Vanguard University

Vanguard Career:

Leslie Allen was tasked with launching the STUNT program at Vanguard University in Spring 2017 and the program began competing for the first time in the 2018 season where they finished ranked eighth in the country. In 2019, the team earned a berth in the STUNT Division II/III National Championships, finishing fourth overall. Coach Allen build on that success to grab a National Championship in 2021 and backed that up with a second-place finish in 2022 and 2023.

During her time at VU, she has coached 15 STUNT All-Americans and 19 STUNT Scholar Athletes. 

Prior to Vanguard:

Allen has a wealth of coaching experience, having spent the last seventeen years as head cheer coach at St. John's Lutheran School in Orange, Orange Lutheran High School, Cypress High School, and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas.

Allen returns to her roots in Orange County after spending the last two years at Ouachita Baptist University (OBU).  In her first year at OBU, she took the Tigers to compete in their first-ever stunt meet. OBU won each of the games that were played and based on their scores at that meet, was ranked 6th nationally in Division II at the end of the stunt season. Before heading to OBU, Allen spent three years at Cypress High School. She took a non-competitive team and made a winning competitive program, qualifying for finals at USA Nationals in each of her three years. Over the 12 years Allen spent at Orange Lutheran High School, her varsity cheer teams won three National Championships and eight UCA State Championships, as well as regional and invitational state titles. Her teams were also finalists at UCA Nationals in Florida and regularly highlighted on ESPN for the National High School Cheerleading Championship. More than 75% of her senior cheerleaders at Orange Lutheran went on to cheer at the college level, many on an athletic scholarship.

About STUNT:

STUNT removes the crowd-leading element and focuses on the technical and athletic components of cheer.  It is a cheerleading game where two squads compete at the same time against each other, performing the same routine. The matches are divided into four quarters: the first quarter is partner stunts, the second is pyramids & baskets, the third is jumps & tumbling, and the last is a conglomeration of them all. Teams compete in three routines per quarter. After performing, the judges award a point to the team with the best synchronization and performance difficulty. The sport of STUNT is growing fast at both the college and high school levels.

Personal:

Leslie is married to her husband Wayne, and the couple has three grown children:  Lyndsie, Jay, and Lacy. The Allen’s live in Orange, CA.