NorthWind Staff...

 

Our Director:

Peggy Simpson has spent most of her life in the world of Gymnastics, as an athlete, coach, head-coach and now owner/Director of NorthWind Gymnastics. Born in Germany and raised in Virginia, Peggy credits her first coach Al Rolsch, with instilling in her a passion for the sport. Peggy began her coaching career with the nationally acclaimed Tallahasee Tumbling Tots before moving to Alpharetta in 1982. Shortly thereafter she joined the staff of Roswell Recreation's fledgling gymnastics program. At that time, gymnastics classes were held in the basketball gym and participants would set up and put away all their equipment each day! Soon though, the popularity of the program outgrew the activity building and a marvelous new gymnastics facility was built, where Peggy continued coaching, guiding the Gymnos to many state championships.

Though she retired from Roswell in 1996, Peggy remained active in the sport as Vice President and then President of the Georgia Gymanstics Coaches Association. She has also been on the board of Georgia USA Gymnastics since 1997 and was elected State Chairwoman from 2002 until retiring from that position in 2008. Peggy's vision of a school of Gymnastics came to fruition in 1997 when she created NorthWind Gymnastics Center. Here she has seen her philosophy of gymnastics put into practice with its emphasis on fundamentals, conditioning and skill training tailored to the individual athlete. As Director, Peggy has recruited some of the finest gymnasts on the international scene to become coaches under her tutelage, providing them with the coaching tools and opportunity to pass on their knowledge and experiences to the next generation of champions.

 

Head Coach Elena Piskun:

Elena comes to NorthWind from Bobruisk, Belarus where she began training and competing in gymnastics at age 6. By 1991 Elena was an international gymnastics star, winning medals all over the world. In 1993 she won her first World Championship for Vault in Birmingham, England. Elena won her second World Championship on Uneven Bars in Puerto Rico in 1996. That year, she was the leader of the Belarus Olympic team sent to compete in Atlanta. Training and living in Roswell prior to the Games, Elena enjoyed the people, climate and surroundings here. The following year, she immigrated to the US for good and has since become a US citizen. In 1998, Elena joined the staff at NorthWind and soon became a head coach. Her enthusiasm for sharing the sport of Gymnastics with our young athletes has been rewarded with many accolades including 2005 Georgia Coach of the year honors.

 

Liudmila Vitsiukova:

Liudmila is also a former international competitor, representing her native Belarus at the 1994, '95 and '97 World Championships. As an Olympian, Liudmila came with her team to North Georgia to train before the 1996 Games, and like Elena, wished to return and live here. She happily accepted an invitation from Peggy to join the staff at NorthWind in 1999 and since then has coached and trained many local, state and regional champions!

 

 

 

 

Inesa Sharouskaya:

An international competitor and coach, Inesa joined the staff at NorthWind in 1999. Inesa was a member of the USSR Junior National Team in 1987, and an elite level internationl gymnast for Belarus. In 2008, Inessa coached Team Northwind Optional squads to 3 state championships!

 

Terri Smith:

A former University of Georgia Gymdog, Terri joined NorthWind in 2006 where she coaches Level 5 and Prep Op teams. Her Level 5's won their State Championship in 2008.

 

 

 

 

Olga Aganesova:

Olga is a former National Champion in Rhythmic Gymnastics from St. Petersburg, Russia. She has a Masters of Science in Physical Education from Kazakhstan State University, and is a certified professional trainer with a specialty in Rhythmic Gymnastics. With over 20 years of instructional experience coaching all levels of gymnasts, we are excited to welcome her to the NorthWind family for our 2009-2010 competitive season!

 

Vladimir Zaglada:

Vladimir was Head Coach for Olympic gymnasts at Moscow-Dynamo gymnastics school for 20 years before coming to the United States. Here in Georgia he has been coaching gymnastics for several years, and now is the most recent and welcome addition to NorthWind Gymnastics' staff! In addition to being a seasoned and knowledgeable gymnastics instructor, Coach Vlad is a talented singer and has also been writing a book about his life story and his thoughts on the theory and practice of gymnastics!

 

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Student Coaches...

 

Grace Sharoun:

Grace is in her senior year at Covenant Christian Academy. She is a former Team NorthWind member, competing in Optional levels for four years. Students love Grace's energy and excitement for gymnastics.

 

 

Visiting Coaches:

 

Andy Lucas:

Andy is an experienced former collegiate gymnastics champion and a former head coach at Northwind. Fortunately he has found time in his schedule as a marketing consultant to continue to pursue his love of coaching gymnastics. Andy has helped quite a few NorthWind Teams achieve State and Regional wins with his fun, caring and positive style. We are so excited to have him back in the gym.

 

Victor Piskun:

Victor is the younger brother of Elena and is an avid athlete. As a volunteer assistant coach he provides strong spotting abilities and safety while acquiring new coaching techniques and experience.

 

 

In June of 1997, NorthWind Gymnastics Center opened its doors. For Director Peggy Simpson it was the realization of a lifelong dream: a private, dedicated gymnastics training facility for the children of the surrounding areas of Alpharetta and South Forsyth County.

 

Yearning to create her own business, Peggy began searching the area surrounding her home in Alpharetta for a suitable building for a small gym/training center. Soon she found the ideal location in Nine-McFarland business park at the intersection of Highway 9 and MacFarland Road, right in the center of the rapidly growing area now known as Milton. The 11,200 sq.ft. building was just the right size and had the clear-span high ceiling design necessary for housing a gym!

 

 

Construction was nearing completion when the lease was signed but since the space was originally designed as multiple office-warehouse units, the building has 8 front doors! Fortunately, the interior was completely open, allowing the configuration of offices, lockers and observation/concession areas, as well as the excavation and forming of our large in-ground Foam training pits and Resi-pits and our Australian-Bed in-ground Trampoline. Within a few weeks our lovely new gym was ready! With lots of help from family and friends, NorthWind Gymnastics Center was born!

 

By 2003 NorthWind was becoming too small for our growing programs and with the help of Craig and Jeannie Korac we added a new Lower Gym with 4500 additional square feet, in-ground trampoline and Resi-pits and another full-size competition spring floor. This new area has equipment specially sized for smaller gymnasts and has developed as the main training area for our younger athletes. Plans are nearly complete to excavate nearly a third of the space and cast a new, much larger Foam Traing pit. The Lower Gym addition gives us a total of over 14000 sq. ft. of training area!