Meet The Staff

At Buckeye we understand that the most important advantage that we offer is a great staff. Our teachers and coaches are gymnastics experts and they undergo thorough training even though they might have spent much of their lives in a gym.

But we know that gymnastics knowledge and experience is only the beginning. Keeping our students safe is both the beginning and the end so we run national background checks on those who did not grow up in our program.

In addition, our teachers and coaches must obtain both Safety Certification through USA Gymnastics and First Aid certification in order to be eligible for a raise. As a result all of our teaching and coaching staff are either already certified or they are in the process of getting certified.

Nick Adams

Nick is a graduate of Westerville South High School and he currently attends Columbus State. Nick trained at the YMCA for a year in gymnastics and then moved to Columbus Gymnastics Academy where he trained for 6 years and Competed for 5. From 2009 to 2010 he worked at the Minerva Park Swimming Pool as a life guard and also taught swim lessons to adults and children. What Nick found to be most interesting and rewarding was the time he spent with the special needs children he worked with there.

Brittany Anthony

Brittany graduated from Olentangy Liberty High School and grew up competing in  gymnastics for ten years and rhythmic gymnastics for another five. Floor exercise was her favorite event. She also cheered for Liberty and played lacrosse. Brittany is certified as a dental assistant, cosmetology, and in CPR.

Ronnie Balconi

Ronnie has been teaching and coaching gymnastics for many years in both Ohio and in Florida. He is currently coaching the middle school teams at McCord and Perry in Worthington where he also teaches as a part of the Cardinal Boosters Gymnastics Program. Ryan is a graduate of Ohio University and works a day job at Children’s Hospital.

Sunnie Bezeredi

Sunnie is a graduate of Leetonia High School in the Youngstown area. She attended Kent State university for 2 years studying music and literature. Sunnie brings 20 years combined teaching and coaching experience to Buckeye. She operated her own gym in Salem Ohio where she taught from preschool to competitive team. She also worked as a gymnastics teacher and coach for several gyms, “Y” programs and dance studios in Youngstown Ohio. Sunnie also acted as coordinator of gymnastic programs for preschool and cheerleaders at Salem YWCA. Finally, She was a professional musician and vocalist for over a decade before returning to her gymnastics roots at Buckeye.

Sarah Blubaugh

Sarah is a former Buckeye Gymnast who started gymnastics at Buckeye at age nine.  She  also competed gymnastics for Worthington Kilbourne where she graduated in 2003. Sarah is currently taking classes at Columbus State though she will transfer to Ohio State in the Spring. Sarah also played rugby and soccer in high school and competed for the Westerville Worms Rugby Club. It is Sarah’s belief that a positive attitude is key for success in sports and in life. “A positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.” It is this positive outlook that she most wants to see reflected in her students.

Keru Cai:

Keru is a former member of the Tianjin Outstanding Athlete Training Center, China and competed in regional, national and international meets. She is a National Gymnastic judge in China and a China Master Sportsman. Keru holds a M.S. in Physical Education from the Bejing Physical Education University. She has coached for close to three decades in both China and the USA. In China one of her athletes competed for China in the 1999 Tianjin Artistic Gymnastic World Championships. While coaching in Virginia and Mass. over the past decade Keru’s gymnasts have won both state and regional championships and have qualified to JO Nationals at Level 10.

Andrea Carrier

Andrea grew up in the Gym Express gym competing in gymnastics through level 8. She went on to compete for Lakota East High School in both gymnastics and cheerleading. Andrea has taught gymnastics, dance and cheerleading for several years. She is a graduate of The Ohio State University where is pursuing an advanced degree in Education.

Kittia Carpenter

Kittia is the Girls Team Director at Buckeye Gymnastics. In the 20 years that Kittia has been coaching at Buckeye her gymnasts have won over 1,000 state, regional, and national titles.  She was an elite gymnast herself and a former elite national champion and she attended Arizona State University on a full athletic scholarship. Kittia is also a brevet judge and she has judged the top American athletes at the most important competitions in the country including Championships of the USA and the Olympic Team Trials.  In addition, Kittia was elected by the coaches and judges in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana to serve on the Region 5 Board for USA Gymnastics.

Lisa Chapman

Lisa is a graduate of Strongsville High School and is an OSU graduate with a degree in Communications and Journalism. Lisa has been accepted into the Franklin University MBA program but has not started. Lisa was the Program Director at The Little Gym in Dublin before coming to Buckeye. She believes that her patience and enthusiasm and love kids and gymnastics are her greatest strengths.

Nicole Ciminello

Nicole grew up at Buckeye Gymnastics starting in Tumble Bears at age 3 and continuing through high school. She has been a state champion many times at levels 8, 9, and 10 and traveled throughout the United States and the Caribbean with competitions in the Bahamas and Cancun.  As a gymnast for St. Francis Desales High School Nicole was 3 times the Central Ohio District All Around Champion and five times named as the Columbus Dispatch Athlete of the Week. She was also named All State/All Ohio two times. Even with all this Nicole graduated at the top of her class and was accepted into the Honors program at Ohio State University where she currently attends school majoring in Industrial Design. Nicole was recruited for the Ohio State Women’s Gymnastics Team and competed for the Lady Buckeyes in 2008-09.

Becky Doggette

Becky has been involved in gymnastics since she was six years old.  She was a top performer at Buckeye Gymnastics for seven years as she won many individual state titles and helped the Buckeye team win six State Team titles.  She competed at the J.O. National Championships in Dallas where she caught the eye of the coaches from West Virginia University.  She ended up going to WVU on a full athletic scholarship in gymnastics and leading the Lady Mountaineers to four winning seasons. She has been an important component to our coaching staff at Buckeye for many years and she has developed many state champions.

Kea Early

Kea was a gymnast for 8 years at the YMCA in Newark and finished her competitive career as a level 8. After retiring her leotard Kea stayed in the gym as a teacher and a coach for three years before coming to  Buckeye. Kea enjoys teaching all ages and abilities but she seems to particularly like working with girls from the 5th to the 8th grade. They like her too and Kea is a very effective and popular teacher at Buckeye.

Julie Ely

Julie is a member of the Buckeye Flyers Trampoline and Tumbling Team and has won state championships and competed at regional and national championships. She has been going gymnastics and TNT for over ten years and is still going strong. Julie worked as a volunteer teacher for our summer camps for two years and so impressed us and was such a hit with the kids that we asked her to continue teaching as a paid instructor. Julie attends Worthington Christian High School where she cheers and is a standout student.

Ariane Filkins

Ariane was a gymnast for 11 years and competed at level 9 at Olympic Academy in Newark before heading to Ohio State where she graduated with a degree in Women’s Studies. She has taught gymnastics for four years in Central Ohio and coached to level 4. What she loves best about teaching gymnastics are the smiles on the kids faces when they learn a new skill.

Laura Flechtner

Laura competed in gymnastics for six years and has taught gymnastics for ten more, the last seven years at Buckeye. Laura is a graduate of Capital University holding a degree in Biology and Psychology. Laura recently returned from a six-week internship at Rushmore Gymnastics in London, England, where she shared with our British sister club the details of running an American style gymnastics school.

Christian Gallardo:

Christian grew up in El Paso, Texas where he competed as a Level 10 gymnast and for his high school. He coached both girls and boys at Gymnastics Elite Youth Sports and The American Dream in El Paso and girls through Level 10 at Diamondback Gymnastics in Mesa, Arizona. Christian is working toward a degree in Business management. Christian’s personal philosophy as a gymnast and as a coach can be summed up as follows: “Never quit and forever learn.”

Shawnda McKnight Hinderlong

Shawnda was a many time Ohio State All-Around Champion at the highest level while training at TWIGS Gymnastics in Dayton. In addition, she earned top honors at Regional and National Championships including a 2nd place finish at JO Nationals in Tulsa, OK on bars. Shawnda earned a BS degree in Elementary Education from Eastern kentucky University and has over 25 years of teaching and coaching experience in gymnastics. We are thrilled to have Shawnda as part of our teaching staff at Buckeye.

 

Weston Hendricks

Weston is a National Champion Tumbler who has qualified for and competed in the Age-group, World Championship Trials. Weston has also won a bronze medal as a Level 10 at the National Championships on Double Mini-trampoline. In all, Weston has competed in 6 National Championships winning 5 bronze, 3 silver and one gold medal over six years. Weston’s favorite skills include a triple-front half-twist out and a full-twist in, half-twist out, double front. His advise to his young athletes, “Just enjoy the process of working hard to achieve a goal.”

Vicki Keller

Vicki was a gymnast at Buckeye for many years before returning to us to teach and coach. Vicki brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the gym where she is a popular teacher in both the Tumble Bears and Gym Stars programs. Vicki also assists with the Buckeye Flyers trampoline and tumbling team.

Michelle Kensik:

Michelle has been teaching and coaching gymnastics, cheer, and tumbling since 2002 and for the past five years she has been the Head Coach for teams at level 3-9 at Lakeshore Gymnastics and Ten Point 0 Gymnastics, both in northern Ohio. Prior to acting as the head team coach Michelle was the head compulsory coach for two years at Elite Gymnastics and taught gymnastics at the Sandusky YMCA for six years. Michelle holds a BS in Biological Science from Bowling Green State University and is currently working to obtain bother her CSCS Certification (strength training and conditioning certification) and her gymnastics judging certification.

Maggie Kusakova

Maggie comes to Buckeye by way of the Czech Republic. Maggie trained and competed in the Czech Republic for many years advancing to a 3rd place all-around finish at the Regional Level. She comes to the USA looking to complete her graduate work in education.  Maggie plans to be a physical education teacher one day. Maggie’s love for gymnastics and her students have made her a very popular and much requested teacher at Buckeye.

Alan Lanzador

Alan has been a sports guy his entire life. He excelled in athletics in high school and went on to coach a generation of youngsters in his favorite sport, soccer. But when his daughter fell in love with gymnastics he did too. He turned his considerable enthusiasm and energy to his “new favorite sport” and soon found himself immersed in the life of the gym; so much so that he was volunteering to help teach the youngsters along side our experienced gymnastics teachers. He excelled as a gymnastics teacher just as has excelled as a soccer coach and as a finance and banking expert. He continues to expand his knowledge and experience in gymnastics and his students are lucky to be able to benefit from his love of teaching and kids.

Emilee Levin

Emilee has been active in cheerleading and gymnastics for most of her life. A New Albany High School graduate, Emilee is now attending Ohio State where she hopes to enter the Physical Therapy program. Emilee’s high school team won a State Title in cheerleading in the Large Mount Category and they placed at Nationals in 2005. Her favorite tumbling skills as a cheerleader were a handspring full and a standing back tuck and she loves to teach back handsprings. Emiliee has taught cheerleading for several years in north Columbus and Westerville.

Li Li

Li Li is one of the most popular and decorated gymnasts China has ever produced.  She competed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and in two world championships.  She also coached Huang Mandan who earned a bronze medal on Uneven Bars at the 1999 World Championships. Li Li has been coaching at Buckeye for about three years and she has already had a huge impact sending several girls to National Team Training Camps, placing many girls on National TOPs and HOPEs teams, and getting our athletes qualified for J.O. Nationals.

Jim Mattox

Jim has been involved in gymnastics since he was six years old participating in gymnastics, sports acrobatics, and spring board diving through the YMCA, various Rec Programs, in high school and at Ohio State.  While attending OSU, where he earned a BS in business administration, he worked with the Ohio State men’s Gymnastics Team teaching gymnastics through the National Youth Sports Program.  Since graduation Jim has taught gymnastics and martial arts to all ages and abilities in central Ohio.  He is certified in CPR, First Aid, Coaching and Safety . Jim has been a very popular teacher at Buckeye for many years.

Emily Nellis

Emily competed gymnastics for six years at levels 5-8 at Jewarts Gymnastics in Pittsburgh where was a many time State Champion. She then taught for 4 years at Shaler Area Performing Arts also in Pittsburgh. Emily attends Ohio State University where she is pursuing a degree in Communications.

Michelle McNabb

Michelle was a Buckeye gymnast and team member for many years and was strong contributor on many State Champion Teams at Buckeye. Michelle has been developing our young team gymnasts for many years as she helps build a strong foundation of basic skills. Michelle coaches the girls on the level 2 & 3 teams.

Jen Monaghan

Jen has been cheering for most of her life. As a high school student at Somerset Area High School in Somerset, PA, Jen cheered for four years with her school and also cheered for an all-star team that placed 1st at UCA Nationals at the Sr. Level 5 division and also placed 8th at Worlds. She then went on to cheer at Slippery Rock University for three years where her team competed at the NCA and UCA Nationals. Jen has worked for several years as an instructor for UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) at various summer camps and competitions. Jen directs the BCS Team.

Justin Oldham

Justin is an Ohio University graduate where he was a cheerleader for four years and was a member of the 2001 nationals team that placed 10th at NCA nationals. He has been coaching for ten years, teaching for eleven, and is currently in his ninth year coaching at BCE. His teams have won several National titles with various companies such as Jamfest, COA, and Cheer Power. He has also worked with several high schools and middle schools in the Columbus area and has judged for various competitions. Justin is NFHS certified, and both First Aid and CPR certified.

Megan O’Reilly

Megan O’Reilly has a long history with Buckeye Gymnastics.  She started gymnastics here when she was 6 years old.  She was a member of our competitive teach for 12 years.  Her personal experience with gymnastics and her love for making kids laugh and smile make Megan a great addition to the Buckeye coaching staff.  She is currently coaching preschool, recreational and TNT classes at our Westerville gym.

Anna Papworth

Anastasia recently graduated from Otterbein University with a degree in Theatre & Dance and she has been dancing for over 20 years. She was also a competition dancer for 10 years and was able to travel and learn from a variety of well-known teachers. She has also been a popular and accomplished teacher in her own right and she brings her talent, energy, and experience to Buckeye.

Krystal Ryan

Krystal was both a cheerleader and a gymnast In West Lafayette, Ohio. She competed through Level 7 as a gymnast before switching to cheerleading. As a cheerleader Krystal competed as a Level 5 at Cheer Force and competed in many National Championships and at Cheerleading Worlds. Krystal also taught and coached both gymnastics and cheerleading for many years before joining us at Buckeye. Krystal has completed most of her course work for a degree in Biology.

Melanie Schmidli

Melanie graduated from River Valley High School where she excelled in both gymnastics and cheerleading traveling as far as Texas to compete at Cheer Nationals and winning a State Championship in cheerleading as a senior. While attending Marshall University Melanie was selected for an internship with the Marshall Football team. Melanie has been teaching cheerleading and gymnastics at Buckeye for over 5 years.

Haleigh Scott

Haleigh was a gymnast at Cloverleaf High School in Seville, Ohio. Floor was her favorite event. Haleigh went on to teach gymnastics  for four years at the Toldeo YMCA while earning her degree in Psychology. She is now in graduate school at Ohio State. Haleigh is an avid rock climber where she puts her gymnastics training to good use.

Missy Sidick
Missy has been a teacher at Buckeye for over five years. She stays busy as a mom so we cannot have her in the gym as much as we want to but her students are quite happy to have such a wonderful teacher.  Missy is also an important part of Kidnetic Energy every Sunday night.  Kidnetic Energy is a non-profit organization that offers gymnastics and dance to students with special needs. Buckeye donates the gym to Kidnetic Energy so every child can experience the fun and fitness that comes through gymnastics. Missy has been a main-line teacher with Kidnetic Energy since its inception.

David Steigerwald

David is the head coach for the Buckeye Flyers.  He is a graduate of Aurora High School and Columbus College of Art and Design. David has bounced at a National and International level for several years.   David started at Buckeye teaching our tumbling and trampoline classes but he was so enthusiastic about the sport that he soon had us thinking about starting a competitive for tumbling, trampoline, and double mini-trampoline.  The Buckeye Flyers have developed quickly to be a power in the State and Region. Buckeye Flyers have won scores of State and Regional titles and boast five National Champions.

Sasha Timchenko

Sasha is a former champion of the USSR and he was the head coach of one of the Soviet Gymnastics Training Centers in Ukraine where he developed national team members and at least one Olympian for the former USSR. Sasha brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to Buckeye. He is hard-working with a focus on the development of solid and technically correct basics.

Philip Todorov

Phillip is one of the most accomplished gymnastics coaches in the world. He was the head coach for the Bulgaria National team during most of the 1980’s when Bulgaria was a gymnastics powerhouse.  He has coached at the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and other top international competitions where his gymnasts have won gold, silver, and bronze medals. Phillip was a top international competitor himself winning a silver medal at the World Championships in Sports Acrobatics with his twin brother Mathew.  Phillip has coached at Buckeye since 1990 and he recently became a U.S. citizen.

Dawn VanWinkle:

Dawn is the Buckeye Star and Buckeye Bears Director at the Westerville Gym. Dawn has been with Buckeye Gymnastics since we first opened our doors. She started the year we opened and competed for us through class III-O. (Level 7). Along the way she contributed to at least five State Championship Team Titles for Buckeye Gymnastics. Dawn was also a high school and semi-professional cheerleader. Since graduation she has taught for us off and on until permanently joining Buckeye in December of 2006.

Angela Wiegand

Angie is a graduate of Big Walnut High School and she has been teaching preschool for almost nine years including three years at the YMCA. She is certified in CPR, First Aid, Communicable Disease, and Child Abuse by the State of Ohio.

Mike Young

Mike is the Head Coach for Buckeye Cheer Elite and at the Powell gym.  MIke has coached cheerleading for many years both in Kentucky and Ohio and has developed the most successful and accomplished cheer program in Central Ohio and one of the top ranked teams in the Eastern USA.  We are happy to have Mike with us and directing the training of all of our competitive cheerleaders.