KJ’s Gymnastics-Staff

KJ’s Staff

Instructors
	Karen Karen Leggett has gymnastics running in her blood. After competing during school she taught both recreational and competitive gymnastics for 21 years at Yury’s School of Gymnastics. She then started KJ’s Gynmastics Inc. and almost 11 years later, here we are. She is married to Rick and has two boys, Stephen and Brian.
	Joann Though born a Jersey girl, Jo Ann has lived in Columbia County the majority of her life. She raised 2 grown children (Jennifer and Christopher), and she currently lives in Stuyvesant. While not teaching gymnastics at KJ’s gymnastics, Jo Ann works as a Realtor® with the Columbia County Real Estate Company. Joann’s love for gymnastics started in the 7th grade, when she joined the newly formed Ichabod Crane gymnastics team. She competed through high school, against other local teams which included Chatham. One of the Chatham gymnasts was Karen Pulver aka Karen Leggett aka KJ! While attending college, Jo Ann taught and coached gymnastics at the YMCA in Albany. After graduating, she worked in the IT industry, began her family, and judged high school gymnastics. This included judging Ichabod Crane, though they lost their gymnastics program at Ichabod Crane a few years later. Jo Ann’s daughter attended KJ’s when Karen first opened in Red Rock, and Jennifer loved gymnastics and Karen! A few years later Karen asked Jo Ann to teach at the new KJ’s in Valatie. Jo Ann was excited to be involved in gymnastics again. She had to stop after a few years, but then came back! Joann enjoys teaching the sport she loves so much. Thank You Karen!
	Hannah Hannah has been a student at KJ’s for 10 years. She started working at KJ’s 3 years ago and has been involved in teaching school-age and preschool classes, working with the exhibition team, and working in the office. Hannah just graduated from Hudson Valley Community College with a degree in web design. Outside of gymnastics she enjoys playing and writing music, and is an avid soccer player.
	Jen My name is Jen, and this is my first year at KJ's. I started teaching after the summer and I really enjoy it here. I have been doing gymnastics since I was really little. I started at a rec. gym in Pennsylvania when I was about five, then I moved to Indiana and started gymnastics again at a rec. gym for about a year. When I was 10 I started going to a competitive gym and competed trampoline and tumbling. When I was about 13 I trained for about a year learning level 10 routines to compete at Nationals, Trials, and eventually Worlds. I placed third at Nationals and then moved to NY to begin cheerleading and teaching gymnastics here at KJ's.
	Laura Laura is a student at Columbia Greene Community College. She enjoys singing, dancing, acting, drawing, gymnastics, photography, and absolutely loves working with kids. Her job at KJ’s is to teach kids different skills such as handstands, cartwheels, flips, and more!
	Brian Brian has been with gymnastics his whole life. He started competitive gymnastics at the age of 5. He competed for 5 years at Yury’s. He continued with his mother (Karen) to KJ’s Gymnastics, where he continued to take classes and started assisting with the teaching of the classes. He started teaching his own classes in 2004. He also has performed with every KJ’s Exhibition Team. As a junior at Chatham High School, he took his gymnastics skills to new heights, taking up pole vaulting. He was the Patroon Conference Champion for the event both years he competed in high school. He continued his pursuit of the pole vault at Rider University, where he won the event at the 2009 MACC Indoor Championships. In 2010 he jumped his personal best of 15'3". He is pursuing a bachelor's degree in accounting from Rider.
	Meredith Hi, my name is Meredith. I started doing gymnastics at KJ’s when I was in first grade and I haven’t stopped since! I started teaching at KJ’s three years ago. Outside of gymnastics I like to play soccer and basketball and sing and talk with friend. My favorite subjects in school are math and art.
Birthday Parties
	Rick Rick is the birthday party coordinator for KJ’s. As Karen’s husband, Rick has been involved with KJ’s from the beginning. He spends most of his time at KJ’s doing office work or birthday parties. He also enjoys bowling and golf.