JCA hires Shelley Poropat as head varsity dance coach

JOLIET – Shelley (nee Ruettiger) Poropat is no stranger to the Joliet Catholic Academy dance program, having led the Angels as head coach from 2003 to 2014, before a family relocation to New York for one year.

For the past three seasons, Poropat has served as Natalie Minarich’s top assistant coach in the program. JCA athletic director Dan Sharp is proud to announce that Poropat will again take over the reigns.

Poropat, a 1997 graduate and four -year member of JCA’s dance program, began her training at Mary Ann Corcoran’s studio in Joliet, and BDA Dance Company, where she teaches creative movement and ballet for 3-year-olds. She danced with BDA all the way through her high school career at JCA, then moved onto Arizona State University, where she spent four years as a member of the Sun Devils competitive dance team.

A 2001 graduate of ASU, Poropat coached for three years at a local Arizona high school while in college, and then joined JCA as its head coach in 2003.

Poropat leads a program rich in tradition, with four UDA national championships (’86, ’87, ’88, ’90) and numerous National semifinals appearances. This past year, at the UDA Nationals in Orlando, Florida, at Walt Disney World, the Angels made it to the national semifinals for their jazz routine.

At UDA Regionals in January at the University of Illinois-Chicago, JCA placed third in hip-hop and fifth in jazz for their lyrical performance. In January 2016, the varsity dance program also recorded semifinal finishes at UDA nationals in both the lyrical and hip-hop categories.