- April 26, 2024
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Owner of Cheer Force All Stars and Seabreeze cheer coach Megan Lambert. Photo by Michele Meyers
Competitive cheer coach Megan Lambert helps one of her athletes to 'thread the needle' during open gym night at Cheer Force All Stars. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze cheer team captains: varsity captain, sophomore Tatum Gibbens and junior varsity captain, freshman Ashleigh Piazza. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze football player, senior Da'veon Brown does a back flip during open gym at Cheer Force All Stars. He learned how to tumble when he joined the Seabreeze cheer team after football season this year. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze cheer coach Megan Lambert (left) instructs one of her Cheer Force All Star teams during the Battle at the Beach. CFA had multiple exhibition teams at the event. Photo by Michele Meyers
Cheer coach Megan Lambert (right) watches as flyer Tatum Gibbens holds the pose during open gym at Cheer Force All Stars. Photo by Michele Meyers
Seabreeze head football coach Lester Davis motivates the crowd at the Homecoming pep rally. Photo by Michele Meyers
Megan Lambert “walks the talk.”
In her third season as Seabreeze High School’s head cheerleading coach, she has led the team to the state championship two years in a row, placing 11th the first year and fourth last year. She has owned Cheer Force All Stars for four years where her teams consistently place in the top three at competitions.
“There is a standard and if they don’t meet the standard, they can’t be on the team,” she said. “What I say I’m going to do, I’m going to do. They know I mean what I say. So when I tell them, ‘if you don’t get these grades by Friday night, you’re not cheering,’ you’re not going to cheer. There’s a hard line and you cannot cross it.”
Lambert said her team is hoping to repeat last year’s scenario of going to regionals then straight to the final four at states. She said she was born with a natural drive to excel.
“My parents (Michele and Kevin Lambert) didn’t push me really that hard,” she said. “I feel like I always want to do better. I never feel satisfied. I always feel like we could have done better — we could have done more. I always keep pushing, pushing, pushing. I don’t really think about it. I just keep going.”
Cheerleading and dancing have been a part of Lambert’s life since she was around 6 or 7 years old and a first grader in Palm Coast. Growing up, she cheered for Power Cheer All Stars and Matanzas High School where she graduated in 2010. She continued her cheerleading career at Jacksonville University, where she majored in education and minored in business.
Her first teaching job was at the Imagine School in Palm Coast where she also coached the Lions recreational cheer team.
In 2020, she was hired as the cheerleading coach at Flagler Palm Coast High School. The team lacked training due to COVID restrictions, so Lambert decided to start an all star team that could train year-round. She held tryouts for the team and 60 kids showed up. That was the first year she opened the Cheer Force All Stars gym in Ormond Beach.
Choosing Megan was an easy choice. Her passion for her team and the kids at her gym are unmatched. The model she sets for the children that cross her path is one I would want for my daughter. She is leading all her teams to victory one competition after another. She is handing the stress and pressure with grace and strength. She is definitely a prime fit for a Standing O. - Lester Davis, Seabreeze head football coach and 2023 Standing O
Toward the end of her season at FPC, Dr. Earl Johnson, Volusia County Schools chief operating officer, hired Lambert at Seabreeze while he was principal. Lambert knew him from when he was the principal at Matanzas High School.
Even though Lambert and her 9-year-old daughter, Chloe Todman, live in Palm Coast, she said it made sense to coach at Seabreeze. Her gym was in Ormond and Seabreeze cheerleaders were already training there.
“Seabreeze gave me whatever I needed,” she said. “It was a brand new (competitive) program, so it could be my program.”
Lambert said her gym has helped the team become more like a family because they have had the opportunity to train together all year.
“That was the hardest thing when I came to Seabreeze,” she said. “Nobody really knew each other and it was a new program. Getting them to believe in the future, that you have to put in the hours and you have to be in the gym every day, was a challenge. I feel like this year they finally got it — buying into the culture.”
The Sandcrabs are a young team consisting of predominantly freshmen, sophomores and one rookie senior. Sophomore Tatum Gibbens is captain of the varsity team and got her start cheering for Pop Warner 11 years ago. She said as a captain, she brings leadership, responsibility and commitment to her team.
“I grew a lot when I got here,” she said. “At first, most of the team were freshman so we came in very scared, but we definitely have grown as a team together. The goal is to win states.”
Junior varsity captain, freshman Ashleigh Piazza grew up competing in gymnastics. This is her first year cheering. She was recently promoted to varsity alternate.
“It makes me very happy (to be promoted) because I worked hard for it,” Piazza said. “It proves to me that I can get out of my head because I’m in my head a lot. Once I get out, I can do it. I definitely would not be where I am without my coaches.”
New to cheering is Seabreeze senior Da’veon Brown who recently finished his first football season with the Sandcrabs. Two months ago, Lambert taught him how to flip. He wants to go to college for competitive cheering. So far, he’s had an offer from the University of North Florida.
“It is not what it seems,” he said. “It is a lot more challenging (than football). In football, we do a lot of running and hitting, but this takes a lot of technique. Anyone can run the ball but not everyone can flip. Seabreeze is going to bring back the state trophy for 2024.”
Lambert’s goal is to keep a good culture of cheerleading, keep her athletes working hard and out of trouble.
“For me, I want them to make memories,” she said. “My best memories in cheerleading were going to competitions with my friends. I don’t remember where I placed but I remember being there with my best friends. Some of them are still my best friends now. I hope for the future for them that when they go off to college, they still want to come back here.”
