Leanne Altinger (Principle Coach/Head Coach)
Leanne has been passionate about calisthenics since she started competing at the age of 5. Leanne’s competitive years included working as a Missie (Tinie), right through to the Senior age group which she only retired from in recent years. She was also selected as an Intermediate and Senior ACT Representative, both at team level and also as a Senior Graceful Soloist.
Leanne has been coaching since the age of 13 and her coaching career includes the 1996 Junior and 1998 Intermediate ACT Representative teams. She has also coached a Senior to Nationals for Graceful Solo.
In 1997 Leanne, along with Kerry Sargent-Cox, Lee Hamlyn and Donna Sullivan, created Brindabella Calisthenics College. Although Leanne isn’t currently coaching a team at Brindabella, she is still passionate about mentoring the young coaches and is extremely proud of the caliber of coaches that they have nurtured throughout the years and will continue to do so in years to come.
Leanne’s daughters have inherited her enthusiasm for calisthenics and are both competitive members of the club. Leanne also has a son, Ryan, who chooses to admire the sport from afar.
A highlight in Leanne’s coaching career was being awarded the 2007 ACT Coach of Year.
Rose Booth
Rose started her calisthenics career at the age of four and has been non-stop addicted to the sport ever since. Participating in every age group and competing in solos since a Sub-Junior, her achievements include representing the ACT as a Junior in 1996 as well as a Senior in both team and solo’s in 2002, 2003 (2nd place, closed division), 2004 (first place, closed division) and 2007. Her personal highlights have been winning the 2004 ACT Senior Graceful title as well as being selected to compete at the prestigious Royal South Street Graceful Solo competition in 2007 – a dream she never thought was possible!
Rose started as a cadet coach in 1998 and became an accredited Level 1 coach in 2003. Having coached all age groups and numerous solos, she has many memorable moments including coaching two of Brindabella’s participants to perform as Graceful soloists at the National Championships. However, her proudest moments as a coach has been watching each and every participant she has worked with grow with confidence and poise as they build on their skills and achieve goals they thought were impossible!
Rose’s greatest achievement to date was coaching the 2011 ACT Intermediate Representative Team with fellow Brindabella coach Katrina. They were reselected to coach the 2012 Intermediate team!
Ashleigh Costello
Ashleigh began participating in Calisthenics at the age of 10 and started competing in solo competitions at the age of 11. In 2009 Ashleigh was selected to compete at the National Championships as a Graceful Soloist, and has also represented the ACT in the Intermediate and Senior teams in 2008 and 2011.
Coaching was something Ashleigh has always seen herself doing, ever since she started with the club. Starting her cadetship in 2007, Ashleigh has continued coaching every year since. Spending one year with the Sub-juniors then moving on to the Junior age group.
Ashleigh received her accreditation as a Level 1 coach in 2011. Ashleigh is also very proud to coaches a mixture of calisthenics soloists, graceful girls and duos.
Grace Cox
Grace started calisthenics when she was two and has enjoyed it ever since. Having represented the ACT in 2004, Grace has also competed in solo, graceful and duo items throughout her 16 years as a competitor.
Starting her cadetting the moment she could at the age of 12, with her mum (Kerry Sargent-Cox – past Principal Coach of Brindabella and Director of Coaching ACT) who has been a huge inspiration to her. Grace has loved cadetting and achieved her Level 1 accreditation in 2011 after 5 years of cadetting. Throughout Grace’s time as a coach she has many memorable moments including her soloist achieving high placings throughout 2011.
Grace loves to watch the participants develop and be able to achieve something that they have been working hard to get. Coaching inspires her to achieve better results within herself and to continue to help participant’s progress and develop. Grace’s goal for the future years is to one-day coach an ACT Representative Team.
Sarah Doecke
Sarah started calisthenics in 1995, then took a break due to moving overseas with her family. She rejoined calisthenics in 2005. Sarah has also competed in graceful solos and calisthenic solos, which she has very much enjoyed.
In 2009 she became a cadet. She started out doing two years of Tinies and is now teaching the Juniors as a level one coach. During 2010 Sarah won the Cadet of the Year award. Sarah loves to see the progression of the girls. She is very excited to be teaching Juniors in 2012 alongside Megan Thorpe and Ashleigh Costello as well as teaching two soloist for the first time.
Teaching calisthenics is a real passion for Sarah and she is very excited to progress her coaching career in the future.
Joanna Farrow
Joanna has been addicted to calisthenics since 1990, when she began as a Sub-Junior at age 7. Throughout her time as a competitor, Joanna competed at team competitions in Canberra, Sydney and Ballarat, was selected in the ’94, ’96 and ’97 ACT Representative Teams and also competed as a Graceful Soloist.
Joanna began her coaching career with Brindabella Calisthenics College in 1997 and in 2001 achieved her Level 1 Accreditation. She has mainly worked with the younger age groups, Tinies, Sub-Juniors and Juniors and really enjoys watching the participants grow as performers and improve their skills and abilities. Joanna truly believes calisthenics gives so much to its competitors, not only dance skills and exercise but also confidence, creativity and great friends!
Some highlights from Joanna’s coaching career include winning the Langdon Family Award for Young Coaches in 2007 and coaching the ACT Intermediate Callisthenic Solo Champion in 2011.
Lee Hamlyn
Lee started assistant coaching at 16 because she was totally inspired by her new coach. Her first very own team was at Brighton Calisthenics Club (South Australia) and since then has coached Tinies through to Seniors, Intermediate and Senior Representative Teams in South Australia and one Representative Team in ACT (with her best buddies) which was a lot of fun! Lee has taught solos and duos but her favorite is graceful solos. Lee has had two beautiful participants compete at Royal South Street in Senior Graceful and one compete and place at Nationals. She competed herself for 37 years all up and still misses it at times.
Lee believes Calisthenics is a kind of bizarre sport, but thinks it gets in your blood – gives you life long friends – buckets of laughter and produces poised, elegant, self-confident people at the other end. A constant reminder of why she loves it. Oh – and of course a love of BLING!! – She can’t imagine a life without sequins.
Megan Kratzel
Megan has been part of the Brindabella community for the past 15 years, since it’s inception in 1997. Prior to joining Brindabella, Megan began her calisthenics career as a participant with the Chellor Calisthenics Club in 1993. Megan has represented the ACT in the 1997 Sub-Junior team and again in 2003 as an Intermediate. In 2006 she was selected to represent the ACT at Nationals for her graceful solo, which was a truly rewarding experience and a dream come true!
In 2006 whilst working as a cadet, Megan gained her Level 1 coaching accreditation. In 2008, Megan was part of the Junior coaching team which achieved very positive results throughout the year. Megan has also worked as a Cadet Coach for the 2008 and 2009 ACT Junior Representative teams and was appointed assistant coach to the ACT Sub-Junior team in 2010 and the ACT Junior team in 2011.
She sees one of her highlights to date as her Intermediate Graceful soloist being selected to represent the ACT at the Nationals Championships in 2011. Megan believes being involved in the ACT representative teams have been the best learning experience for her and has enjoyed every minute of it!
Megan loves all aspects of coaching, particularly being able to help participants reach their full potential and seeing what they can achieve!! Throughout her coaching career, Megan has been very fortunate to have worked with some of the best coaches in Canberra and also been mentored by other well-respected coaches from all over the country.
BCC is like a 2nd family to her, and is proud to be associated with this club.
Natalie Morphett
Natalie started calisthenics in 1990 when Joanna Farrow (fellow Brindabella coach) dragged her along to a class. Little did she know it was going to be a sport she would fall in love with and still be involved with over 21 years later.
Throughout Natalie’s time as a competitor she competed in Calisthenics and Graceful solos, as a member of the 1998 ACT Intermediate Representative Team and in team competitions in Canberra, Sydney and Ballarat.
Natalie commenced her cadetship with Brindabella Calisthenics College in 1997 and under the guidance of Brindabella’s principal coaches Leanne Altinger, Kerry Sargent-Cox, Donna Sullivan and Lee Hamlyn she achieved her Level 1 coach’s accreditation in 2001.
Natalie has coached with the Brindabella Calisthenics College consistently since 2001 coaching age groups ranging from Sub-Juniors to Seniors. Natalie’s teams have consistently placed in their competitions resulting in many aggregates and reserve aggregates for the club. Natalie has also had involvement with the ACT Representative Teams in 2002 as a cadet of the junior team, 2004 as co-coach of the junior team and in 2011 as co-coach of the senior team. Natalie has also coached Graceful soloists at a National level.
Natalie believes that one of her main strengths as a coach is her ability to build positive and professional working relationships with her team members. She coaches with a positive attitude and understanding that all pupils in calisthenics respond well to encouragement, praise and constructive feedback. As a participant, Natalie has always looked up to her coaches and always dreamed of becoming one, so it was predestined that one day she would become one herself.
Katrina Morrison
Katrina started calisthenics in 1992 at the age of three with Chellor Calisthenics. In 1997 she followed her Tinies coach to Brindabella Calisthenics College. Throughout the years of doing calisthenics she has grown as a competitor to perform in calisthenics solos, graceful solos and duos, as well as being selected in the 1997 Sub-Junior, 2000 Junior and 2007 Senior Representative Teams.
Katrina started her coaching career in 2003. She received her Level 1 accreditation in 2007 and has gone on to coach successful teams and soloists ranging from Sub-Juniors to Seniors. She strives to push her participants to their full capability (and some) by running strength, conditioning and flexibility sessions, making sure the participants have a full understanding of injury prevention and always pushing that little bit further to reach new limits.
Some major highlights in Katrina’s calisthenics career include winning the 2011 Langdon award, coaching the 2008 Junior calisthenics solo champion, developing participants and younger coaches and being selected as one of the coaches for the 2011 Intermediate ACT Representative Team, along with fellow coach and friend Rose Booth. She was again selected in 2012 as coach for the Intermediates ACT Representative Team.
Alex Muir
Alex has been doing calisthenics for over 20 years. She started her calisthenics career at Chellor calisthenics competing with them for 5 years. When the club folded she was part of the first Brindabella Sub-Junior team in 1997.
Alex has competed as a soloist yearly since 1997 and represented BCC and the ACT as a graceful soloist at the National Championships in 2008 and 2009. She has also been part of the ACT representative teams: 1997 ACT Sub Junior Team, 2000 ACT Junior Team (first ACT team to win closed division), 2003, 2004 ACT Intermediate Team and the 2007 ACT Senior Team.
She is a Brindabella Level 1 coach, receiving her accreditation in 2008. She has been coaching with Brindabella for over 8 years. She has worked with the Sub-Juniors, Juniors and Intermediates. She has also taught many solos, gracefuls and duos. Her coaching highlight was her intermediate team winning Division 4 at Ballarat in 2011. A truly great achievement not only for her as a coach but for Brinabella as a whole.
Alex’s favourite item is aesthetics as she loves the softness, the grace and the emotion that can be portrayed through beautiful movements. She also loves the fancies as the participants get to let loose and have lots of fun.
Cassie Muir
Cassie Muir is one of the youngest members of our coaching team. She has been a loyal member of Brindabella since the commencement of the club in 1997. During this time Cassie has competed in Tinies through to seniors as well as solo, duo and graceful competitions. She has participated in eight of the ACT Representative Teams in not only teamwork but as a graceful and duo competitor also.
Cassie worked as a cadet in the sub-junior age group in 2008 and 2009. In 2009, Cassie won Brindabella Cadet of the year award, a great achievement! 2010 brought a change for Cassie as she moved to the intermediates, coaching with Katrina and Alex. Here she was challenged to teach two items of her own. 2011 was Cassie’s first year as a Level 1 Coach, alongside her sister Alex in inters. She was in charge of all second team items a big challenge for someone so young.
Cassie had a great challenge being in charge of such a young and inexperienced team. However she was able to rise up and show her ability as a coach, putting a polished and professional team onstage. The highlight was the intermediates team winning Division Four at Ballarat.
Donna Sullivan (Principle Coach)
I began calisthenics as a 6 year old in the early 80s. Mum put me into the sport as she thought I was a bit chubby…ah ha ha. Thing is I am still doing it 30 years later, and still a bit chubby! I guess that is where my love of our sport and performing developed. I then went on to perform in teams across all of the existing age groups.
I started coaching back in the very early 90s. I did some time with a junior Team at Chellor calisthenics as a cadet (if we called it that then). I was in charge of warm up and helping out in the class.
It wasn’t long after that I was thrown in to a Sub-Junior team with another young coach. We had a combination of Tinies (then called missies) and sub-juniors making up our little squad. I guess I did a lot of learning on the job.
It was around this time that we were offered the first of the Level 1 courses here in Canberra. I have been a Level 1 qualified coach ever since.
I have taught all age groups from Tinies to Seniors at club level. I was also lucky enough to experience Coaching an Intermediate Rep Team in 1998 with my participant friends and fellow coaches. What a blast!!
The Intermediate and Senior age groups are my favourite to coach, mostly due to being able to experiment with music and creative choreography. This year however I am thoroughly enjoying coaching our Tinies again. The diversity in coaching in each different age group is massive and moving through them keeps you on your toes.
I have also coached soloists from all age groups. I love coaching in this forum to offer a child one on one development. Since having my own children though I haven’t taken on Solo’s for a while. However watch this space for future changes…
My love of teaching others led me to study education and move into teaching as a career. I have also used skills learnt through calisthenics to work with students in my job on a daily basis. A knowledge of performance, rehearsal and commitment have seen me work wonders with high school students in dance festivals, rock eisteddfods etc.
It certainly is a unique sport, but one that can offer the participant so much, including a large group of life long friends. Calisthenics has been a strong directional force in my life to date…and so it continues to be.
Katie Thorpe
Katie started as a Sub-Junior and after years of participating decided coaching was the way to go. Katie’s first coaching position was with Tinies and from there she moved to Sub-Juniors, Juniors and back to Tinies as she knew this is where she loved to be.
After receiving her Level 1 coaching accreditation, Katie took on a number of soloists, finding solo’s a great way to work one on one with the participants and provide them with lots of fun and great self confidence. In 2010 Katie coached the Brindabella Troup non-competitive team and had a blast teaching new participants the tricks of Calisthenics.
Megan Thorpe
Megan started calisthenics at the age of four. As soon as she could she became a cadet and continued to develop her skills to achieve her Level one when she was 18. Megan coached the Tinies for 3 years which she really enjoyed as she was able to teach the basic skills of calisthenics to the younger participants and try to get them to love calisthenics as much as we all do.
In 2011, Megan was head coach of the Junior team which was a huge change but a great experience. Juniors were very successful especially with their trip to Sydney.
Megan also coaches solos, graceful and duos, which she really enjoys, as you get to know the participants very well and help them improve their skills further.
