Owner, Topeka Cheer Elite

Born and raised in Topeka, KS, Coach McKaig graduated from Washburn Rural High School in 2010. She was a competitive dancer, gymnast & cheerleader growing up and upon graduation chose to continue her cheerleading career at Kansas State University.

Coach McKaig began teaching dance at the age of 16 at The Dance Factory and began her cheer coaching career in Topeka/Lawrence at G-Force Athletics at the age of 18.  She spent 5 years on staff for the Universal Cheerleaders Association where she had the opportunity to work with thousands of kids all over the country and travel internationally to Australia teaching cheer camps. Upon moving to SW Kansas to be with her now husband, she began coaching all star cheer at Diamond Athletics in Dodge City, KS while also serving as the Spirit Squad Coordinator overseeing the cheer & dance programs at Dodge City Community College.

Following a move back home to Topeka in May 2016, she accepted the head cheer coach position at Washburn Rural High School. In December 2016, she accepted the Head Coach position at Washburn University. After two years of balancing coaching both cheer programs & a newborn, she resigned from Washburn University in July 2019. She is beginning her 5th season as the head coach at Washburn Rural.

Taylor started Topeka Elite Cheer in the fall of 2020 in an effort to build a safe & positive environment for athletes of ALL ages, ALL walks of life from ALL areas of Topeka {& surrounding towns} to educate them on the importance of cheer technique, stunt & tumbling progressions so that they can achieve their goals in school cheer, competitive cheer & collegiate cheer if they choose!

Coach

Tateum was born and raised here in Topeka, Kansas, and is a Washburn University alumni & graduate of Baker School of Nursing.

Tateum was a competitive dancer since the age of 5 she also competed and participated in cheerleading along the way. Following graduation from Washburn Rural in 2017 she decided to continue teaching dance and became a member of the Washburn University Cheerleading team where she cheered prior to beginning nursing school.

Tateum will continue her passion for others while working in the ER at Stormont Vail. Her favorite part about nursing is being able to connect and make a difference in patients’ lives every single day. She also enjoys how similar of an impact her coaches and teachers growing up had on her and hopes to have an impact on all of her athletes as well.

She has been coaching at Washburn Rural High School since 2018. Tateum has been a part of helping choreograph and coach our school competition teams & is excited to continue doing the same with our All Star Cheer teams at TEC.

Tateum loves to see her athletes succeed. “There is no better feeling than watching your kids walk off the mat knowing they did the best they possibly could for themselves and their teammates. There is no better feeling as a coach no matter what the results are in any competition!”

Coach

Jaelyn was born and raised right here in Topeka, Kansas. She graduated from Shawnee Heights High School in 2013. Growing up, she played competitive softball and took power tumbling classes through CAGE gymnastics and TopCity Athletics.

While taking a tumbling class a coach mentioned competitive cheerleading and her love grew from there. She competed with G-Force Athletics for three years until entering college. After high school she took a path away from cheerleading and attended Central College in Pella, Iowa to pay DIII softball for one year. When returning to Topeka, she enrolled at Washburn University where she had the pleasure of cheering on the Ichabods for 2 years under our very own Taylor McKaig.

She will graduate in May of 2021 with a degree in Elementary Education (K-6), with an emphasis in Early Childhood Special Education. She will be teaching in the Shawnee Heights school district beginning Fall of 2021!

Today, she is a mom to her 4-year-old son named Treyson who is in preschool. In her free time, Jaelyn loves to spend time with her family, tailgate and attend KSU football games with their season tickets (EMAW) and go shopping. A few miscellaneous things about Jaelyn is that she loves coffee. Texas Roadhouse is her favorite restaurant, she enjoys going to the movies, and her favorite color is purple.