Nikki Pizzi was hired as the first assistant coach in Duquesne Acrobatics & Tumbling history in May 2024.
No stranger to building a program from scratch, Pizzi arrived on the Bluff after three years as the head coach at Notre Dame College (Ohio). Pizzi, hired to launch the Falcons' program in August of 2021, was the lone coach in program history as the school closed in the spring of 2024.
Pizzi earned Mountain East Conference (MEC) Coach of the Year in her final season at the helm and led the Falcons to an event title in the Trio Tumbling event at the 2023-24 conference championships.
Notre Dame posted a 5-9 record in two seasons of competition under Pizzi, including a 4-4 mark in 2023-24. The Falcons featured a four-meet win streak in the middle of the 2023-24 campaign and improved their score nearly every meet, recording the highest team total in program history with 250.025 points in their late-season matchup at Glenville State. In two seasons, Pizzi coached three student-athletes to All-MEC honors including the program's first-ever first team selection in 2023-24.
As a student athlete, Pizzi was a five-year member of the Gannon University acrobatics & tumbling program. In addition to earning her master's degree and competing in her fifth year, Pizzi also coached youth cheer and tumbling at the local CheerVIBE in Erie.
Pizzi was named a National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Associations (NCATA) All-American as well as Gannon's Senior Student-Athlete of the Year in 2021. Pizzi helped secure a NCATA National Championship in the Inversion Pyramid event in 2018. While at Gannon, Pizzi made three National Championship appearances and competed in multiple event final championships.
A native of Wallingford, Conn., Pizzi earned a bachelor's degree in sport and exercise science in 2020 and a master's degree in applied exercise science from Gannon in 2021.
