Melanie Wissore draws energy from her second career as business owner, cheerleading coach

When most people reach the age where they start counting down the years until retirement, Melanie Wissore took a career plunge. She quit her teaching job at Meadow Heights, where she had also coached cheerleading for years, and opened her own business, Athletes Plus, a cheer gym that specializes in competitive all-star teams as well as recreational teams and a special needs team.

"I had taken my youngest daughter's stunt group to several competitions. We were in Springfield at a competition and we saw all-star cheer teams performing, from little girls all the way through high school," says Wissore. "My husband, Bob, and our choreographer, Billy Hoskins, were with me and I thought what a fun job it would be to coach all-star teams of all ages. I had always loved coaching cheerleading, and Bob, Billy and I all thought the same thing, that I should open an all-star gym."

Wissore quit her teaching job and hired Hoskins to assist her.

Melanie Wissore, owner and cheer coach at Athletes Plus, gives some instruction during a tumbling class at the cheerleader training center. (Adam Vogler)

"I knew I couldn't do it on my own, so I hired Billy to work with me part-time while he also worked another job," says Wissore. "On the start, he and I were the only coaches."

Wissore, who lives in Marquand, Mo., knew she needed to pull students from a larger population base, and she knew several high school coaches and teams in the area from her years as a high school cheer coach.

"I found a building in Jackson that wasn't quite finished, so it had wide, open space and tall ceilings," says Wissore.

When she opened her doors in June 2008, she had five girls signed up for classes.

"We started going to competitions in December 2008, and from June to December, we grew to 41 girls," says Wissore.

The gym took off from there, with 79 students enrolling in the second year. Wissore now has approximately 200 students enrolled.

"About 100 girls are on our competitive teams, 30 are on our prep teams and anywhere from 60 to 95 are enrolled in one of our classes," she says.

Wissore's biggest problem soon became that she was rapidly outgrowing her location.

"We were so cramped for space and didn't have enough parking, so I started looking around [at different location possibilities] and one of our student's parents had a building for lease that worked for us," says Wissore. "I still had a year left on my lease [at the Jackson location], so they really worked with us the first year that we moved into our present location [in Cape]."

Wissore's job as owner of the business and one of its coaches takes lots of hours and energy. At 54, she says it's the kids who keep her motivated.

"Cheering is such a positive sport and these kids come in with so much energy," says Wissore.

Her goal is to help her students continue to improve but to keep it all in balance.

"I want them to build their character and get even more skilled, but I don't want to push them so hard that the kids burn out," she says.

Athletes Plus now has nine coaches, including Wissore and Hoskins, with six competitive teams, two prep teams and a special needs team.

"I just want everything to stay positive," says Wissore.