Steve opened Emerald City Gymnastics in July, 1996. The original location of Emerald City was at 87^th and Farley in Overland Park and moved to the current location on Bond St. due to positive growth, in 2001.  The idea behind opening his own gym was to establish a philosophy different from other gyms at the time.  His dream was to keep gymnastics fun and foster an environment where kids felt good about themselves.

As a lifelong gymnast, Steve has continued his love for the sport, as a coach, for the last 40 years.  He graduated from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and was the first person on the men’s gymnastics team at NW to qualify for State.  Steve pursued higher education at the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign and earned a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology.

Steve served as the Kansas State Chairman for USA Men’s Gymnastics for 25 years and was on the board for USA Men’s Gymnastics Region 3 for 30 years. He coached at the Olympic Training Center for developmental summer camps and coached numerous state, regional and national qualifiers and champions.

His love for kids and gymnastics is what drives Steve every day. He is known to drop in on classes to put a smile on their face and loves to be silly with the kids.  Steve lists one of his greatest accomplishments as “putting up with Debbie at the front desk.”

Steve’s hobbies include photography in the Colorado mountains and hiking. He has two kids, Nick and Kelly.  His pets include assorted lizards and snakes in his backyard.  Steve also enjoys feeding his neighbor’s horses, Leo, Tardy and Apache five pounds of carrots each week.  He hopes one day to visit Alaska.  In the next 10 years, Steve sees himself as “tired.”

Debbie, also known as the ‘Director of First Impressions’ has been the face and welcoming smile of Emerald City for 18 years. Family and Emerald City is synonymous for Debbie as her daughter, Christen, was a gymnast with Emerald City, a team member from 1996-2003 and is now a weekend Supervisor.

Her love for kids, talking to the parents and the camaraderie with her co-workers is what draws Debbie to Emerald City every day. While she has known Steve Glickley (Our Wizard of Oz) for 23 years, Debbie lists one of her proudest achievements as “putting up with Steve Glickley.”

Debbie is a graduate of Shawnee Mission West and attended JCCC to study business.

Debbie’s passions are her kids, her 5 grandchildren, 2 dogs Dexter and Max, 1 cat Gracie and animals in general. Her free time with family is spent shopping, eating out, playing Bunco or watching Sean (our Director of Group Activities) sing and play his guitar locally.  Debbie loves road trips, especially the southwest United States.  She hopes to one day retire and live on “acreage with lots of animals.”

To contact Debbie, email debbie@emeraldcitygym.com.

Lee has been part of the Emerald City family for about 6 years.  Lee loves coming to work because he loves watching the babies and toddlers have fun, the smiles on their faces and be entertained.  He enjoys babysitting his nephew and niece and seeing them have fun in the gym.

The ‘Director of Group Activities’ does not begin to describe Sean’s value to the Emerald City team. Sean began with Emerald City in the fall of 2001 as a birthday party and rock wall staff member.  Before that, he worked here when this building was GAGE from 99-00.  Over the years his talents expanded over coaching and maintenance as well.

Although his role at Emerald City is all encompassing and rewarding, his love for music is Sean’s true passion. Not only does he perform solo shows singing and playing guitar, he has lead a band since 2003 and even fills in on shows for other bands.  Sean’s work has been enjoyed by audiences at the Starlight in Kansas City, the Plaza Art Fair, local Kansas City casinos and weddings.

Sean is a graduate of Shawnee Mission East and was accepted in to the Conservatory of Music at UMKC to pursue a music teaching degree. He later decided his love for performing outweighed his desire to teach.

Emerald City is a great fit for Sean as he loves working with kids. Sean has two cats, Bonnee and Blanche.  He loves working at Emerald City “because little kids crack me up,” and he can utilize some of the same conversational skills with 3-year-olds as some of his late night audience members.

To contact Sean, email Sean@emeraldcitygym.com.

Tina has been a part of the Emerald City family since October, 1997.  Both of her kids are former ECG gymnasts.  Tina began coaching at 11 years old to barter for her own tuition cost.  She did power tumbling and dance until high school when she transitioned to gymnastics.  Tina competed college gymnastics at Fort Hays State.

To contact Tina, email tina@emeraldcitygym.com

Coach Thomas has been the Boys Team Head Coach for Emerald City for about 14 years.  He grew up as a gymnast and excelled in high school and college, serving as team captain at Kansas State University.  Coach Thomas moved here from Las Vegas to be closer to his family in Topeka.

Coach Thomas has qualified gymnasts to over 30 national championships and coached 7 national champions.  He served on the Junior National Team Coaching staff for 10 years and was Head Coach for team USA against Canada and Japan.  Coach Thomas also led the USA Junior National team in Madrid, Spain and the Gym Master International meet in Brussels, Belgium.  He has experience coaching upper level girls team gymnastics as well.

Outside the gym, Coach Thomas enjoys riding his bike, reading, watching TV and movies and participating in church activities.

To contact Coach Thomas, email coachthomas@emeraldcitygym.com.

Chance is a competitive gymnast with Emerald City for the last 7 years and has been coaching boy’s recreational gymnastics for the last 6 months. Chance was the 2017 All-Around USAG Level 9 State AND Regional Champion, the 2018 USAG Level 10 State Champion and placed 4^th at the 2018 USAG Level 10 All-Around Regional Championships.

As a Junior at Blue Valley Southwest High School, Chance hopes his remarkable achievements in gymnastics continue in to college gymnastics. Chance is proud of his dedication to the sport and his sacrifices to continue gymnastics in order to reach his full potential.  He began gymnastics at the age of 9 and cannot imagine his life without it.

Chance is part of a large family including 3 brothers and a sister. He has a 3 month old puppy named Oakley and his favorite thing to do outside the gym is go to Table Rock Lake with his friends and family.

Traveling the world and experiencing life outside of Kansas is part of Chance’s hopes and dreams. He also hopes to be involved in gymnastics in some way as he knows it will always be a part of his life.

Carlos has been coaching recreational gymnastics since he was in high school in Texas. He assisted another coach in opening and running a small gym there.  As a coach, Carlos hopes to inspire and help produce strong individuals at a young age with abilities and qualities they may be able to carry for a lifetime.  Gymnastics was always an outlet for Carlos and taught him about discipline, dedication and how to have fun on a more intense level.  His favorite skill to perform is a double back tuck.

Graduating from the University of Texas, San Antonio, in 2011, Carlos earned his Bachelor of Science degree in biology. In his spare time, Carlos participates in recreational leagues in sand volleyball and darts.  He enjoys reading his favorite novels, the Harry Potter series and is still awaiting his invitation to Hogwarts.  Carlos has one dog, a Frenchton (French Bulldog/Boston Terrier), named Shyla.  The first time Carlos saw snow was at the age of 27 and he says living in it proves to be a lot more difficult than the movies portray.

Carlos hopes one day there is a cure for cancer of all types and that future generations will find a way to revolutionize the way we view the disease.  The characteristics Carlos brings to the gym every day include patience and an adaption to a students’ individual needs to help them reach a common goal.

Sarah has been involved in gymnastics since 2009.  She started in a recreational class, competed for Emerald City through Level 5 and high school gymnastics all four years.  Sarah graduated from Shawnee Mission West in 2016.  She has continued her education with the University of Kansas studying Secondary English Education and hopes to become a high school teacher.  Sarah has been coaching recreational classes and girls pre-team at Emerald City for 5 years.

 In her spare time, Sarah loves to read and write and hopes to write a book one day.  She loves coaching as gymnastics has always been a part of her life.  Her love of working with kids drives her as she enjoys watching the light in their eyes when they learn something new.  Sarah is an asset to Emerald City as she relates well to the gymnasts and plays a key role in the smooth operation of our classes each and every night.

Melodie is in her 12^th year as an Emerald City family member.  She has been the face of our birthday party program on the weekends and loves to see the excitement of the kids spending their birthday with Emerald City.  Melodie is responsible for hiring and staffing our birthday parties and supervising weekend activities at the gym.

Using her degree in Educational Psychology from UMKC has set Melodie up for a lifetime in the childcare industry and her work here at Emerald City.  Melodie works for her family Preschool/Daycare business and loves the fact that she now teaches her former student’s children.

In her spare time, Melodie spends time with her husband, also her junior high school sweetheart, her kids, grand kids and grand dogs.  Her English Springer Spaniel, Tanna, is the “prettiest and smartest member of our household.”