Our Leaders
Our LVG family has grown!
Meet Our LVG Program Director!
Mrs. Melissa Nielsen
Lakeville Guard Program Director
Melissa started Lakeville Guard with The Lakeville South Marching Band in 2016. Over the years, Melissa has been thrilled to help the color guard program triple in size and expand to all Lakeville Area schools. She is passionate about using the music room and marching band field as a place to grow leaders and lifelong learners. Melissa is the band director at Kenwood Trail Middle School.
Melissa earned her bachelor's degree in Music Education from Brigham Young University in Provo, UT where she also spent 4 years as a member of the color guard as well as coaching high school guard. She earned her master's degree in Teaching and Learning from St. Mary's University of Minnesota.
Melissa is also an accomplished musician. As a brass specialist, her primary instrument is french horn. She also plays piano and woodwind instruments although we have seen her pick up any instrument and play with skill. She has been a frequent musical performer in theatre productions across The Twin Cities and is a recurring cast member with Listen To Your Mother-Twin Cities.
Melissa developed Lakeville Guard from just 7 enthusiastic students to over 60 passionate performers leading them to three consecutive state marching band championships while consistently earning outstanding color guard captions. Under her direction, LVG Winter Guard Teams have earned four Northstar Circuit championships, two WGI regional winter guard championships, a WGI Virtual World Championship and a 2024 WGI World Championships top 25 placement in their debut at WGI Worlds!
Not only is she a talented musician, amazing teacher, loving mother and avid crafter, but she is also a priceless mentor to all of our guard members.
Her compassion and love for each one shows them that they always have a home at Lakeville Guard. We are so grateful to have Melissa as our leader!
Meet Our Visual Designer!
Mike Anderle
Lakeville Guard Visual Designer
Lakeville South Marching Cougars Visual Designer
Bio coming soon!
Meet Our Directors!
Jeff Olson
Winter Guard Director
Lakeville South Color Guard Director
Bio coming soon!
Jenna Schunk
Winter Guard Director
Lakeville South Color Guard Director
Jenna joined the Lakeville South coaching staff during the 2024 fall season, and has been involved with color guard for over a decade. Jenna has an extensive marching background including involvement with her high school marching band and winter guard, Minnesota Brass, MBI Winter Guard, and the Sacramento Mandarins drum corps.
Some of Jenna’s marching accomplishments include performing in WGI Scholastic A Class finals and performing in DCI finals twice. In 2024, she also coached Lakeville South to 5 first place finishes, a 2nd place state championship finish in class AAA and outstanding color guard captions in all 2024 competitions.
Jenna has advanced skills in all areas of color guard, but considers herself to be a weapon (rifle/sabre) specialist. Her coaching background includes teaching with her high school winterguard and holding the role of color guard director of the Dassel-Cokato Marching Band during the summer.
Outside of color guard, Jenna has received her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and is currently a middle and high school Speech-Language Pathologist in Bloomington. She loves working with older students and helping them grow into their best selves.
Jenna is incredibly excited to continue her coaching career with the talented students of Lakeville South and she can’t wait to see where this journey goes! She has loved her time with the program and the amazing people who make up the membership, including both the students and staff.
Meet Our Coaches!
Amy Reuvers
Lakeville North Color Guard Coach
Lakeville Cadets Coach
Amy joined the staff at Lakeville Guard in 2022. She has taken the role of head coach with the new Panther Band color guard partnering with Lakeville Guard Program Director Melissa Nielsen to develop this young, enthusiastic color guard into dynamic performers entertaining crowds at local parades and wowing fans with their field show at Lakeville North home football games.
As if starting one brand new program from scratch wasn't enough, she also partnered with Melissa to start an all new Cadet program at Lakeville Guard in 2022! The work she does with these young, energetic performers is inspiring and its obvious to all that these cute Cadets adore Coach Amy.
Her energy, kindness and support make her a perfect fit to mentor and develop these young members into seasoned performers. Under her leadership, our Cadet Program has expanded to children starting in 1st grade making them the youngest color guard in Minnesota! The progress they have made in such a short time is astounding!
We are overjoyed to have Amy leading the future of Lakeville Guard!
Bella Machinski
Lakeville North Assistant Coach
Winter Guard Assistant Coach
Bella joined our coaching staff after graduating from The Lakeville Guard program in 2024 serving 3 years as a performer with Lakeville Guard and 4 years as a performer with Tri City United Color Guard including serving as team captain. In fact, Bella is quite known for performing parades with TCU Color Guard, doing a quick uniform change, then marching the parades AGAIN with Lakeville Guard!
Bella's list of accomplishments include earning three consecutive Northstar Circuit winter guard championships, class IA WGI virtual championship, WGI regional winter guard championship, WGI World Championships semi-finalist, two consecutive MN State Marching Band Championships AND performing with the 2024 Madison Scouts in DCI Finals!
Bella is an expert rifle specialist but has advanced skills in flag, sabre and movement as well. Bella was eager to transition from performer to coach taking on responsibility for mentoring and growing our young color guard program at Lakeville North as well as lead new performers in our 2025 winter guard season.
This winter, Bella will also continue her own competative guard career performing with an independent winter guard team in 2025 after which, she plans to start her college journey persuing a degree in speech therapy.
Ryleigh Papacek
Lakeville North Assistant Coach
Lakeville South Assistant Coach
Winter Guard Assistant Coach
Ryleigh joined our coaching staff after graduating The Lakeville Guard program in 2024 serving 6 years as a performer including 2 years as a team captain. Ryleigh started her journey in the performing arts as a competative dancer when she was 9 years old with studio training in classical ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary and musical theatre genres. She joined our color guard program in 7th grade, at just 11 years of age, and she has been with us ever since.
Some of her many accomplishments include earning two consecutive Northstar Circuit winter guard championships, class IA WGI virtual championships, WGI regional winter guard championships, WGI World Championships semi-finalist and three consecutive MN State Marching Band Championships.
While Ryleigh specializes in movement, she also has advanced skills in flag, rifle and sabre work. Ryleigh was beyond excited to continue her time with Lakeville Guard transitioning from a teammate to mentor sharing her passion for the sport with the next generation of LVG performers always offering support and encouragement.
Ryleigh will continue to mentor and coach our performers while pursuing her degree in secondary education in addition to continuing her own winter guard competative career with an independant program for college-aged performers.
Lindsey Wetterhahn
Lakeville South Color Guard Coach
Winter Guard Coach
Bio coming soon!
Becky Zoellner
Lakeville South Color Guard Coach
Winter Guard Coach
Bio coming soon!
Our 2024 Color Guard Techs
Brody Nielsen
Rosemount High School
Maddy Severson
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
Renae Dayton
South Dakota State University
Meet Our Band Directors!
Mr. Chad Bieniek
Lakeville South Band Director
Mr. Bieniek, the Director of Bands at Lakeville South High School, has taught in Lakeville since 2015. He teaches Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band, Concert Band, Jazz Ensemble I/II, Fall and Summer Marching Band, Pep Band, multiple Chamber Ensembles and Beginning Guitar. His goal is to serve his students so they can serve their school and community with the musical skills they are developing. He loves the opportunity to contribute to the passion, pride and musical success of the young musicians in the community where he resides. Mr. Bieniek has lead The Marching Cougars to earn three consecutive state marching championships plus earning their first international title as the Limerick International Band Championships Grande Champions in 2024!
In 2016, Mr. Bieniek was essential in starting the Lakeville Color Guard Program and we are so grateful to see his vision come to fruition!
Mr. Nick Castonguay
Lakeville South Band Director
Mr. Castonguay is the Co-Director of Bands at Lakeville South High School. Prior to his appointment at Lakeville South, he served as Director of Bands at Shorewood High School in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. He has taught for over thirteen years at high schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin including Wausau West High School and Burnsville High School. Under his leadership, the Shorewood High School Wind Ensemble was invited to perform at the Wisconsin State Music Conference in October of 2016. Since joining the faculty at Lakeville South High School, Mr. Castonguay co-lead The Marching Cougars to immense success including three state championships and an international title in Limerick, Ireland!
Mr. Castonguay has been a huge supporter of The Lakeville Color Guard Program and we are so lucky to have his never-ending positivity!
Dr. Matthew Wanken
Lakeville North Band Director
Dr. Wanken is the Director of Bands at Lakeville North High School. He has served as the Director of Instrumental Studies at Monmouth College where he conducted the Monmouth Wind Ensemble, the Fighting Scots Marching Band and taught courses in music education. Prior to his appointment at Monmouth, Dr. Wanken was a faculty member at Bradley University and Carl Sandburg College. Dr. Wanken received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from St. Olaf College in Northfield Minnesota, a Master of Music degree and a Doctor of Music Arts degree from The University of Iowa. He now leads the iconic Panther Band in entertaining crowds across the World.
Dr. Wanken partnered with Lakeville Guard director Melissa Nielsen to bring color guard, with great success, to The Lakeville North Panther Band in 2022!
Thank you Lakeville Guard Sponsors!
