ABOUT US

THE POWERHOUSE ACADEMY STORY

I grew up here in Duncan and attended Ruckers gymnastics starting at age 2.  My mom coached in the gym as well while I was in class. I quickly fell in love with the sport, my coach Janet Rucker, the atmosphere she created for her students, my team mates and even the hardwork... the gym became my second home, my coaches and team mates became family! I was hooked! I started competing at age 7 and loved that to! I started to assist other coaches at the gym as a teenager, and honestly, I think I loved that even more than my own gymnastics! I dealt with some injuries that kept me from my gym time, but that meant I had more coaching time! I also did some other sports; cheer, diving, track and softball which I enjoyed.. but I just did not have quite that passion there that I had for gymnastics. I did pretty well in gymnastics, earning state championship on vault several years and earning a spot to the USAG All-state banquet almost every year that I was able to compete at state. Because of my success in gymnastics, cheerleading was an easy choice and I had quick success there earning Top All-American cheerleader as a freshman at OU NCA camp, and Sophmore year, earning a spot on the All-American team as well. Because I could flip, I tried the dive team and made it to state. I ran the 100 yard dash, 400 and 800 relay and 100 hurdles in middle school and did decent.  Injuries kept me from continuing track into my high school years. softball.. well.. I was quick, so I liked to hit and run the bases... but in the field.. I hoped the ball didn't come my way (haha!) I credit my success in other sports to my gymnastics training! The skills I learned, both athletic and life skills, gave me the opportunities in other areas of athletics.

Fast forward to my Junior year, I was coming back from an injury year and my mom and I were riding with my coach, Janet, on the way to a gymnastics meet.  I remember Janet saying "I don't know who will take over my gym one day and love it like I do" ... I leaned up from the back seat and said "ME! I WILL!" And that was that! I made plans to go to school for business while learning as much as I could about injury prevention and care as I could. I finished my bachelors in 3 years while working in the training room and caring for athletes.  I also started doing gymnastics, cheer and dance choreography during this time! running cheer camps and teaching hiphop style dance and creating gymnastics routines for our gymnasts. Creating choreography of any kind started to become and passion as well! After college graduation in 2011, I came home to coach and be ready to purchase Ruckers Gymnastics when Janet was ready to retire.  That dream became reality in 2014! I also had dreams of expansion and brought on Sarah Lemons and her dance studio, Center stage, joined with us in 2016.  Now we needed more room, as our plans for expansion had only began. I saw she was an outstanding dancer/teacher but what got me was her mission statement "praise His name with dance!" I knew we would work well together!  We bought and renovated our current location in 2017/18 and our programs offered grew! We offered gymnastics, dance, cheer, power tumbling, boys ninja gym, baseball and softball lessons, athletic care facility, an herbal life nutrition club, wrestling and even a second location a town over... I mean we were busy! At this time, we had 2 kids (actually 4 but that's another story)  at home, we had made it through covid shut downs (barely) and we decided to focus more on family and go back to the programs that were doing well in 1 location; gymnastics, dance, cheer, power tumbling and boys ninja gym. In a little over 10 years, we have had ALOT happen! Ups and downs, but my love for coaching kids and choreography has remained!

-Lisa