MEET THE COACHES
Inspiring Greatness and Training Champions
JENNIFER RAMIREZ
Varsity Song Coach
Song & Cheer Director
Coach Ramirez has over 35 years of experience in the song and cheer industry and in 2018 was inducted into the Varsity Legends. She is the director of the nationally ranked LAHS Song & Cheer program and has served as the varsity song coach for 28 years. Prior to coaching at LAHS, Jennifer worked for UDA as an instructor, heading up UDA camps across the country for 10 years. She won national titles at both Clovis West High School, serving as captain when they won the NDTC in 1988, and on the dance team at Long Beach State, winning UDA College Nationals. Coach Ramirez is an experienced national and international judge who also served as the UCI Song and Cheer Coach and Advisor for four years.
KATIE SHETLAND
Varsity Cheer Coach
Katie has over 20 years of cheerleading experience, spanning from Pop Warner to Collegiate cheerleading coaching. After high school, Katie joined UCA Staff and became a San Diego State Cheerleader, spending 5 years cheering for the Aztecs. While cheering at SDSU, Katie became a World’s Silver Medalist, competed in the Collegiate National Championship, and traveled with the sports teams to various Bowl Games and NCAA Tournaments.
Over the past several years, Katie has coached at various high schools and recently spent the last four years at Marina High School. At Marina, she helped lead the team to 2 back-to-back National Championship titles, and 2 back-to-back CIF-SS Championship titles. She is the current Cheer Director and coach at Rise Up Athletics and serves Orange County as a Varsity Spirit Fashion Representative. Her greatest goal as a coach is to develop skills for cheerleading, life, and share her passion for the sport for many years to come.
LESLIE ATTWOOD
Junior Varsity Song Coach
Leslie began her dance training at 3 years old at Studio C in Downey, California. She trained in jazz, ballet, lyrical, tap, contemporary, and hip hop. At a young age she started student teaching and assisting at her studio as well as on dance conventions around the country and quickly developed a love for teaching. In high school, Leslie was a 4 year member of the Varsity Song Team at Los Alamitos High School, serving as captain her senior year. During her time at LAHS, she and the team earned multiple national titles in pom and jazz and she successfully competed on both of the undefeated Varsity and JV teams her freshman year. Leslie began working with Karl Mundt of Innovate Dance as a senior in high school. Over their nearly 15 years working together, Leslie assisted and collaborated with Karl on numerous nationally ranked routines for high schools and universities around the country. She was also proud to work with Team USA, Team Finland, and the Clipper Girls over the course of her career and is an experienced judge for national and international song and cheer competitions. Currently, Leslie is also a head teacher and choreographer at Onstage Dance Center where she prides herself in teaching her students not just about dance, but about the value of hard work, discipline, kindness and how they all lead to success. Her heart and soul goes into teaching dance as well as into her husband and two children - Harley and Aksel. She is forever grateful for their unconditional love and support.
JESSICA MARRIOTT
Junior Varsity Cheer Coach
Coach Jessie has been in the cheer world since she was 10 years old, starting at the local cheer gym. She was a four-year member of the LAHS Varsity Cheer team, serving Captain in 2016 and leading the team to 2nd place at Nationals in Florida. Her years cheering at Los Al led her to many accomplishments and opened the doors for many of the opportunities that led her right back to being a Griffin. She completed her Bachelor's degrees in Educational Studies and English Literature at Chapman University and the following year completed her teaching credential. She has been teaching English and coaching the JC Cheer team since 2022. She could not be more grateful for the opportunity to be teaching and coaching on this amazing campus and is so excited to see what the future holds for this program.