Coach – Cheer and Dance
Dawn Duncan Walters started her coaching career with the Mary Todd Junior Pro cheerleaders when she was 16 years old. At this time, she was a cheerleader for Bryan Station High School. Upon graduating from Bryan Station in 1983, Dawn became a member of the original UK Dance Cats and then became a two-time Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) National Champion cheerleader for the University of Kentucky.
After college, Dawn opened the first All-Star Cheerleading facility in Kentucky, CHEERS! Inc. Cheerleading and Gymnastics Center. Her teams won the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) Jr. All-Star National Title five years in a row, became the National Dance Association (NDA) National Dance Champions in the Senior All-Star division, and the Americheer National Champions in the Senior All-Star Division.
Dawn has coached the University of Kentucky White Squad Cheerleaders, Transylvania University Cheerleaders and Kentucky State University Cheerleaders. She also organized and coached the University of Kentucky Wildcat Danzers for eight years, and they were the NDA Collegiate Dance National Champions in 1995. Dawn created and coached the Dance Team for the Thoroughblades Ice Hockey team and for what is now the Lexington Counter Clocks baseball team (formally the Lexington Legends).
Dawn worked with many local cheer and dance teams, but when her son, Christopher, went to Winburn Middle School, she took over the Head Cheer coach position and coached the Warriors for several years, then became the Cheerleading Coach for Bryan Station High School.
In 2009, Dawn accepted the position as the Head Dance Team Coach at the University of Kentucky. Although this entailed coaching two teams, a White Squad that performed at the football and women’s basketball games and a Blue Squad that performed at football and men’s basketball games, she wasn’t quite ready to leave Bryan Station. So, she decided to coach all four teams and continued to coach the Defenders for two more years.
In 2017, her team became silver medalists in Pom and Hip Hop as they represented the United States National Team at the International Cheer Union (ICU) World Cheerleading Championships. The UK Dance Team is currently ranked 6th in the nation in the Hip Hop division and 5th in the nation in Game Day at UDA Nationals and can be seen on ESPN.
Along with coaching, Dawn has judged numerous competitions and spoken at coaches’ conferences in many countries including Japan, Mexico, Australia, and Canada. She has also taken her UK Dance Team to China twice (once for 10 days and again for 3 weeks) to dance for the China Basketball Association. One of her favorite coaching projects was being chosen to coach a middle school dance team in Japan for 10 days for a tv documentary called “Miracle Learnings.”
Dawn is currently the International All Star Federation (IASF) Pom and Jr. Panel Director for the United States All Star Federation (USASF/IASF) Dance Worlds. Recently, Mayor Linda Gorton presented her with a proclamation declaring May 11, 2023, “Dawn Duncan Walters Day” in Lexington to recognize her for mentoring countless young people in Lexington and around the world.
