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Email Us
gym@kauaigymnastics.com
UPDATE 8-30-10: We're IN! See pictures below!
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UPDATE 8-30-10: We're IN! See pictures below! |
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Our Coaches
Head Coach / Co-Owner: Jack Leonard Jack brings over 37 years of experience teaching physical education and coaching gymnastics to Kauai. He’s a past 9-time National Champion who graduated with a degree in education from Ohio State where he was also a Cheerleader. He has coached all levels from 3-year old beginners to Olympians, earning two National High School Coach of the Year Awards (once for men; once for women). He was assistant coach of 3-time Olympian Dominique Dawes. He also ran a success after-school gymnastics program called Jack Leonard Gymnastics (JLG). At its peak, JLG taught gymnastics and fitness to over 300 kids a week. Jack brings his depth of personal gymnastics experience to bear on how he coaches every gymnast to succeed. To view a longer history/bio about Jack, click here. Jack’s philosophy is to break down a trick into many, many parts so it can be more easily understood and executed. He’s an expert at being able to assess where a trick is going wrong and convey it to the gymnast so they can fix it.
Coach / Co-Owner / Head Administrator: Kay Leonard
Kay's path to gymnastics was a little different than Jack's. Before Jack
and Kay were married, Jack was the gymnastics coach of Kay's son, who was in
Junior High (now called Middle School) at the time. Two of her daughters
were also in gymnastics -- one took classes with Marge and Greg Weiss (the
parents of Michael Weiss,
the skater) and the other was on a team coached by Jack (Rockville H.S. Varsity). Jack and Kay were married in 1983. Her four
children were teenagers. Jack had just started Jack Leonard Gymnastics, so
Kay became the "behind-the-scenes" administrator while she worked full
time as E.V.P./General
Manager of a medium-sized video production/multimedia company based in Virginia. After
19 years with that company, Kay "retired" to work from home as a satellite
communications, a/v coordinator, and marketing consultant under the moniker of
"Lagniappe Services" (it means "a little extra").
She started coaching with Jack at JLG and continues to do so at Kauai
Gymnastics, coaching Tots through Advanced Beginners. Her many years of ballet as a child
come in mighty handy! Believe it or not, she also was in a Hula Troupe (in
MD) when she was 10! Besides coaching, Kay is the "Paperwork Queen" at
KGA. She is also a
Home Stager and has
her real estate sales license, working out of
Aloha Island Properties
(contact kay@alohaisland.com). Kay and Jack have 8 grandchildren, 2 of whom live on Kauai.
Coach: Jeffrey (Jeff) Amundson Jeff is our newest addition to the KGA Ohana of staff. However, Jeff is not new to Kauai nor gymnastics. Over Jeff's career in coaching gymnastics he has coached in Oregon (Southern Oregon TwistarZ-owner/director, Rogue Valley School of Gymnastics, Sunburst Gymnastics), Virginia (Gymstrada Gymnastics), and Maine (Andy Valley School of Gymnastics, Maine Academy of Gymnastics). He was also a coach for a month at KGA when Coach Jack had his back surgery. We coaxed him back in anticipation of our move to larger space in June, although it didn't take much in the "coaxing" department. One phone call and his response was, "When? I'll be there!" He has coached all levels of competitive gymnastics up to and including Level 10. During his competitive coaching tenure he coached 58 gymnasts to Level 10 Nationals; and 6 of his gymnasts were Level 10 Regional Champions. Since the world of competitive gymnastics is extremely demanding in time, emotion, and energy, Jeff is happily throwing himself into helping our gymnasts be all they can be through our recreational and non-competitive team environment. The team of Jack and Jeff is truly The Dynamic Duo! Jeff's son Jacob is 24 and lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.
Coach: Lucia Kerr Lucia comes to KGA via Madison, WI, although she lived on Kauai first when she was small. In 2006, after 12 years of living in Madison (her mom's home town), her family traded in cold blasts for warm breezes and moved back to Kauai. Lucia has a long background in gymnastics and dance. She took gymnastics for six years at Madtown Twisters in Madison, then continued at the High School level. She also took two years of Tap and Ballet at Kehls' Dance School. Her hobbies are running, surfing, guitar, gymnastics and reading. Lucia works with Tots, Beginners and Beginner Plus gymnasts at KGA.
Coach: Tristana Fernandez-Dawe Tristana worked at KGA for a short time at the end of 2008 and we're happy to welcome her back permanently, as her move here is now complete. She has a strong background in dance and was instrumental in choreographing many of the team members' floor routines last fall. She will continue in that role again this year. She is also Assistant Coach of Kula and Hoku, and one of the Assistant Coaches for Iki. Besides her background in many forms of dance, she was a competitive gymnast and she worked for North Shore Gymnastics Academy, Kauai (the KGA predecessor) and Dynamic Gymnastics in Spokane before coming here. At our new space, Tristana will co-run our Parents and Tots program, too. She's the proud mom of Tessa, who is also a gymnast!
Coach: Nikki Munroe (photo to follow) Nikki was raised in Ohio, and graduated from The Ohio State University "Go Buckeyes!" She and her husband have been on island for over 8 years and are proud to call it home. Nikki was active in gymnastics for most of her life and has a passion for teaching little kids. She taught at KGA in 2007, leaving to welcome into the world her son Sawyer who was born in October of 2008. That makes her a perfect person to co-run our re-activated Parent and Tots program, in our new space.
Assistant Coach: Megan Heller Megan is also a member of our Kula Hui. Besides virtually living in the gym, many of you may have seen in her several of the theatre productions on the island. Currently Megan assists with all the Saturday morning classes, but is starting to help out with the Iki Hui too. Her exciting floor routines are favorites for the other team members to watch and she likes being able to demonstrate skills to them. The keiki flock to her and she is very good at helping them do their best.
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Send comments/questions/suggestions/concerns in regards to this website to: webmaster@kauaigymnastics.com Kauai
Gymnastics Academy -- Where It's FUN
to be FIT! STARTING AUGUST 30th: 4224 Hanahao Street, Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii 96766 Mailing Address: 6134 Kala Kea Place #4, Kapaa, HI 96746 808/245-8863 or 808/634-8697 |
