SUSSEX TORNADOS CHEERLEADERS
ALLSTAR CHEERLEADING PROGRAMME
REGISTERED CHARITY: 1140922
STC ALLSTAR COACHING STAFF
All our coaches are in full time work or education, and are completely voluntary. They all give up their free time to teach their teams, for the love of the sport.
Continue reading below to get to know each of them a little more.
2024-2025 Coaching Staff
Carley Johnson, Hannah Roberts, Jordan Burdon, Lee Woodford, Ria Jones, Leah Greenwood, Megan Rigby,
Demi Woodford, Layla Mercer, Alisha Elliott, Lucy Armand, Brooke-Lily Kaufman and Katherine Boyd.
LIANNE BLACKWOOD & HELEN BEST
CO-FOUNDERS
Co-Founders of the Sussex Tornados, Lianne Blackwood and Helen Best started the team in 1998 when they were both in their final year of high school. With just 8 members, and the support of their parents, Sussex Tornados started training in a local youth club hall preparing for the first competition in Germany in 1999. Lianne and Helen have both completed USASF Level 5 qualifications and Lianne also spent many years as an NCSSE instructor with the British Cheerleading Association.
Having coached for 24 years, Lianne decided at the end of our 2021-2022 season to take a step back from coaching, but has now taken on the role as the Programmes Chairperson where she can continue to be a big part of the team and charity. We are also very excited to see her two little ones following in her footsteps, as her little girl continues to work her cheerleading skills, and her little boy was a member of our Tiny Prep Level 1 team, Baby Blizzard, in the 2023-2024 Season.
Helen spent most of her coaching years with our Senior teams alongside Lianne and Carley, and in the 2020-2021 season moved to start coaching our Junior Level 1 team, Vortex. After stepping away from coaching at the end of last season, Helen has now taken on the roles of our Programmes Secretary and Safeguarding officer on our board of Trustees.
Both continue to support Coach Carley and our coaching staff in pushing the teams successes.
CARLEY JOHNSON
PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
Coach Carley Johnson was a founding member of Sussex Tornados in 1998, has been a qualified coach since 2003 and is the Coaches Representative on our board of trustees.
As a competing member of the team she competed in UK, Germany, Denmark, Russia and USA in both Levels 5 and 6. In 2003 she was invited to be part of Team Britain demonstration squad and also competed at the World Championships in 2005 with Team UK. Carley is qualified to Level 7, is the Head Coach of the programme and has been Sussex Tornados primary tumble coach for many years. In 2014, Coach Carley took a team of athletes to compete in Florida, coming home with our first win from across the pond!
Carley took on the role of programme director in 2015 and is working hard to build on the successes of Lianne and Helen. She coaches Cloudburst, Vortex, Full Force 10, Frost, Supreme Thunder, Hurricane Extreme, as well as overseeing all Tornados teams, and running our tumble classes.
Aside from Tornados, Carley is an instructor for the BCA’s coaching qualification BCQ and travels around the country leading coaching courses, she also works as BCA Staff. She has completed Legacy’s perspective judging course and helps at competitions as an ambassador. Coach Carley continues to keep updating her qualifications and knowledge, providing training to Tornados coaches to ensure that we are all working with the most recent information and techniques.
JORDAN BURDON
SENIOR COACHING STAFF
Her teams in the past 2 seasons have been very successful - achieving multiple 1st places, 2 x back to back National titles at BCA and Future Cheer, 2 x Grand Champions titles, winning a bid to complete at Allstar Worlds 2024, and winning 3 x bids to complete at The Finals 2025.
In 2017, Jordan won our 'Coaches Athlete of the Year' award for Supreme Thunder. She continues to help with running tumble camps, private sessions and fundraising events.
Coach Jordan is also the Director of our Social Media and our Website Editor. In her spare time away from STC, as well as working full time, Jordan works for the BCA staffing at competitions and instructing BCQ courses across the country alongside Coach Carley. She has also helped with staffing at Legacy competitions.
Meet Coach Jordan!! At age 5, Jordan started as a competitive cheerleader and part of the Sussex Tornados family. She has travelled to compete all over the UK, as well as flying to the USA in 2014 and winning 1st place at AmeriCheer in Florida. She is our Cheerleader Representative for the team on our board of Trustees. Coach Jordan had been the Head Coach of our Tiny programme since we first started our Tiny teams, however the 2022-2023 season was her first season taking a step away from Tiny's!
Heading into her 10th season coaching, Coach Jordan will be joining Coach Leah in coaching our U12 Level 1 team Lightning Strikes, and returning to her teams from last season, and will be taking them to The Finals in Orlando 2025 – Frost in the U16 Level 1 category, Ultimate Storm in the U16 Level 2 category, and Sub Zero in the U18/Senior Level 2 categories.
In season 2023/2024, Jordan decided to hang up her cheer shoes, and retire as a competitive athlete, after 20 years of competing. At our end of year presentation evening, Coach Carley presented her with a ‘20 Years of Basing Excellence’ award, as a thank you for her hard work and dedication at Tornados.
HANNAH ROBERTS
SENIOR COACHING STAFF
Meet Coach Hannah! She has been a competitive cheerleader with Sussex Tornados since 2009, with season 2022-2023 being her final year competing. However, after taking a year out, she had decided that she wasn’t ready to give it up just yet. This season, Hannah will be travelling to compete at the World Championships 2025 in Florida, with our friends over at Vista Twisters!! She has experienced so much with Tornados, including being on TV Adverts and Game Shows. Hannah has also travelled to compete all over the country and many parts of Europe in her time at Sussex Tornados, as well as being part of our Flashback team in 2019.
Coach Hannah has been coaching for 7 years now, and is heading into her 8th season as a Sussex Tornados coach with 2 x back to back National Champ titles, 3 x Grand Champs title, a bid to Allstar Worlds in Florida 2024, and 3 x bids to The Finals in Florida 2025 under her belt. Her hard work and dedication to her teams has really paid off, as Hannah has now been given a Senior Coach member of staff title. We are excited to see what Season 2024-2025 has in store for her teams, Frost (U16 Level 1), Ultimate Storm (U16 Level 2) and Sub Zero (U18/Senior Level 2).
ABBIE WICKENS
SENIOR COACHING STAFF
This is Coach Abbie, she has been cheerleading since 2010. Abbie joined the Tornados family in 2014, and has worked her way up to become a member of our Senior Coaching Staff. She had been coaching our Tiny team since we introduced them, and in more recent years has also been coaching our Youth Allstar Level 1, Lightning Strikes, and our Junior Allstar Level 1 team, Vortex. Last season she was also a competing athlete with our Senior teams, Sub Zero (Senior Level 2) and Hurricane Extreme (Senior Coed Level 4).
As well as this, Abbie has been running our weekly flyer stretch classes, and helps out with all additional classes, fundraising events and fetes where she can.
For season 2024/2025, Coach Abbie has decided to take a season away from the gym, to go travelling in Australia with Coach Ellie. In the lead up to this, she continued to help across multiple teams and in our flyer stretch and tumble classes. We look forward to her return next season!
LEE WOODFORD
Meet Coach Lee.
This is Lee’s second year joining the Sussex Tornados coaching staff, after spending the last 12 years at Tornados as a Cheer Dad to his two girls. Lee has always helped out wherever he can with the team, creating and printing certificates, making team banners and leaflets, and helping out with fundraising events. For the last couple of years, he has been helping out with tumble classes to increase his knowledge of cheerleading, and this season will be continuing coaching our Full Force 10 team, alongside Coach Carley.
Fun fact, Coach Lee is the only team coach we’ve ever had that hasn’t previously been a competitive cheerleader at Sussex Tornados.
RIA JONES
This is Coach Ria. Ria joined Sussex Tornados as a competitive athlete in 2014, and has now hung up her cheer shoes after 8 years competing with us. Ria was given our ‘Coaches Athlete of the Year’ award in Season 2021-2022 in our Hurricane Extreme team.
Going into her 7th season coaching, Ria’s favourite memory as a coach was last season, when her team Frost at their final competition won 1st place at ICC and became bid winners for The Finals 2025. This season Ria will continue with coaching Frost, U16 Level 1, in their journey to Florida!
LEAH GREENWOOD
Coach Leah started cheerleading in 2009, moving to Sussex Tornados in 2014. She started in our Youth Level 2 team, and last season was competing in our Senior Coed level 4 team, Hurricane Extreme. As of the 2024/2025, Leah has decided her time as a competitive athlete is over, and has hung up her cheer shoes!
She was presented with Full Force 10's Athlete of the Year award in 2017, and has continued to build her skills. Leah joined our coaching programme in our 2017-2018 season as Team Captain of our Cloudburst team, working her way through to being an Assistant Coach of our Tiny Prep Level 1 Baby Blizzard team, and is now Coach of our Cloudburst team, Mini Prep Level 1, and our Lighting Strikes team, in U12 Level 1.
ELLIE WICKENS
Ellie has been cheerleading since 2010 and has been a competitive athlete since 2013. She then went on to join our Tornados family in 2014 and started off by competing in our Youth Level 2 team. She has since gone onto competing in Junior and Senior teams, ranging from Levels 1-4. In 2019, Ellie won the 'Coaches Athlete of the Year' award in our Senior Level 1 team Supreme Thunder, as well as going on to win the 'Coaches Athlete of the Year' award again in our International Junior Level 2 team, Sub Zero, in the 2021-2022 season. Last season was the 3rd season for Ellie as part of our coaching team, where she coached Lightning Strikes in the Youth Level 1 division.
However this season, Ellie is doing a Placement year in Australia for her University Degree, but we cannot wait for her to return for season 2025/2026!
DEMI WOODFORD
Meet Coach Demi!
Demi is an athlete in our Senior teams, Sub Zero and Hurricane Extreme. She will be travelling to Florida in 2025 to compete at The Finals with Sub Zero! Joining cheerleading in our Cheer for Fun team back in 2012, Demi progressed into a competitive team in 2013. Since then, she has grown so much as an athlete with her tumbling, basing and flying skills.
Demi won our ‘Most Improved Athlete’ award for Full Force 10 in 2017, and continued to push herself from this. Her hard work definitely paid off when she won our 'Coaches Athlete of the Year' awards in 2018 for Supreme Thunder, 2019 for Hurricane Extreme, and again in 2022 for Hurricane Extreme.
In 2019, Demi was placed with our Cloudburst team as a Spirit Captain to start off her coaching career, and then moved into our Baby Blizzard and Vortex teams as Assistant Coach in the 2022-2023 season. Demi has worked her way through the coaching titles, and since turning 18 is now a Coach, Demi had been given her own team last season, alongside Coach Megan. A brand new division and team for us, Tiny Novice Level 1, Teeny Tornados. They have been amazing and achieved a lot with the babies of Tornados. This season, Coach Demi will be coaching Teeny Tornados, Thunderbolts and Mist.
MEGAN RIGBY
This is Coach Megan, who started cheerleading for her school team in 2016, before joining Tornados in 2018. Megan started coaching by helping out with the school team that she used to be a part of, when she went into sixth form. Her coaching career with Sussex Tornados started last season with our Teeny Tornados team who she will continue with coaching this season, along with her first season coaching Vortex. As well as this, she will be competing with Hurricane Extreme and Sub Zero this season, and travelling to Florida to compete at The Finals 2025. Megan’s favourite cheer memory is hitting zero at FC Nationals 2023 and 2024, and becoming back to back National Champions with
Sub Zero!
LAYLA MERCER
Layla shows her passion for cheerleading through her performance and sass on the competition floor, and has always been an excellent role model to our younger athletes.
This season she will be taking lead role with our Tiny Prep Level 1 team, Baby Blizzard, as well as coaching Thunderbolts and Mist alongside Coach Demi.
Meet Coach Layla!
Layla has been a cheerleader for 12 years, where she began in our Cheer for Fun class, and has progressed through our Mini, Youth, Junior and Seniors teams, all ranging from Levels 1 to 4. Layla has continued to push herself through her years at Tornados, and this season will be competing with our U18/Senior Level 2 team, Sub Zero, and our Senior Coed Level 3 team, Hurricane Extreme. While competing with Sub Zero, she will be travelling to Orlando in 2025 to compete at The Finals! Her improvement in skills were recognised by her coaches when she won 'Most Improved Athlete' in Supreme Thunder in 2018. Layla's favourite memory so far of her cheer life is winning Grand Champions in Cardiff at Legacy Inspire Greatness in 2018!
ALISHA ELLIOTT
Meet Assistant Coach Alisha! This is her first season as part of our coaching staff, where she will be coaching both Baby Blizzard and Mist.
Alisha started cheerleading in 2015, and moved to join Sussex Tornados in 2022 making this her 3rd season with us. This season she will be competing with Hurricane Extreme in the Senior Coed Level 3 division, as well as making a return in Sub Zero, where she will be competing at The Finals in Florida 2025.
Alisha's favourite memory so far during her cheerleading career is competing at Allstar Worlds in Orlando 2024 with Ultimate Storm!
LUCY ARMAND - BROOKE-LILY KAUFMAN - KATHERINE BOYD
TEAM CAPTAINS
Meet our Team Captains – Lucy, Brooke-Lily and Kath!
Lucy and Kath both started at our Cheer for Fun class back in 2015, and Brooke-Lily started in 2016, where they began learning the basics of cheer. For the 2016-2017 season, all 3 started their competitive cheerleading career, and were 3 of the members in our very first Tiny Team! Together they then went on to compete at ICC’s Battle of Champions placing 3rd, and BCA’s Champions Challenge placing 2nd in 2019, in the Mini Level 1 category. Since then they have all continued to push their skills and knowledge within cheerleading, which led them to a place on Ultimate Storm last season, and to compete at Allstar Worlds 2024. All 3 girls were a credit to the team last season, and continue to be great role models for our younger athletes. For the 2024-2025 season, they have all secured a place again on Ultimate Storm, and will be competing at The Finals in Florida 2025!!
This season, Lucy will also be competing with Sub Zero and Hurricane Extreme. Lucy’s favourite memory as a cheerleader is becoming a back 2 back National Champion at Future Cheer Bournemouth last season. Lucy has been placed with our Teeny Tornados team for the 2024/2025 season, where she will begin her coaching career.
Brooke-Lily has also been put with Teeny Tornados, alongside Team Captain Lucy, for her first season as part of our coaching staff. She will be competing with Hurricane Extreme along with Ultimate Storm this season.
As well as Ultimate Storm, Kath will be competing with Frost this season, who are also competing at The Finals. Fun fact, Kath’s dad was also a cheerleader for Sussex Tornados! For this season, Kath will be coaching in our Cloudburst team, which was the team she was in when she won her first ever Grand Champs in!
We cannot wait to see these girls grow as coaches, and continue to be great examples for our younger athletes in the programme.
TRUSTEES
As a Charity, the Board of Trustees make all decisions regarding the running and operation of
Sussex Tornados.
PHIL JEFFREY
LIFE PRESIDENT
Phil has been with the Sussex Tornados since day 1 back in 1998, where he started coaching gymnastics skills. He then took on the role of Chairman and Safeguarding Officer of the Sussex Tornados when we became a registered Charity in 2011. However as of 2023, he has taken a step down from these roles. He has always been, and will always be, a true and loyal friend to the Sussex Tornados, and because of this the Trustees have voted him as the Life President of Sussex Tornados.
Chairperson - Lianne Blackwood
Treasurer - Lillian Weston
Secretary/Safeguarding Officer - Helen Best
Fundraising Secretary - Tracy Jones
Coaches Representative/Programme Director - Carley Johnson
Cheerleaders Representative - Jordan Burdon
Parents Representative - Charmaine Charman
Trustee - Kelly Alderton
Trustee - Peter Weston
Should you wish to contact any of the Trustees, you can do so by emailing
info@sussextornados.com and your email will be directed accordingly.