Coaches & Staff
Meloney Butcher
Owner / Coach
Meloney and her husband, Jeff Butcher (a firefighter in Couer D'Alene), have two children ages 6 and 9. Meloney has been coaching gymnastics for 23 years. She started gymnastics at the age of 6 and competed through Level 10 in this area, earning a full-ride Division 1 gymnastics scholarship to compete for Sacramento State. After competing for Sacramento and winning three conference championships, she was chosen to be in the gymnastics movie "Stick It". She has coached at numerous gym clubs in many different states and had the pleasure of learning from many top national level coaches from all over the country. She is also a certified FOCUS coach who works with children with neuro-deflective disorders in CDA. Meloney has been coaching since she was 16 years old and is looking forward to this new adventure of owning a gymnastics club!
Ashley Ferguson
Owner / Coach
Ashley, along with her husband, Luke Ferguson, are parents of four beautiful girls ranging from ages 4-12. Ashley grew up local in Kootenai County and currently resides in Rathdrum with her wonderful family. She cheered at Timberlake High School and was on the original All Star Cheer Team in
Couer D'Alene, which is where her love of gymnastics began. Her senior year in high school she qualified for the UCA cheer team! Currently, her and her husband own 3 local businesses. Ashley is loving this opportunity to follow a dream she's had of owning a gym that will support kids through this sport.
Priscilla Petley
Front Desk
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Deb Lawson
Team Coach
Coach Deb has been coaching since 2005, and has gymnastics experience throughout all levels including Xcel, Developmental, Optional, and Recreational level gymnastics. Deb has also trained as a judge for the Xcel and Developmental levels. We are so grateful for Deb's passion for gymnastics and all of the experience she brings to our gym and our athletes! Deb brings so many wonderful drills and progressions into her classes and we appreciate her investment to the kids she coaches!
Anneli Anderson
Team Coach
Anneli has been coaching gymnastics since she was 16 years old. She started coaching preschoolers and eventually began coaching a team. Her gymnastics career began before that when she was 5 years old. She grew up in a small town north of Bellingham, WA and competed for 10 years. She competed through Level 8 alongside one of her sisters. She moved to North Idaho in 2018 where she met her now husband in 2019. Anneli has 2 dogs (Finnegan and Penny) and they LOVE the outdoors! Gymnastics is a hobby for Anneli and she truly loves that it is a part of her life. Some of her other hobbies include art (mainly painting), fishing, cooking, and playing board games with her family. We are grateful for Anneli at GEMS and appreciate all of her hard work and care she puts in to helping the gymnasts that she coaches!
Kyra McFeely
Team Coach
Kyra has been in the gymnastics world most of her life. She started gymnastics when she was very young. She was a gymnast for 18 years and competed all the way through Level 10 in Region 2. She then went on and competed for Concordia University in college for their acro and tumbling team. After she moved back to Idaho she attended the nursing program at NIC and now she currently works full time as a pediatric nurse.
We are so lucky to have Kyra coaching at our gym! She has had the opportunity to work with many amazing and top level coaches as a gymnast and now she is able to pass that on to the kids she coaches! We appreciate her dedication and love that she has for the sport of gymnastics and how much she cares for the kids.
[Fun Fact: Coach Mel coached Kyra from the age of 5-9 and was one of her first competitive team coaches!]
