After many years of volunteer coaching in a community based organization, dominated by male leadership, Liana Joyner (Co-Founder), had a vision to help propel cheerleading in her local community to the next level. Her vision involved providing a recreational cheerleading experience with community service and mentorship as a cornerstone of the program. The goal was to encourage young women of color to become leaders in the community and in their sport, and make sure their cheer experience had an indelible impact on their future.
After nearly 10 years of watching her own daughter compete and the hundreds of girls touched by her coaching and leadership role, she decided that there must be representation for girls of color to thrive and grow in this sport. As the director of one of the few minority cheerleading programs, one of the greatest challenges would be making this sport affordable for low income and middle class families, while still providing the competitive force to not only compete, but win championships!
Under Liana’s leadership, with a group of 7 other women of color with varying professions and experiences, FEA was born in December 2019. Within one month of opening registration, 50+ participants enrolled in the inaugural season. Liana and her coaching staff work as volunteers giving of their time and resources to ensure the best experience for each or the girls. From the beginning these women have worked tirelessly to recruit, plan for fundraisers, and prepare for the second season.
FEA is an organization that prides itself in providing opportunities for athletes to flourish and reach their full potential. FEA seeks to provide opportunities to recognize and build upon each child’s God given talents, within a safe and loving environment. FEA prides itself on cultivating athletes with life skills such as an awareness of the importance of health and cooperation, established through character development activities. FEA seeks to instill and foster these skills through an integration of athleticism and community awareness, shaping and molding our future leaders to act with tenacity, courage, and poise in all that they set out to accomplish.
Liana Joyner
Founder and Cheer Director/Fire & Flare Head Coach
Liana is the Founder and Director of Fierce Elite Athletics, LLC. as well as Cheer Director. Her High School cheer experience, love for the sport, and of investing in our youth has created her vision for FEA. Liana has an extensive coaching and director background, leading multiple teams to placing in the top 3 in the IRCA State Competition 2 years in a row. She also has been in the education field for the past 11 years teaching Pre-K up to 3rd grade. Liana's hope and dream is to see this program flourish by providing a safe and fun environment to build confidence in the youth in our community.
Nicole Veazey
CoFounder andFundraiser Director Minis Head Coach
Nicole was a high school cheerleader and has over 10 years of coaching experience. She has a heart of gold and amazing ability to teach and mode very young athletes. In 2019 she took a kindergarten through 2nd grade team to the State Championship and came home with the first place title!
Stephanie Lyons
Financial Director and Flames Head Coach
ICA Regional Director
Stephanie’s love for cheer and dance began when she was 9 years old while cheering on her church’s cheer team and taking tap, ballet, and jazz dance classes. Stephanie was a cheerleader in grammar school and she also cheered in high school at Crete Monee. Stephanie attended Tennessee State University where she was a member of the TSU Tiger Gems pom squad and obtained her Bachelors degree in Business Administration. Stephanie holds an MBA in Business Administration and is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Stephanie has been a cheer coach for 5 years and is a proud cheer mom. Stephanie believes that the lessons learned in cheer can be applied throughout life and she’s excited to contribute to developing girls that become strong and confident leaders.
SaRita Johnson
Head Team Mom & Parent Advisory Leader
