute drive from Utah State – then spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Texas Woman's University, but he did not stay away from his home state for long.
It was during his first year coaching in the Lone Star State that he connected with Nadalie Walsh, who wanted to add Nilson to her staff at Ball State. Though the pair did not unite in 2012, they stayed in touch and ultimately connected the following season at Utah State. The chance to work with Walsh, along with the opportunity to move back home, became the perfect fit at that point in Nilson's career.
"When she went to Utah State, I was like, 'I would love to be back at Utah State,'" Nilson said. "My whole family is from there. It's wild. Everyone in my family that has a degree has at least one degree from Utah State, so it was kind of a no-brainer."
Nilson and Walsh worked together from 2013-16, guiding the Aggies to three consecutive NCAA Regionals appearances and snapping a seven-year postseason drought. After three seasons together, though, Nilson moved across the country to take an assistant coaching job at Penn State, a program with which he would only spend one season.
That one year ended up as one of the most chaotic seasons of his coaching career, as he took over as co-interim head coach over halfway through the Nittany Lions' 2017 campaign. At just 27 years of age, Nilson guided Penn State to an NCAA Regionals appearance in his lone season in State College before joining Air Force for one year.
Earning his first head-coaching role at Temple the following year, Nilson spent five seasons at the helm of the Owls' women's gymnastics program, leading the team to back-to-back-to-back conference championships within his first three campaigns.
Nilson helped guide the program to 23 of its top 25 scores in school history, and he was the lone active head coach at Temple who led their respective program to an AAC title.
After five years in Philadelphia, Nilson could not pass up the opportunity to reconnect with Walsh in Champaign, as he joined the Orange and Blue as the program's associate head coach on May 10. The pair's previous relationship was a big factor behind the move, Nilson said, and he was very eager to bring his family out of the City of Brotherly Love and into the Midwest.
"There's not many head coaches that I would have considered working for," Nilson said. "A year ago, Nadalie talked to me about coming here, and I was like, 'Hey, the timing isn't right.' Nadalie and I have obviously stayed in touch. This year, the timing was right. It was good for all of us. My whole family and I were all ready for a bit of a change."
Nilson; his wife, Amanda; and their five sons, Tristan, Ezekiel, Remington, Liam, and Asher have all made the move to central Illinois and now call Champaign-Urbana their home. Nilson's oldest son, Tristan, plays high-school football, and the rest of his family is enjoying the transition from city life to the quieter Midwest.
As the Nilson family continues to settle in and begin a new chapter in their lives, Josh Nilson's past relationship with Walsh will pay dividends for the Orange and Blue in 2024 and beyond. The pair's shared visions and philosophies have the Illini set up for success as Nilson and Walsh reconnect and coach together for the first time in over seven years.
"Our culture and foundation are exactly the same," Nilson said. "The foundation of our culture is that the student-athlete is worth more than just a score. I am hyper-competitive. I am a terrible loser. If you beat me in Monopoly, I'm gonna have a bad attitude about it. I hate losing, but at the end of the day, I'm not willing to hurt an athlete to win, and that's Nadalie's mindset, too.
"I don't believe that people are replaceable. I'm not here to replace anybody. I have a job to do, and I'm here to be myself."
