Jordan Hearn is a coach who turned her passion into her career. She is a three-time World Champion and currently coaches teams with her family at 5 Star Athletics as well as coaching teams at Top Gun Miami, including the two-time World Champions, Lady Jags. This is her story about her family's thriving small gym.

Six years ago, a family full of cheerleaders took a chance on a dream that was brewing for years.

“It was something I always envisioned my family doing together since they were young,” shared mother, coach, and owner, Cathy Hearn.

Cheerleading brought our family closer together and made us the people we are today. It allowed us to make friends, memories, and have a career where we are now able to share those experiences with the younger generation of athletes. 

My siblings and I grew up in many different sports from football and basketball to volleyball and gymnastics. We tried pretty much everything, but we always remained in cheerleading. It was something that made us feel strong and athletic while allowing us girls to keep our girly sides.

While in cheerleading, we had many different coaches, learned quite a few different techniques, and practiced at a couple of different gyms. We endured every coaching style imaginable, and throughout that process, we found our own coaching styles. 

We also found that not every child can be coached the same as we grew up realizing the five of us siblings couldn’t even be coached the same. This made my sister and I base our coaching style on that fact that every kid is truly so different and may need to be talked to or coached differently to in order to draw out their full potential.

“After our long journey in cheer, my mom Cathy Hearn and I decided to open our own gym because we wanted to give kids many of the same and even better experiences than we were given throughout the years,” said coach Samantha Hearn. 

She came up with name "5 Star Athletics" because all five of her kids were once Level 5 cheerleaders. 

I truly feel that our history in cheerleading is what makes our gym so unique.

From opening up the gym with one athlete to having eight teams and working with two after school programs in Hollywood, FL, and Pembroke Pines, FL, we are excited to continue our steady growth and to be apart of even more young athletes’ lives.

Although this is an accomplishment on its own, we’ve had many accomplishments as a gym over the years, both big and small. 

Back in 2015, 5 Star Athletics competed at their first CHEERSPORT Nationals and ended up winning their first title in the Small Senior Level 2 division. The program’s next big accomplishment came when their Small Youth Level 2 team won their first Full Paid Bid to The D2 Summit in 2018. This past year, their CheerAbilities team, Emeralds, won their first title at the 2019 Special Olympics after coming in second in 2017 and 2018.

The most recent and exciting accomplishment is the start of 5 Star Athletics’ very own Non Tumbling Level 6 team that is hoping to take on The Cheerleading Worlds 2020. The team is actually made up of many different athletes who have cheered together on different Worlds teams in years past.

Being back together with many athletes I cheered with in the past, I’ve realized that it truly is not always about the win, but the journey you take together as a team that makes the season worthwhile.

We can’t wait to debut our new team and take the floor all together again. We are also excited to bring in a new vibe to the gym as our athletes can see the staff in their element working the same way they are.

As a staff, our ultimate goal is to not only progress our athletes but to be able to give kids a second home where they can escape to. Many of our athletes don’t have easy home lives, and we make it our mission to give them a happy environment and be a second family for these kids.

“My favorite part about the gym is the close-knit family atmosphere. The athletes I coach aren’t just my athletes; I feel as if they are my kids. The coaches that I work alongside with aren’t just my coworkers they are my siblings.” – Coach Drew Tyler Connolly

Fun Fact: All of 5 Star Athletics staff members have cheered together growing up or have been coached by one of the family members in years prior!

Check out 5 Star Athletics on Instagram to learn more about the coaching staff in their upcoming “Meet the Staff Monday posts.”

Written by Jordan Hearn