College of Saint Mary

Bio

OMAHA, Neb. – After eight years with a capable part-time coach, College of Saint Mary has hired its first full-time, competitive dance coach, one it believes can take the program to the next level.

Minnesota native Jennifer Wasik is the new hire at CSM, replacing April Allen, who founded the program in 2018 and worked in a part-time capacity.

"I'm excited for Coach Wasik to be here, but more importantly, I'm excited for College of Saint Mary and the dance team, because it shows CSM's and the board's commitment to moving this position to a full-time role,'' CSM Director of Athletics Robbie Shay said. "None of this would be possible without the hard work of Coach Allen. We really appreciate her starting this thing, building it up and being able to hand it off.''

Wasik is a Maple Grove, Minn., native, and dance has played a prominent role in her life. After competing in a studio for 10 years, she attended Creighton University in Omaha, where she was a member of the dance team for four years and a captain for two.

Graduating in 2018, she returned to Minnesota, working with Dance West studio in Wayzata, eventually taking on a full-time role where she ran the competition program for dancers from ages 5 to 18.

Wasik had been looking to return to the Omaha area, and she believes she's found the perfect fit at CSM.

"This was just the right calling, and to be at a women's Catholic college couldn't be better,'' she said. "I did not know much about CSM until I started researching for the job, but I love the small campus feeling.

"I like that it feels like you could know everybody on campus. I like the community that the athletics department seems to have, that it's everybody joining together.''

The new coach said she recently met her team and came away impressed.

"They seem like a good group of girls,'' she said. "We've got 11 girls this year. (There were seven last year.) The freshmen seem excited. The girls that have been on the team seem very organized. They're going to help me get up to speed with everything.''

One order of business will be growing the numbers within the program. Wasik said she'd like to get between 20 and 25 athletes into the program in the near future. That would allow for a competitive squad and also perhaps a separate spirit squad that would perform at home events.

Wasik said she understands the benefits of being the program's first full-time coach.

"Just being available to the ladies whenever they need me,'' she said. "Having more time to recruit will be a big thing. We want to recruit not just in the Omaha area, but beyond.''

Like all of the athletic programs at CSM, Wasik said it's about helping young women compete at the highest level and achieve great things.

"The girls obviously have goals about what they want to achieve as a team this year,'' she said. "I think they want to do better in the conference competitions. They want to have people respect their name, and I want to help them do that. … I think just overall pushing the program to a higher level.''