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Fun Fact: She loves to run Marathons with her girlfriends!
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Staff
We are CERTIFIED in teaching Levels 1-6 for tumbling, stunting & tosses by the most prestigious company in the industry, the USASF (United States All Star Federation), as well as these certifications: AACCA Safety, CPR, & Stunt Training. We not only have a spectacular inner staff, we train every year with the nations best from across the country to bring more ideas & training from our outer circle of friends in the industry. With our wide scope of instructors we offer to our athletes top of the line choreography, the most updated skills, safe tumbling & stunting techniques, & current industry trends. Our Pride program was established in 1999, that’s a lot of competition experience.
WE ARE THE LONGEST RUNNING COMPETITIVE CHEER GYM IN THE PITTSBURGH AREA!!!
Our in-house coaching staff includes this experience:
Competitive collegiate cheerleaders, dancers and gymnasts
Team USA cheer competitors
Gymnastics judges
Cheer judges
Studio dancers
Cheer Worlds competitors
Dance Worlds competitors
Current school Teachers
Degrees in Exercise Science
Cross-fit Trainers
Volunteer fire “woman”
Gym Owner & Coach – Chrissie Bianco
As owner and coach, Chrissie has been instructing cheerleading for over 30 years. She is originally from New Kensington, PA, and has 4 children, Justin, Ali, Mitchell, and Ava, all of whom can be found working at the family business in cheer or baseball. She met her husband, Matt, while cheering at the University of Pittsburgh. After coaching and choreographing for High School competitive teams, she started the Pittsburgh Pride All Stars in 1999. With her B.S. degree in Exercise Science, it is her passion to have health and fitness built into the teams training programs. She can be found coaching all levels in the gym from 1 to 6. She currently is USASF credentialed, Safe Sport Certified, and CPR/First Aid Certified. She enjoys her new sport of golf and has 3 turtles.
Fun Fact: She loves nature and animals, especially lions, and is also a Leo. And that is why we are the Pride!
All Star Director & Coach – Ali Collodi
Ali Bianco has over 20 years experience in the cheer and dance industry. She competed competitively in all stars for 17 years and competed at The USASF Cheerleading and Dance Worlds for 9 years in total. Ali attended and graduated from Morehead State University, where she won UCA College Nationals in both 2015 and 2016. Ali was also selected to be a member on The US National All-Girl Team and won two gold medals in 2015 and 2016. Following graduation, Ali has coached numerous Summit and Worlds finalist teams since 2016. She is an expert in stunt technique and loves bringing the collegiate look to the all star world. Ali has also worked for international cheerleading companies, All Things Cheer and PURE Technique Camps, since she was 18. She continues to work for these organizations and has gotten to travel to countries such as Australia, Norway, Finland, Canada, and all over the US to share her knowledge in the industry, instruct camps and clinics, as well as do choreography.
Fun Fact : Coach Ali loves to roller blade
Teams Director & Coach – Jabar Cancer
Coach Jabar has been coaching competitive cheerleading for the last 20 years! He has coached for Pop Warner, Competitive School, and All Stars. Coach Jabar has experience in all levels and ages from Mini-Collegiate divisions. He is originally from Schenectady, NY representing the 518. Outside of Coaching and cheerleading coach Jabar loves going to the beach and casino!
Fun Fact: Coach Jabar is a Special Education T.A. and he’s also Costa Rican and Jamaican!
Cheer Manager & Coach- Sema Konur-Minctyre
Coach Sema is originally from Leesburg, VA and has over 20 years experience in coaching competitive youth sports. She was an athlete turned coach who not only has experience in coaching, but is a former All Star Director and Gym Owner too! She currently is USASF credentialed, Safe Sport Certified, CPR/First Aid Certified, and a former Varsity All Star Judge. She has many national titles under her belt as a former all star athlete. During her free time Coach Sema loves to cook, organize, take long hot bubble baths, and spend her free time outside in nature!
Fun Fact: Coach Sema has 5 siblings and her favorite color is orange!
ALLSTAR CHEER COACH – Jena Baldwin
Born and raised in the Pittsburgh area, Jena has been involved in the world of All-Star Cheerleading since she was 11 years old. She’s coached all levels and ages. Over the last 12 years Coach Jena coached for two different programs, Pennsylvania Storm and Pittsburgh Pride. She’s so blessed to be able to work with so many great kids and happy to have found a home at Pride.
Her hobbies include home improvement and reading.
Fun Fact: Jena has 2 title belts in MMA and used to be a cage fighter! She also has a pet snake
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Lauren Waiter
Lauren has been involved in all-star cheer as an athlete and then coach for almost 20 years. She cheered at HotCheer for 9 years and began coaching there in 2013. Lauren has coached athletes youth-senior age in levels 1-6 over the past 7 years at HotCheer and also spent 3 years as the head coach at Serra Catholic High School. Lauren is SafeSport certified, CPR and Concussion trained, and is credentialed in levels 1-6. Lauren currently works as a Gift Officer for Duquesne University and received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron. She is also currently working on her Master’s in Organizational Leadership at Duquesne.
Fun Fact: Lauren enjoys boating, crafting, working out, and spending time with her dog, Boomer.
ALLSTAR CHEER COACH – Kaitlyn Haley
I am originally from Kingston, NY. I have a total of 4 years coaching. I cheered for about 16 years. I competed at Worlds twice and coached at Summit once! I received Coach’s Award and Leadership Awards as an athlete throughout my all star and collegiate years. In my free time, that is not cheer related, I like to hike with my puppy!
Fun Fact: Coach Kaitlyn can play 4 instruments
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Ava Welling
Coach Ava began cheering at Pittsburgh pride when she was 4 years old. With Pride she competed at the cheerleading worlds 6 years and at dance worlds 2 years. She graduated from Indiana University of PA with a bachelor of science in marketing and a minor in economics. Coach Ava also cheered at IUP for 4 years and was the captain as well as student coach of the program. While living in Indiana Pa, Ava worked at TAI for 4 years. She has been able to work at Pride for the past 8 years doing private lessons and instructing classes and teams. Excited to be here full time.
Fun Fact: She loves to run and go hiking
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Juliona Bele
Coach Juls has been tumbling for as long as she can remember, but officially started gymnastics at 9 years old and started competing at 11. She competed until she was 13 and then switched over to cheerleading at Bethel Park High School. Juls started lessons at Pride the next year and fell in love with the gym!! She began to coach tumbling at Pride at 15 and developed such a great relationship with the coaches and athletes. Her senior year, she decided to try all star cheerleading and competed at Pride on Senior 6, Purple Reign. After having such a great experience, Juls decided to come back another year as a crossover to compete on Senior 5(Beast Mode) and Senior 6.
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Mikellynn Tsangaris
Coach Mikellynn has been coaching all ages and levels of cheer and tumbling for the past 10 years. She previously was the head coach and director for Canon McMillan Cheerleading program for 4 years and a tumbling coach at KTA. Mikellynn cheered through her adolescent and high school career as both a high school and all star cheerleader and was Varsity Captain. She is a mom of 2 and Realtor. In her spare time she enjoys the beach and vacationing with her family.
Fun Fact: Coach Mikellynn used to work on Broadway theater in NYC
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Taylor Cavanagh
Coach Taylor cheered from age of 7 through high school, where she was the Varsity Captain and competed locally for cheer and dance. Alongside cheer, her other great passion in life is helping kids to learn and grow any way she can! This led her to help start the beginning of the youth rec cheerleading program in Peters Township, before heading to California University of PA to earn degrees in both early childhood and elementary education. Coaching allows me to combine my love of cheer and teaching children and I couldn’t be more excited to be coaching at Pride! I have a 7 year old daughter who has been at Pride since she was 4, and competes in both cheer and hip hop!
Fun Fact- I love crafts and used to paint and sell wine glasses
ALL STAR CHEER COACH – Shawnee Mason
Coach Shawnee is so excited to begin her journey of competitive coaching with Pride! She started cheerleading in kindergarten. They did not let kindergarteners cheer but she pleaded until they let her be a mascot. She cheered all through school, and was varsity captain her senior year. Following high school she attended college for early childhood special education. She went back a second time to get her Bachelor of the Arts in Criminal Justice. She has worked as an Enforcement Officer, and Children and Youth Services agent. She is now employed at Peters Middle School as a Paraprofessional in the special education department. She is also a certified substitute. She coached high school volleyball for two years. She has been a recreation youth cheer coach for three years. She took over as President of the program last year! Shawnee’s love of cheer and watching her girls learn, and grow is what brought her here!
HIP-HOP COACH – Jordan Aiello
Coach Jordan has been coaching hip hop for two seasons now at Pride! She is from Peters Township! Her favorite hobby outside of coaching is dancing! and she dances for her university’s dance team
Fun Fact: Coach Jordan has 4 dogs!
ALL-STAR DANCE COACH – Grace Weidinger
My name is Grace Weidinger and I have been dancing since I was 2, three of those years spent at pride. I was on the 2022 Ambush team that won worlds! My hobbies include dancing, shopping, traveling, and teaching!
ALL-STAR DANCE COACH – Maggie Ehland
Coach Maggie started dancing when she was just three years old here in Pittsburgh, PA. She was a studio dancer prior to becoming a competitive hip-hop dancer at the highschool and Allstar level. After high school, she attended West Virginia University and was on their Hip-hop Dance Team. Outside of dance she works in sales, likes to be with friends and family, and her bulldog; Earl. Her favorite memory coaching at Pittsburgh Pride is when Tribe won the SUMMIT Dance Championship in 2023!
Fun Fact: She danced for Coach Nique on the Peters Township Dance Team & an Allstar team. She also danced with Coach Jordan and Coach Sam!
ALL-STAR DANCE COACH – Samantha Abraham
This is Sam’s first year coaching at Pride! She started dancing when she was 5 at a studio, and always loved to perform. She was born and raised in Pittsburgh and was on the Peters Township Dance Team. Sam was on an all star team and competed at worlds her senior year! In her spare time she loves to travel, try new restaurants, walk her dog, and spend time with family and friends!
Fun Fact: She was on the Peters Township Dance Team’s first National Championship team!
Tumbling Instructor – Sherri Bayer
Coach Sherri Bayer has been in gymnastics as a competitor, now a coach, since the age of 8. She has enjoyed gymnastics as a professional being involved with choreography and competitions. Coach Sherri has been coaching gymnastics since the age of 19! She is a mother of 3 and knows the challenges facing today’s parents and the joys of seeing the hard work of our children pay off. Her hobbies include spending time with her family and giving back to her community!
Fun Fact: Coach Sherri is a volunteer firefighter at the Peters Township Fire Department.
Tumbling Instructor – Mistydae Junko
Coach Misty has been coaching tumbling/gymnastics for 28 year! This is her 7th year coaching tumbling and private lessons at Pittsburgh Pride All-Stars. Coach Misty has spent many years coaching USAG and High School Gymnastics teams in both Ohio & PA. She also spent several years coaching 9th/JV Cheer and youth cheerleading.
As a certified PIAA/WPIAL Gymnastics Official, shes’s also enjoyed judging high school and middle school gymnastics competitions for the past 17 years. Her teaching degree was earned from the University of Akron and for the last 21 years she’s been teaching high school Health & PE at Moon High School. Coach Misty’s hobbies include spending time with her husband and two children. When she’s not at the gym you can probably find her cheering on her husband and son at the USC Football games!
Fun Fact: Coach Misty is fortunate to share the love of tumbling with her daughter, Bryn! She has cheered for Pride for the past 9 seasons!
Tumbling Instructor – Jackie Malley
Coach Jackie has been involved in gymnastics since she was a child. She attended The University of Pittsburgh on a four-year gymnastics scholarship! She graduated Pitt with her Bachelor’s/Master’s degree in Health & Physical Education. Coach Jackie has an extensive gymnastics coaching background which includes coaching at Woodward Gymnastics Camp, The International Gymnastics Camp, and 15 years being the director and head coach for Gemini Gymnastics in Baldwin, PA. She currently lives in Peters Township with her husband and son. She been teaching for the past 20 years for Bethel Park School District and currently teaches 11th-grade Health at Bethel Park High School! Her hobbies included mountain biking, weight lifting, snow skiing, water skiing, and reading.
Fun Fact: Coach Jackie has run 7 marathons including Columbus, Philly, Pittsburgh (3x), Alaska, and Boston
Tumbling Instructor – Rachael Coda
Coach Rachel is originally from Pittsburgh, PA. She was a competitive gymnast while in High School and College. She been coaching gymnastics and tumbling for the past 25+ years! Her favorite hobby is any type of exercise.
Fun Fact: She loves to run do yoga, and strength train.
Tumbling Instructor – Jamie Irvin
Coach Jamie grew up in a suburb outside of Chicago. She was a competitive gymnast for 18 years and received a full scholarship for gymnastics to the University of Pittsburgh! While at Pitt, Coach Jamie obtained her Masters in Elementary Education. She has been coaching gymnastics and tumbling for many years! Coach Jamie lives in Upper St Clair and has three children; twins Avery an Teddi (9) and Cole (6).
Her hobbies include working out and staying active!
Tumbling Instructor – Kaitlin Ruscello
Coach Kaitlin was born and raised in New Hampshire where she started competitive gymnastics at age 5. She was a level 10 J.O National competitor for 6 years and competed 2 years as a National Elite. She went on to get a full scholarship for gymnastics at the University of Pittsburgh, where she received a BS in exercise science and a doctorate in physical therapy. She has taught gymnastics intermittently over the years and has experience in sports specific speed/agility and rehab. She lives in Peters Township with her husband Brian and two children Roman and Vivienne.
Office Staff – Melissa Depuy
Melissa grew up in New Barn, NC, and is a graduate of East Carolina University. She has been a part of the Pride family for the past 4 years, working as the “Uniform Lady” for the cheer program, as well as working at the front desk. She is also a substitute teacher for the Upper St. Clair school district when she’s not working at the gym. Melissa’s daughter, Teagan, is a flyer for U18-3 Lady Reign, and one of her favorite things to do is watch her perform! She also enjoys watching her son play hockey, running, traveling, hiking, and shopping.
Fun Fact: Melissa’s hair started going gray in college and she is now almost 100% naturally gray! You’ll know exactly who she is when she’s behind the front desk!
Office Staff – Janelle O’Neill
Janelle graduated from Upper St. Clair high school and married her high school sweetheart (even though at the time they were just friends and both needed a date to prom). Janelle attended Pitt and is a pediatric dental hygienist. She has 3 children. A son that played hockey growing up and still plays in an adult league. She started as a parent of Pride back in 2003 for her two daughters Maddie and Monica and not long after that she started helping at the front desk. Maddie was on the 1st Pride cheer team to get to Cheer Worlds and Monica was on the 1st Pride dance team to get to Dance Worlds and she loved traveling and watching them compete over the years. Her love for Pittsburgh Pride and the Bianco family keeps her at the gym.
Fun fact: Janelle was on the 1st and only Pep Squad at Upper St. Clair High School for hockey.
