SIUE DANCE TEAM COACHES
Michelle Deets is a retired Spanish teacher and former coach for the varsity dance team at Highland High School. Under her coaching direction at Highland, Deets boasted over 25 IDTA state titles in the Pom Dance, Jazz, Hip Hop and Lyrical categories, as well as 2 IHSA state titles. In 2011 Deets was named to the Illinois Drill Team Association Hall of Fame, which recognized her contributions as a coach and her leadership qualities. Deets has been a member of IDTA since 1992, and has served as the President of IDTA since 2008. She served as the IDTA Secretary for ten years prior to that. In 2016 Deets became a part of the judging team for IDTA, and serves as a certified tabulator. Deets has served as the head coach of the SIUE Competitive Dance Team program since 2008, and oversees the SIUE Competitive Cheerleaders.
Contact Coach Deets regarding specific requirements for cheer and/or dance tryouts, questions about the cheer and/or dance program, and any SIUE cheer or dance related questions. Email: michelledeets@idta.org
Brian Morris has been dancing and teaching for 23+ years in studio dance in Illinois and is trained in all styles of dance. Brian has won many titles such as Mr. Starquest, Mr. Starpower, Mr. Legacy, and even received a perfect score twice at studio competitions! Brian danced on the Civic Memorial High School dance team his junior and senior year where his team won state titles and grand champions both years in Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop and Pom. Brian is an NDCA expert certified judge and judges for organizations like IDTA, IHSA, IHSDTA, MDTA, and other organizations across the country. Brian is also a studio competition judge for organizations like Team Dance, Starquest, Fly Dance, KAR, Precision Arts, and more. Brian truly loves coaching dancers and watching them grow, and is very excited to join the SIUE Dance Team coach staff. Brian works as a Senior Marketing Operations Manager for CS2 Marketing full time, and in his free time enjoys family time, boating, fishing, and being an awesome dad.
SIUE CHEER COACHES
Casey Driemeyer has been a part of the cheer world since 1998. She cheered for three years for Highland High School in Highland, IL then went on to The Broadcast Center in St. Louis, Missouri. From there, Casey used her love of music to mix cheer routine music for Highland Varsity, JV and Middle School, Breese Central High School and Lebanon High School. For seven years she continued to be an assistant coach for Highland Varsity until she accepted the coaching position for the non-competitive football cheer program at Highland in April 2010. In the fall of 2010, Casey was offered the coaching position at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where she started the competitive cheer program when SIUE made the transition to Division 1. Casey is a stylist at Tru Design in Highland, IL. When she is not coaching, Casey enjoys spending time with her husband, family and friends.
Angie Fears has been in the cheer world her entire life. Her cheer career started as a young kid. She earned 3 state titles at Highland High School and went onto cheer at Eastern Illinois University in college. Shortly after graduating college, she jumped into coaching back at her local high school for a couple of years. She took a 2 year hiatus from coaching to give birth to triplets, and jumped back into coach when they were 2. She has been the head Varsity Coach of Highland High School for 14 years. She has 6 ICCA Championship Titles, a 3rd place IHSA title and last year, received the team's first ever 1st place finish at IHSA, as a first year coed team. In addition to coaching high school she has coached all-star cheer teams, been a private instructor for team stunting, and sits as treasurer for the ICCA Board of Directors. Cheerleading is her passion as she now has 2 of her kids that cheer in high school on her team, and plan on cheering in college themselves.
Ashley Pezzella has been cheering since she can remember! She began with gymnastics and then realized the cheer world was where she belonged. She was a member of her middle school cheer squad and then cheered competitively in high school. Following high school Ashley tried out for the SIUE Competitive Cheer Team and was selected to be a part of that program, being named captain her senior year. Ashley graduated with a Criminal Justice major and Pre-Law minor, in 2022, with hopes of law school in the near future.