Heat Elite Growing Like Wildfire

From a young age, the girls of the Jankowski family in New Lenox have been cheerleading. But the shared involvement isn’t the only thing that makes it a family affair; the girls’ mother, Debbie, opened a new gym in town just over four years ago to help her daughters keep competing.

The younger daughter, who will turn 12 later this year, has been in cheering since she was 3 and the second daughter, 18 months older, has been cheering for the same nine-year period. They’re two of the children who are at the Heat Elite Allstars gym five times a week.

After spending four years in another gym, there eventually weren’t enough participants to form a team. That’s when Jankowski and her husband decided to open their own gym, eventually finding the right space in the industrial park off Cedar Road, just south of the Canadian National railroad tracks.  The family painted the place, assembled the bounce floor by hand and pulled together enough girls (11) to form a team.

“They got a routine together and practiced between January and the beginning of March and they did three competitions to finish that season,” said Jankowski. “They never came in last place; they didn't take any first place – but they did very well for a ragtag bunch of girls.”

As the popularity of travel sports, including competitive cheering, has increased, the Heat Elite Allstars have moved from a small bunch to at least 50 families with daughters (and a few sons).

In mid-2007, the team held formal tryouts and developed routines for two full teams, each of which won first place in the first competition of that initial full season. There are now five instructors to teach the kids, about half of whom are New Lenox residents with the other half coming from surrounding communities. Although there are a handful of similar facilities sparsely spread throughout the Southland, gyms such as Heat Elite are much more plentiful in the northern suburbs. For many, the gym has become a second home.

“They live the gym, that's for sure,” said Christine Ahearn, whose 11-year-old daughter Caitlin has been with the gym for two years. “They're a tight group of girls, I think. They're all nice and there's no drama among them – even though there's a varied age difference – I think it really helps that they all have focused goals.”

The time spent in the gym isn’t just for practicing cheer routines, either. Jankowski said there are numerous values taught to the children, who range in age from 3 to 18.

 “We're huge on sportsmanship here,” she said. “At competitions, there's a certain way that they're expected to act. There's life lessons that I want them to learn and take away something more than just being an athlete.”

One of those lessons is giving back. Jankowski said there is lots of community service run through the gym, pointing out that her daughter recently wanted to help with Japan relief efforts. Prior to opening the gym, her mother organized a backpack drive for hurricane victims in Mississippi. Two semis full of backpacks loaded with school supplies for the kids in addition to desks, blackboards, and other classroom necessities were sent on trucks whose services were also donated. They still get Christmas cards from the school many years later.

Since then, the gym’s participants put together care packages for the soldiers that included personal care items such as snacks and razors. Closer to home, they participate in local efforts for groups such as food pantries.

As Heat Elite gives to others, it also benefits from the kindness of others and has a true family atmosphere. One father brought in benches for the locker room; another brought a counter. The facility in general is a welcoming place where siblings as well as parents can socialize, do homework or watch DVDs while the gymnasts work.

Programs within the gym have evolved, too. They now have a group, the Firecrackers, for kids with special needs. In addition, Jankowski has also started a non-profit foundation in conjunction with the gym. That group not only bought the uniforms (which can run $300 each) to turn around and rent to the cheerleaders in order to keep costs a little bit under control but the foundation also is responsible for the community service projects.

The foundation also tries to secure funding for scholarships to give to “kids that have a passion for it and really want to do it, but with the economy being the way it is just can't afford it,” as Jankowski put it. Sometimes that comes in the form of stipends that are donated when the girls perform outside of competition. Other times it comes in the form of fundraisers; though they sell braided bread twice a year, they prefer to do more service (working at concerts and so forth) than selling.

She also treats the students as her own family: For Valentine's Day, she bought each student a heart-shaped pizza; for Halloween, a group hay ride with bonfire after; and at Christmas there was a potluck dinner at the gym with an overnight “lock-in” party for the kids. One of the parents has taken it upon themselves to host a pool party in the summer. Next up is a season-ending banquet.

“This really is a family business. Everybody takes a hand in it. Competition days, you will pretty much see the whole family there. Friday night is open gym and it's social hour for the mom's; we just hang out.”

Jankowski keeps the family atmosphere strong as Heat Elite Allstars continues to grow, and has no plans of going anywhere.

“There's owners across the country that are older than I am that are still involved in it,” Jankowski said. “It keeps me young. A couple of the girls have been here since day one. And sometimes just pulling out the old pictures and seeing the changes in them and not just skill wise but just age, how they progressed and how they looked so little and how they matured and turning into young ladies.”

Heat Elite Allstars

Tryouts for the next season are at the beginning of May. It costs about $2,500* for competitive cheerleading tuition, fees, uniforms and more.

• Address: 14441 Edison Drive
• Phone: 815-485-1000
• Website:www.heateliteallstars.com
• Facebook: See fan page here.
• Patch listing: See business directory listing .

*A previous version of this article stated the incorrect cost for participating.