OZELL WILLIAMS - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - AUGUST 9 2014 - SATURDAY @ 2:30pm PST

Ozell Williams

As founder and CEO of Mile High Tumblers, Ozell knows what it’s like to rise from nothing. As a native of south side Chicago, growing up was never easy for Ozell.  After being abandoned by his father at a young age, his mother was forced to raise him and his three brothers on her own.  That meant opportunities were hard to come by.  To stay out of trouble, Ozell turned to tumbling at the tender age of three years old.  His mother tried to enroll him in gymnastics, but she couldn’t afford more than a year of the program. That’s when he met Miss Jackson, who brought him into her community gym and taught him more about tumbling. Which also gave him the opportunity to join the Boys and Girls Club, learning other sports and trades. Miss Jackson stayed with him until he turned 10 years old, after which she passed away.

In her honor and more from the ages 10-14, he worked and tumbled for the Jesse White Tumbling team in Illinois before moving to Louisiana, where there was nothing to do with tumbling besides cheerleading.  He missed participating in the tumbling world, so he decided to join and start his own cheer team for the West Bank Dynamites Gym.  He attended school in the area from seventh grade until he graduated high school, during which time he worked seven jobs in cheer, construction and more.  He started out on his own at the age of 15 and continued working to support himself and to help achieve his dream of attending college.