Our Amazing Staff of Coaches at Houston Elite Cheer

Owner & CEO/Private Lesson Specialist

Dana Biggers is the owner and CEO of Houston Elite Cheer. Dana has been involved in gymnastics and cheerleading her entire life. In her early childhood, she was a competitive gymnast under the direction of Gary Daw at Universal Gymnastics and competed as a level 8 optional gymnast. She then switched over to cheerleading in 6th grade and fell in love with the sport. She cheered at Trinity Episcopal, Central MS and Ball High School in her hometown, Galveston. She was an NCA All-American and UCA All-Star cheerleader throughout these years.  For college, she attended Sam Houston State where she cheered, competed, and then transferred to the University of Houston and was awarded NCA All-American at the collegiate level. Dana cheered on the very first NATIONAL CHAMPION winning team at U of H in 2001 under the direction of Sean Garland. As captain her senior year, she led her team to victory and earned her first NCA National Champion collegiate title. She graduated with a degree in Political Science and Spanish. Dana has been coaching gymnastics and cheerleading for over 23 years. Dana produces incredible "game day" cheerleaders and loves to help prepare athletes for their school cheer tryouts but books up extremely fast. 

For the last 10 years, an average of 96% of the "Dana Girls" that trained with her on a weekly basis made the squad at their school/college. She is extremely talented in all aspects of cheerleading and tumbling. So if you are interested in junior high, high school, or college cheerleading, she is THE one you need to see.  

Fun fact: Dana is fluent in Spanish and has also attended law school. She is scared of clowns. Dana is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and has a 5-year-old son named Parker and a 4-year-old daughter named RyLee.

Senior Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Mitchel "Mitch" Schlichting has been part of HEC since the doors opened! He has also been in the cheerleading arena for six years and has been coaching for over 10 years.  He started his cheer career on a Level 4 competitive team at The Pride of Texas and cheered there for three years.  After graduating from Bellaire High School, he coached tumbling classes, competitive and recreational cheer teams, and has taught private lessons to athletes 5-18 years of age.  Mitch also competed on Texas Lonestar Cheer Company's Level 6 team.  In 2013, he competed with Champion Cheer as a Level 6 athlete in Dallas.  Mitch competed at Worlds in 2013, and his team was awarded 4th place. He also competed at NCA in 2013 and 2015 as a Level 6 athlete. Mitch returned to Texas Cheer and competed again with Lvl 5 Redi. Mitch also cheered at the University of Houston co-ed squad for two years. GO COOGS!!!  He is a great coach and loves teaching kids of all ages how to tumble/stunt.

Fun Fact: Mitch has two kids!

Senior Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Lakeyn Johnson has been cheering for 15 years. Doing both competitive cheer and school cheer, Lakeyn first started her cheering career at Westside Cheer Academy at 8 years old where she won two jump competitions. She then went on to cheer at Cheer Nation (now Prodigy) on a level 5 team and competed at NCA for three years. Lakeyn also cheered at Morton Ranch High School on the varsity cheer team where she served as cheer captain for two years, winning the UCA summer camp jump competition for three years in a row, as well as being recognized as an All-American cheerleader for UCA for three consecutive years. Lakeyn enjoyed cheering and perfecting many different elite skills throughout her cheer career. After High School Lakeyn first attended Louisiana State University and then transferred to the University of Houston where she received a degree in Nutrition. She loves kids and is now dedicated to teaching kids her same passion for cheerleading. She enjoys watching kids learn, grow and wants them to enjoy the sport just as much as she does. Lakeyn loves doing choreography and working with school teams.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach, Summer Camp Director

Kylie is a passionate and driven coach who has been in the cheer world since 2006. She started cheering competitively at the Academy of Gymnastics and Dance in her hometown until she made the cheer team at Hudson Middle School. She continued to make her school cheer team every year from 7th grade to her senior year. She rejoined the competitive world in 2014 with the Academy of Gymnastics and Dance, before moving to Cheer Extreme winning numerous NCA titles & bids with both gyms. After high school, she made the 2017-2018 collegiate cheer team for the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor, before moving to Houston to finish college.

Fun fact: Kylie made it as a finalist in 2018 for the Houston Texans and loves to golf as much as she loves to cheer.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Elleana is passionate about cheer and has been since  2009. She has done competitive, high school, and college cheer. She has coached cheer since 2015 coaching competitive and high school cheer. From 2018-2020, Elleana was an assistant coach for her college team, Mississippi College (Go Choctaws), after serving as cheer captain her senior year. Currently, Elleana coaches Middle School cheer and dance at a local private school! She loves working with all ages and loves anything and everything cheer!

Fun fact: Elleana’s little sister has Down Syndrome.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Brynn is a junior at Memorial High school where she did two years of school cheer. Brynn has been doing gymnastics since the age of 3. Brynn went into competitive gymnastics for 7 years when she then switched to cheer for high school. Brynn has been taking lessons with HEC for more than two years now growing her love for cheer. Brynn recently stopped school cheer and now loves sharing her passion for cheer with others. When Brynn is not doing cheer you will find her drawing, painting, or hanging out with friends.

Fun fact: Brynn has three siblings, and one of them goes to HEC too!

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Peri is an incoming sophomore at Stratford High School. She is an honors student, served as an officer for the Freshman Girls club, and can’t wait to be a second-year member of her school’s student council. After growing up with seven years of gymnastics experience, Peri found a love for dance and was one of the first freshman members of the Spartanaire drill team here at Stratford.

Fun fact: Peri has a little sister (Naz) who cheers at HEC!! She loves stalking Dana’s Instagram to see her tumble and jump :)

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

 Macy grew up training at Sharon’s Dance Unlimited and is currently still training and beginning to tech there. She has been dancing for 14 years. She took tumbling early on and has a solid foundation to help teach others. Growing up competitive made encouraging others fun and easy. Macy would love to study dance and hopefully run her own studio one day.Fun Fact:
She is a turner and her pirouette record is 14. Her favorite shows are “Cheer” and “Friends” 

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Maddie is a freshman at Stratford High School. She is looking forward to participating in track & field, joining many clubs, and trying out for cheer sophomore year. She started gymnastics at 5 years old and did it competitively for 3 years. She was able to win nationals, competing as a level 5, and ended training as a level 8. Maddie enjoys her lessons at HEC with Dana and Geris during the week and loves tumbling. 

Fun Fact: Maddie has 20 cousins and most of her family lives in New Orleans.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Bizza is a junior at Stratford High school. She started competitive gymnastics at the age of 6 and until age 10, ending that milestone of her life as a level 8 gymnast. She moved on to do Allstar cheerleading for the next 6 years advancing her skills up to level 6 stunting and tumbling. She attended the D2 cheerleading summit twice and then competed two seasons with Woodlands Elite, attending the D1 cheerleading summit twice as well. She’s made the High school Varsity cheer team at Stratford the last two years and is a two-time All-American. Bizza has been training with HEC year-round and has found so much love for the program. She loves working with kids and making a positive atmosphere dedicated to progress. She is so excited to join the HEC crew!

Fun fact: Bizza’s real name is Isabella. The nickname Bizza was given by her nanny when she was 4 and has stuck ever since.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Bre is a sophomore at Stratford High School where she is a cheerleader. This will be her second year on the team.  She started gymnastics at the age of 4.  Over the years, Bre has always loved to tumble.  She has been training with Houston Elite Cheer for over 7 years.  Bre keeps up her skills by taking private lessons several days a week.  She loves cheerleading and wants to share her talents and skills with others.

Fun fact:  Bre loves the beach.  When she is not at the gym, you will find her with her friends or playing soccer.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach 

Tess is a junior at Memorial High School. She started recreational gymnastics at the age of 3 and started competing when she was 5. She did competitive gymnastics for 7 years until she transitioned to cheer for high school. She is a Dana Girl and tumbles with coach Mitch. Tess loves working with kids and is excited to share her love for the sport with others

Fun fact: Tess loves to travel and will take a quick trip every chance she gets!! 

Tumbling Coach

Charlie is a Sophomore at Memorial High School. He has been involved in gymnastics since he was three years old. He competed for several years across Texas on a Tumble and Tramp team, winning several championship medals. Charlie has taken tumbling and cheer classes off and on at HEC since 2018. 

Fun Fact: Charlie has two dogs - a mixed breed named Shenanigans and a Boston Terrier named Bruce.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

Emily is a sophomore at Episcopal High School where she is on the varsity cheer team. Emily started gymnastics when she was 7 years old. Tumbling is her passion, and she started to cheer as a freshman. She made the varsity team at Episcopal High School in her sophomore year and has continued to keep her skills up by attending regular lessons at Houston Elite Cheer. Emily enjoys helping others learn new skills and knows how cheer can also teach lifelong lessons.

Fun fact: Emily loves baking and enjoys playing tennis in her free time.

Tumbling/Cheer Coach

 Schyanne started cheer at 5 years old with a competitive gym in Dallas called “Wild About Cheer” and continued all through junior high and high school. Schyanne was captain all four years for high school cheer and won multiple national titles including NCA. Then I cheered at UH and have been in Houston ever since. She worked as head coach at a private school in Houston for 3 years as well as a small gym in Spring, TX. She absolutely loves everything about cheerleading and just wants to share her love of cheer with every kid that enters 

HEC Fun fact: Schyanne’s family is from Rhode Island and lived there when she was little.