Kerri Makay

Kerri Makay completed her fifth season as Gannon’s head competitive cheer and dance coach, and seventh year overall as a member of the staff, in 2023-24.
Has been a member of the program, as a coach or student-athlete, in all 10 years of its existence, since 2014.
Helped build the program from a single all-girl team with 13 student-athletes to one with three teams — Game Day, All-Girl, and Dance — and consistently about 50 student-athletes.

Gannon’s Hip Hop dance team turned in an outstanding third-place finish in Division II at the NCA and NDA Collegiate Nationals with a strong 90.6571 score in the finals.
GU's other dance squad, Team Performance, placed fourth in the NCA and NDA Collegiate Nationals with an 85.95 score.
The All-Girl cheer team finished ninth among 14 teams at Nationals with a score of 89.0301.
The Game Day team placed fifth at Nationals with a 79.1209 score.
At Gannon's Road to Daytona Showcase, the Game Day squad set a Gannon event record with a score of 95.3 points. Both the Hip Hop and Team Performance dance teams placed first while the All-Girl cheer team took third place.

Three of Gannon's four teams advanced to the finals at the NCA and NDA Collegiate Championships, and the other narrowly missed advancing.
Gannon's Game Day squad placed third at the NCA and NDA Collegiate Championships with a strong score of 90.2917.
The Hip Hop dance team placed fifth in the NCA & NDA Collegiate Championships with a solid total of 87.2286.
GU's other cheer team, Advanced Small Coed, finished eighth in its division at Nationals with 86.9815.
The Team Performance dance squad posted a 85.4000 score and missed advancing by just 0.25 points.

Gannon’s Dance Team finished fourth in the Hip Hop division at the 2022 NCA & NDA Collegiate National Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla. It was only the second season that Gannon had competed in the division at Nationals.
The Golden Knights also placed sixth at Nationals in the Dance Team Performance and the Advanced Small Co-Ed Cheer division. Meanwhile, the Knights finished seventh in the Division II Intermediate All-Girl Cheer division.
The Knights claimed three first-place finishes and a second-place finish in the Road to Daytona Showcase as their Small Co-ed team advanced to Nationals with the Dance team in both Hip Hop and Team Performance. They also placed second among five teams in the All-Girl division.

Makay led Gannon to a strong performance at the 2021 NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla. The Golden Knights placed third in the Co-ed division and third in the Game Day competition. The Co-ed team set a program record with its third-place effort. The Game Day squad matched the best finish ever for Gannon.
In Dance, Gannon placed fifth in the Hip Hop competition in its first time competing in that division at Nationals. The Dance team also placed sixth in the Team Performance.

The Golden Knights qualified for the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in all five disciplines — all-girl, coed, game day, dance team performance and dance hip hop — during their two-day bid camp in August.
The coed team won all three events it participated in during the spring season, all-girl picked up the title at Reach the Beach Nationals, and game day and dance put up impressive scores during a shortened season.
The 2020 national championships were canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic before the Knights could finish their season.

Hired in October 2016 as an assistant coach for the competitive cheer program.
Promoted to head coach in July 2019 as just the second head coach in the program’s history.
Has been a member of the program, as a coach or student-athlete, in all seven years of its existence, helping the program’s teams qualify for the NCA & NDA Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships 21 of a possible 21 times.
Helped build the program from a single all-girl team with 13 student-athletes to one with four teams — all-girl, coed, game day and dance — and nearly 80 student-athletes
All-girl set a new program standard with a third-place finish at nationals in 2019, and game day debuted with a third-place finish in its first season of competition. Coed placed fifth, marking its third top-five finish in four seasons, and dance debuted with an eighth-place finish.
In the program’s first six seasons, a perfect 12 out of 12 teams qualified for nationals, with 11 of those teams reaching the finals

A member of Gannon’s first three competitive cheer teams from 2014-16
Played a key role in helping the all-girl team qualify for the NCA Collegiate Cheer Championships in all three years, including placing eighth in the nation in 2014 and sixth in the nation in 2015
Member of the cheer team at Girard High School, helping the squad to a national grand champion title at Disney

Bachelor’s in Pre-Medicine – Gannon (2016)

Native of Girard, Pennsylvania

Makay's Coaching Career
	School	Position	National Qualifying Teams	Nationals Finish
2019-20	Gannon	Head Coach	All-Girl	Nationals canceled due to COVID-19
			Coed
			Game Day
			Dance Team Performance
			Dance Hip Hop
GANNON TOTALS		1 Seasons	5-for-5 Nationals Appearances
2018-19	Gannon	Assistant Coach	All-Girl	3rd
			Coed	5th
			Game Day	3rd
			Dance	8th
2017-18	Gannon	Assistant Coach	All-Girl	6th
			Coed	6th
2016-17	Gannon	Assistant Coach	All-Girl	5th
			Coed	4th

Gannon University Athletics