Michelle Sabourin, will enter her 14th season as Head Cheer/STUNT Coach in the Fall of 2025, and has been at the reigns of the Cheer & STUNT program since its inception in 2012. Sabourin has built the Scots into national contenders at both the NCA and College STUNT Association level. In 2024, she became the first coach in College STUNT history to reach 100 coaching victories, and guided Alma to become the first Division III program to surpass the 100 win mark.
In competitive cheer, Sabourin's 2016-17 squad won the Intermediate All-Girl Division III Championship at the 2017 NCA College Nationals for the program's first-ever NCA national title. The team then moved up to the Advanced division, claiming back-to-back titles by winning the 2018 NCA College National Championship in the Advanced All-Girl Division III division. The team claimed runner-up honors in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019 before claiming a 5-peat of titles in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Alma also entered a team in the Spirit Rally Division III division for the first time in 2025, running away with the a national title in their first appearance in the category. In total, the Scots have won eight NCA national championship titles.
In the emerging sport of STUNT, Alma has appeared at every College STUNT Association Championship since its second year as a program. The Scots placed second 3 times at STUNT Nationals while competing against Division I and II programs. The Division III championship was created in 2021 and the Scots have won national championships in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
In total, she is responsible for 2 STUNT conference championships, 4 STUNT national championships, 3 STUNT National Players of the Year, 53 STUNT Honor Roll Selections, and 73 STUNT All-Americans.
Sabourin's 2024 STUNT team may go down as the most dominant in program history. Alma tied its program record for single season wins with 16, with 15 of those wins coming over ranked opponents. The Scots also recorded a program record 10 shutouts in 2024, besting the previous total of 6. In addition, Alma won the 2024 national championship with 3 perfect games (24-0), becoming the first program in the sport's history to record a perfect national tournament.
In 2014, Sabourin was named USA Cheer's 2014 STUNT Coach of the Year.
Sabourin spent 12 years with Champion Cheerleading, which sponsors annual summer camps at Alma College. In addition to being a staff director with Champion, she has been involved in competitive cheer with several other institutions and organizations. These include choreography for Dana's Dynamics, senior team coach at Victory Athletics, founder and head coach of the two-time national champion Force All-Stars, and a five-year coach at Hudsonville High School.
Sabourin is a 2009 graduate of Grand Valley State University, where she earned a bachelor's degree in integrated science and also obtained her elementary teacher certification. She was a four-year letter winner on the nationally-ranked Laker Coed Cheer Team. After graduation, she spent three years in Texas teaching fourth grade. Sabourin attended East Kentwood High School, where she was a four-year varsity letter-winner with all-state honors in competitive cheer.
Sabourin earned her masters in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University Irvine in 2018.
Michelle currently resides in Alma.
