Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Altius Staff Member Profile: Ann Kanelos


Coach Ann Kanelos is an Altius kindergym and girls team coach. She has been with Altius over 20 years but she has been involved in sports most of her life and was even interested in coaching early on. Ann starting taking gymnastics classes as a young child. She relates that some of her earliest memories of gymnastics were seeing Olga Korbut compete on television. She was sidelined for a 9-month stretch in grade school when a fall at Girl Scout camp fractured her arm and it took almost a year for it to heal properly. She bounced back to go to the Junior Olympics in synchronized swimming as a middle schooler and compete as a high school gymnast. Ann took a  job as a teen coaching rec department gymnastics and swimming classes. She has always liked balance beam best, when it comes to participating in the sport and also when teaching her students.

In college, Ann used some of her gymnastics skills to compete in diving. These days, Ann is a busy mom who likes to relax by watching episodes of her favorite TV show, “Grey’s Anatomy”. She especially enjoys Italian food and reports that her son and daughter make her smile. She relates that one of her pet peeves is clutter. “Anyone who knows me knows that I like things structured and organized,” Ann says.

Even as a young person, Ann was not afraid to jump through some hoops...she filled out essays and interviewed to land a  job as a ball girl for the Milwaukee Does professional women’s basketball team and was even a  finalist in a competition to become “Bonnie Brewer”.