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John Neville started his cheerleading career as a high school cheerleader for two years before cheering at Oregon State University for four years, where he was captain of that team for the last two seasons. After graduating from Oregon State in 1996 he became an instructor for the United Spirit Association (USA) for ten years. Six of those years he was a head instructor teaching high school and college camps all across the West Coast from Washington, Oregon, California, Utah and Nevada. John was a high school French and Spanish teacher from 1997-2001 at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon where he coached the high school cheerleading team. He also coached pole vault for the track team as well as Football for the last season. During this time he started the first of two all star gyms as well as was a member of the Portland Trail Blazers stunt team. While in Oregon, John choreographed high school and colleges around the Pacific Northwest while judging local and National high school and collegiate cheer competitions. In 2001, John moved to Southern California and began coaching locally while still teaching summer camps for USA and was a member of the Los Angeles Clippers stunt team. In the spring of 2003, John and his wife, Heather, co-founded OC All Stars Cheer and Dance. Since then, John and Heather have become the sole owners of OC All Stars and are into the 5th season at OC. While coaching teams at OC John also teaches many tumbling classes for all levels and ages. John also judges nationally and speaks at cheerleading conferences across the country. |
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Heather Neville has over 22 years experience as a dancer. She is studio trained in ballet, tap, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, song/pon and tumbling. She has coached and choreographed competitive and recreational dance for over 10 years. She was a member of Long Beach State's nationally ranked dance team and she has 8 years experience as dance instructor with the United Spirit Association (USA) in the song/pom program and 5 years as a head instructor. She has choreographed for various high school and all star teams throughout California. From 2003-2007 her OC All Stars dance teams brought home over 30 National Titles as well as numerous 1st place finishes. She has helped coordinate half time shows for the Pro Bowl in Hawaii, the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Clippers. She graduated from Long Beach State with a BA in Communications and a minor in Dance. As well as being an owner at OC All Stars she is the head song/dance coach at Mission High School. |
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Nelson de Dios began his cheerleading career while a Senior in High School in Northern California. He was quickly hired to be a part of the United Spirit Association's (USA) Instructional Staff shortly after graduating High School and began coaching at that time. He spent the next 6 years with USA as both a head instructor and a member of program development. While with USA Nelson helped produce and performed in numerous production events such as halftime shows for the NFL, NBA, Women's World Cup Soccer and the New Year's Day parade in Paris, France. In the spring of 2002 after a very successful inaugural season with the Motions All Stars, the Motions Cheerleading Gym became the first gym in San Jose to open its doors (there are now 7 different gyms in the San Jose area). Under Nelson's direction, Motions changed the face of cheerleading in the Southern Bay Area. Since then Nelson has helped the program win numerous awards as well as Regional, State and National competitions. His "Perfection before progression" and "Clean and Uniformed" style has helped his advanced level teams become some of the best in California. He was the only coach in the Bay Area to lead his team to a Full Paid Bid to the USASF Cheerleeading World's Competition two years in a row; doing so with his Large Coed Teams (2006 10th place, 2007 11th place). Only three other programs in California have done the same (POWER, California All Stars and the West Coast Mavericks). Nelson currently creates custom music for teams across the country as well as choreographs for several High School teams across the state. He also enjoys multi-media work having created promotional videos for cheergyms.com and OC as well as building websites. He created the current website for cheergyms.com and the new ocallstars.com website. Nelson brings to OC his creativity, a disciplined and uniformed style and look, a "perfection before progression" outlook as well as an incredibly strong work ethic. He is very excited to help make the OC Cheer and Dance program the most successful program in all of California! |
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Dana Fielding cheered in high school and went on to college on a swim scholarship at RPI, and then received the Vice Presidential nomination to the United States Air Force Academy. She ended up finishing her degree in Biology in San Francisco. She worked as a women's health nurse for 15 years and managed one of the largest women's health groups in the Bay Area. She has been involved in cheer for over 20 years between cheering, coaching and judging. Dana has coached all levels of cheer from minis to high school. She joined OC four years ago as a cheer parent and is going into her third season coaching at OC. |
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Nicole has been dancing since she was three years old. She was a member of her high school's pep squad for four years and captain for two. She has competed throughout California as well as many performances including the Super Bowl. She has coached cheerleading for two years and this season will be her fourth year coaching and choreographing for National Champion dancers. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a BA in Sociology and is continuing her education in the Speech Language Pathologist Assistant program. She has been working with kids for 11 years, including working as an assistant preschool teacher and is very excited to continue working with the talented kids of the OC. |
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Neil began his now 18th year in the sport of cheerleading at Georgia College in Milledgeville, GA. He cheered there for 3 years and he went from being the only male on the team to, by the third year, they were a complete coed squad and competed in the schools first NCA Collegiate Championship. In Neil’s last year at GC he began coaching at American Cheerleading in Marietta, GA. Here Neil began coaching for the first time and learned from UCA great, Eddie Zegara, and Nfinity President, Tate Chalk. Neil coached for American for the next four years while finishing his schooling at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, GA. At Georgia Southern, his squad competed at the UCA Collegian Championships in Orlando FL., where they ranked fifth in the Nation. In 1997, Neil opened his own cheer gym in Alpharetta, GA. He started the Atlanta Wildcats with one senior team and over the next six years, grew the program to nine teams in every age group and every level. He had great success with his teams and they won National Championships from Cheersport, The American Championships and Athletic Championships. His teams competed at the first Cheersport Nationals in 1997 (then named USASF at Norcross High School). While being a gym owner, Neil also had the opportunity to coach many local school cheer teams. He worked with Wheeler HS, Lassiter MS, Statesboro HS, Georgia Southern University, Georgia College, Forsyth Central HS, South Forsyth HS (GHSA State Champions), South Forsyth MS (Cheersport National Champions and Georgia State Champions), Milton MS, Vickery Creek MS (Cheersport National Champions), Dean Rusk MS (COA National Champions), Walton MS and his alma matter McEachern HS where, when in high school, was a 2 year varsity member of the Region Champion McEachern Football Program and was a 2 year, varsity member, of the eleven time State Champion McEachern Wrestling Program. In 2003, Neil sold his gym to a group of investors, and went to work with his friends at the brand new, The Stingray All Stars. Over the next three years, Neil coached in the Stingray program that had tremendous success and by the time he left the then, 4 year old program, they had won 233 National Championships, 8 Titles at NCA (more than any other program has ever won there in one season) and 2 World Championships. Neil, along with all the coaches at The Stingray All Stars, pushed himself, as a coach, to the next level and is very proud of what he accomplished while being there. Neil is very candid on saying that he is a much better coach for being in such a great program. In October of 2006, Neil moved from Atlanta to Orange County to start working with OC. In his first season, he worked with Youth Yellow (YouLow), and helped guide them to National Championships at Jamz, Cheer Pros, Jamfest, GSSA, and a 1st runner up at Cheersport Nationals. In his second year at OC, Neil coached Sr. Red. Red had an extremely successful season bringing home 8 titles. Neil also worked with Mission Viejo JV squad over the past 2 seasons. Neil also judges for many companies from time to time. He has judged teams from Miami to Seattle and from L.A. to Baltimore and there aren’t many programs that he hasn’t judged or competed against. |
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Dee Dee has been with OC for the past 3 years as a coach, tumbling and flyer instructor. She grew up in Orange County and attended Capo HS where she was on the surf team and was 6th place in the Southern CA division Pole Vaulting Championship in which she STILL holds the school record! She went on to surf and cheer for Long Beach State. Dee Dee was the individual champion with COA and USA from 2001 to 2004 and is currently a camp instructor for the National Cheerleader's Association (NCA). Dee Dee just graduated from the Vidal Sassoon Cosmetology School where she learned to be a hair stylist as you can tell by many of OC's staff members BEAUTIFUL hair!!! |
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Alex graduated from UCSB with a BA in communication studies and was a 4 year member (2 years captain) of the Nationally ranked UCSB Dance Team. She has coached and choreographed for several National Champion teams within the last 3 years. She coaches San Marcos High School to a USA National Championship in 2006 & 2007, Glendora High School USA Nationals 2nd place 2006, 1st place 2007 as well her team won the Innovative Choreography Award at NDA Nationals in Florida with the routine she choreographed. She is a former USA Instructor where she taught high school and college dance camps. She has choreographed for UCSB Cheer, UCSB Dance, Cal Lutheran University, 14k Jules Dance Academy in Carpinteria, San Marcos Cheer and many dance studios in Southern California. Her 14k Jules team took 1st in Hip Hop and 2nd in Jazz at National Dance competition. She is very excited to be a part of the OC All Stars Dance program! |
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Melissa Lonkard was born and raised in Kentucky and moved to Orange County from Chattanooga, Tennesse to be a head coach with OC. She was a three year member of the 14 time National Champion, University of Kentucky cheerleading squad. She has over 10 years of gymnastics and power tumbling competition and coaching experience as well as 10 years of coaching in cheerleading. She has coached all age and experience levels from preschool to college. She also judges on the national level for several cheerleading companies. OC All Stars is delighted to have Melissa on board as she is a wonderful addition to our outstanding team of coaches! |
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Ernie Higuera started dancing early in his childhood. He has studied Jazz, Ballet, Tap, Lyrical, Salsa and Hip-Hop. Though well rounded in all types of dance, Hip-Hop is his passion. He danced at Studio Del Sol on their nationally ranked hip-hop team for 2 years where numerous national and regional awards were won. Ernie went on to choreograph all of the hip-hop routines for the competition teams as well as he was a hip-hop teacher for the recreational classes. Ernie left Studio Del Sol when he moved to L.A. where he began working at the nationally known Millennium Dance Complex. He assisted classes taught by well known choreographers such as Brian Friedman and Wade Robson. Ernie also takes classes taught by Shane Sparks, Wade Robson and Brian Friedman (seen on the hit show, "So You Think You Can Dance"). Ernie then moved to Orange County where he auditioned and made the competitive hip-hop team Team Millennia based out of Cal State Fullerton. The team competed against other colleges all over California and won many national titles. Ernie danced professionally at Disneyland where he performed in the smash hit "Block Party Bash" for 3 years. He has also performed in "the Electrical Parade" and the Christmas Parade. He has performed in events starring Ashanti, Arnold Scwarzenegger and Hilary Duff. Ernie is very excited to be back at OC All Stars! |
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Bennie has over 17 years of cheerleading experience as a summer camp instructor, a dance coach and a cheer and tumbling instructor, all on the high school and collegel level. He also has over 14 years of experience as an all star coach. In those 17 years, Bennie has choreographed and coached over 75 championship cheer and dance teams including high school, all star and college teams. Bennie moved to the OC in April of 2006 after spending time in Kentucky and Tennessee. Bennie was a 3 year member of the 14 time National Champion University of Kentucky cheer squad. He was a gym manager for 4 years and owned his own gym for 6 years. His gym, Tennessee Elite, won the first National Championship ever in Chattanooga, TN. For the past 5 years Bennie has been a judge for all the major cheer companies across the country. He is also a sought after speaker on various topics concerning cheerleading and gym ownership. Bennie is originally from Lawton, Oklahoma (not an "Okie from Muskogee!"). Bennie currently choreographs for All Star, High School and College teams across the country. |
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Katie has been dancing for eight years where she is trained in jazz, hip-hop, ballet and salsa. She was on the nationally ranked Song Team at Tesoro High School. After competing with them for two years, Katie moved on to progress her dancing skills by taking classes at well-known studios such as Millennium and The Edge. She currently is attending Cal State Long Beach where she hopes to receive a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts. She is very excited to be a part of the OC! |
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Ryan has cheered competitively for the past 5 years with such programs as Coast Spirit All Stars, Orange Coast College, Pace All Stars Pro Team and now California All Stars Pro Team. He has coached cheer teams and tumbling classes ranging from Level 1 to Level 5. he is currently working with U.S. Spiritleaders as a Summer Camp instructor as well as at their competitions. He has worked with many high school teams including San Clemente High School and now he is currently the freshman cheer coach at Mission Viejo High School. he and his family also owned a successful cheerleading gym before he came onto the staff with OC. He has a huge passion for the sport and an even greater passion for teaching kids. He loves coaching kids of all ages and all skill levels. He loves being able to make an impact in a person's life not only to teach them tumbling and cheerleading skills, but also life lessons and knowledge of how to make good decisions in life. |
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Lisa has over 15 years of dance experience including training in hip-hop, jazz, ballet, tap, lyrical and musical theater. She competed as a young dancer before she attended Tesoro High School where she was on the song team and captain for all four years. She graduated valedictorian from Tesoro High School and is currently on scholarship attending the University of California, Irvine as a sociology major. While in college she solely choreographed, as well as performed in the musicals Footloose and Saturday Night Fever for the yearly Greek Songfest. This is her 4th season with OC. |
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Rachel has been dancing for the last 8 years as a competitive dancer and a coach. Rachel trained at the renowned dance center West Coast School of the Arts. Being a competitive dancer, Rachel has won numerous national first place dance awards all across the country. In high school she was the first freshman ever to make the Santa Margarita Catholic High School Varsity Song Team. During high school Rachel won the title Miss Teen California 2006. She took on Character Counts as her platform. She was a National spokesperson for Character Counts and spoke at various elementary schools and boys and girls clubs. Rachel acknowledges dancing for giving her the drive, ethics and responsibility she possesses today. Rachel wanted to promote the character she built from dance to children all across California along with her students at OC. Rachel currently attends Orange Coast College where she made the nationally ranked dance team. Rachel is going into her second year teaching ballet and jazz dance technique at OC and loves working with all of the dancers! |
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Alison has been involved in cheerleading for almost 10 years. She has competed on advanced level All Star teams for 6 years and has competed three times at the USASF Cheerleading Worlds, two years on a Large Coed team and one year on a International coed team. Before cheerleading Alison spent 10 years in competitive gymnastics having spent her last year training level 8. Alison is now in school to become a massage therapist and is in her first year with OC! |
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Andrea began her dance training at age 10 at Capistrano Valley Dance Center. Although she is primarily a classically trained ballet dancer, she has extensive training in modern, lyrical and jazz from such studios as Jimmy DeFore, Saddleback Dance Center and Pacific Coast Academy of Dance. Andrea has attended several Summer Intensives including American Ballet Theatre, Jeffrey Ballet and Boston Ballet, where she was featured in such ballets as Firebird, Coppelia and Nutcracker. At age 16 Andrea began teacher training and started teaching pre-school aged children. She found a passion for teaching and attended several more training sessions for dance teachers through The Cecchetti Society of Dance. Along with her love for teaching, Andrea loves performing. From 2003 - 2006 Andrea was a member of Naked Feet modern company and performed in several community performances. Andrea was also elected president of Saddleback Dance Collective from 2003 - 2006. Andrea has combined her training, teaching and performance skills to develop many Nationally Award Winning dance teams. Andrea is always continuing her own training and brings her experiences into the classroom for her students. |
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Erica Gill Cheer Coach, Tumbling Instructor |
Erica has been coaching with OC All Stars for 6 years. She has 16 years of cheerleading experience with 9 years as a coach. Erica cheered with Orange Crush and Cheer Empire and was captain of her Mission Viejo High School cheer team for 3 years. She also coached for the US Spiritleaders summer camp. Erica is currently studying to be a small animal vet at Long Beach. |
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 Kelly Vernon Hip-Hop and Ballet/Jazz Instructor |
Kelly is trained in various dance genres including ballet, hip-hop, jazz, salsa and african. She has been dancing and choreographing for fifteen years. Kelly has danced, coached and choreographed for seven high school, collegiate and private dance organizations throughout California. While attending Aliso Niguel high school, she danced on the Nationally ranked songleading competition team. In addition, she co-founded the hip hop dance troupe called Dance Appreciation. She was also a dancer and choreographer for the University of California, Berkeley dance team. She co-founded the university's hip-hop troupe called Dance Junta. Kelly also danced for the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warrior's dance teams. She choreographed for both of those teams as well as the NBA's Portland Trailblazers dance team. Kelly currently works for the United Spirit Association and has choreographed for their program development team for two years. In addition, she has been an instructor for their College/Professional Dance Camp for the past four years. She currently owns, operates and manages her own entertainmente production company called Vin'yet Productions. |
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 Michell Charnitski Office Manager |
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OC
CHEER AND DANCE |
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