About Us

My story… as told by Coach Chrissie Bianco… 

We are in our 12th season of the Pittsburgh Pride All Stars & it’s been exciting to have grown with this awesome industry.   Our kids have never stopped amazing us with their talents & their contributions.   Watching the development of our courageous & strong athletes is a joy each & every day & it’s an honor to share our passion with them.  

I grew up loving all sports, being on teams of volleyball, track & cheerleading, before cheerleading was ever thought of as a sport!  I first started actually teaching cheerleading right out of high school, as a camp instructor for a local cheer company.  Then, cheering at the collegiate level at both Indiana University of PA & University of Pittsburgh, was a great way to keep my passion alive.  After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, with a B.S. degree in Exercise Science, it led me to become a Personal Trainer, Aerobic Instructor & Program Director of a Pittsburgh fitness gym.  While I thought I’d always open my own gym someday, I never knew it would be a “cheer gym.”  They hadn’t existed yet in Pittsburgh, it was 1991.  So on the side, I continued my love for cheer by coaching local Rec teams & competitive school teams, who I trained & choreographed for 8 years.   As one of the teams proudly earned a National Champions title while competing in Florida, it exposed me to the southern teams who were showing off in a division called “All Stars.”  How cool is this, I had to bring this back to the ‘burgh!

The talent that the kids had and the athletic level of the routines was mesmerizing.

My love of physical fitness was merged with my passion for cheer & I saw cheerleading as a legit sport.  By now it was 1997 but it took a couple more years until I was able to make my move into this All Star field that captured my heart and will capture yours too!

Pittsburgh Pride All Stars was created in 1999 

It was, & is, the best of all worlds for young athletes:  tumbling, dancing & the team work of stunting!  It took some convincing to enroll my first team into this new sport, as there were only 1 or 2 teams in our area.  Parents appreciated my knowledge of proper conditioning & technique, & the groundwork for our students was laid.  We worked hard physically but realized that the strength of mental toughness was building character in our kids.

We rented out space in a nearby gymnastics facility in the beginning, even used my husband Matt’s baseball facility to host some practices while transitioning to our very own space in 2002.  That was exciting, we were officially a Cheer Gym!  

First one in Pittsburgh!

Our students had a place solely dedicated to cheer & we could now offer you dance teams too.  Tumbling classes & private lessons became a feeder program to our interested members who were just starting out.  Our gym grew with the industry as well, & the popularity of the sport was contagious.  The journey has taken me & my staff through advanced stunting & tumbling seminars & meeting awesome coaches & professionals throughout the country.  Our industry welcomed the USASF (United States All Star Federation) & we saw there were other cheer enthusiasts just like us devoted to the benefits of our wonderful sport of cheer.

Throughout this time my family was growing,  we have 2 boys who play baseball, & 2 girls who love cheer & hip hop (go figure!) While Matt & I continued to develop our programs for kids in both cheer & baseball, we thought  if only we could be together in one facility, our family could car pool much easier… so why not!  A joint facility was mapped out in 2003 &