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Ben Hardy, Owner and Head Coach.
Ben has been involved in the sport for over 25 years as competitor and coach. Ben has developed many state and regional champions, along with national qualifiers. He hopes to share his love of the sport with all of his students and their families.
Let Ben show you why Balance is better!
Julie Stepanchenko, Team Coach & Manager.
Julie has been tumbling since three years old, and doing gymnastics since the age of six. She competed at two local clubs in her youth, and throughout high school.
Julie has been coaching the sport for over fifteen years and enjoys coaching all ages--parent-tot through high school. She takes pride in helping girls become powerful gymnasts and young ladies.
Throughout her coaching career, Julie has had numerous state champions on the balance beam, floor exercise and vault at the Compulsory and Optional levels in the USAG circuit, as well as the IPDGC.
Julie believes that the sport of gymnastics brings so many awesome qualities to a young girls’ life: discipline, goal setting, strength, teamwork, determination, confidence, focus, love of sport, competition, and life-long friendships. Julie is happy to be at BIG, and be able to share these life lessons with the gymnasts of BIG Gymnastics.
Dana Poncin, Team Coach & Choreographer.
Biography on it’s way!
Click on the button above to learn more about our
on-site Physical Therapist.
Matt Delk, Team Coach.
Matt’s interest in gymnastics began as a freshman in High School, when he began competing in men’s gymnastics. He competed in all of the events, but his favorite was High Bar. In his third year of competition, he was a State Finalist in the High Bar event. Gymnastics has been a large part of his life ever since. In 2000 he began coaching gymnastics, and eventually took a Head Coach position with Powerhouse Gymnastics in Port Orange, Florida. Summers in 2002 and 2003 were spent coaching for Bela Karolyi in Karolyi’s camp. In 2005, Coach Matt moved back to Illinois, and began working at a local gym. It was there that he met Coach Ben, and in 2008, Matt made the move to join Coach Ben at Balance Institute of Gymnastics. In his spare time, Coach Matt enjoys surfing, skateboarding, and riding motorcycles. Besides being a certified Gymnastics Coach, he is also a certified Personal Trainer through the International Fitness Professionals Association. Coach Matt believes in positive motivation in coaching, and he is happy to be a part of the BIG Gymnastics family.
Jessica Lyn Herbick, Team Coach.
Jess brings to our program over 15 years of personal gymnastics experience which includes finishing her career as an accomplished level 10 gymnast.
Prior to working at BIG, Jess worked as an instructor/coach for 6 years at Gym-Kinetics Gymnastics, taking over level 4 in their 2nd year of development. Through hard work and innovation she developed an excellent, hard-working team. Her level 4 team won 2nd place as a team at state in 2006, with two 1st place awards on beam, and a 1st place in the all-around. She also helped develop a level 7 1st place state team.
Jess's philosophy on developing level 4, level 5, or level 6 teams is putting together a well-rounded successful compulsory team. To motivate her teams, she promotes hard work, fine dance routines, high self-esteem, teamwork, fun, and love of gymnastics.
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Anthony Dubrule, Coach.
Anthony was a High School gymnast for 2 years, but never thought he would find himself called to coach. His first love was break-dancing, which he truly excelled at, and eventually, Anthony was showing off his skills in dance competitions. It was at competition, where he began talking to a friend who was coaching gymnastics, and the rest was history. It wasn’t long before Anthony had multiple offers for coaching opportunities. With Coach Dana’s recommendation, one such opportunity came from Balance Institute, and it only took one visit for Anthony to know this was the place to be!
Anthony coaches recreational gymnastics, and tumbling, and he still break-dances, and “throws” dance competitions. His goal at BIG is to help give children a creative outlet, and a positive alternative to less constructive activities.
Karen Schmidt, Recreational Program Director.
Biography on it’s way!
Donna Rufa, Parent-Tot Guru.
“Miss Donna,” as most of the kids call her, is lovingly referred to as “Parent-Tot Guru” because teaching movement education to children is her great passion and love. She believes that to see the faces of her students light up and smile is her biggest reward. Miss Donna’s way of teaching is through games - so the children feel like they are playing a game, not “doing” or “learning” a skill, although they are. She knows that little ones are extremely intelligent, so she doesn’t teach down to them. She chooses to teach in a way that allows her students to comprehend and learn while developing their gross motor skills. She believes that there is nothing more exciting than the sound of laughter, squeals and singing from a large group of toddlers! Miss Donna’s professional accomplishments include, but are not limited to: USA Gymnastics Safety Certification, USA Gymnastics Kinder Accreditation for Teachers (KAT), USA Gymnastics Rookie Coach Certification and CPR/First Aid training, and she comes to BIG with many years of experience in coaching gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and swimming to young children. Miss Donna is a proud Mom to Lindsay and Christopher, and she is also proud to consider her students at BIG a part of her extended family.
Kristyn Moavero
Biography on it’s way!
