Meet Our People

Behind every Steperettes routine is a team of people who show up, season after season, to make it happen — our Directors, Instructors, Support Staff, and Parent Board.

Our Directors – Vicki & Howie Mogil

Vicki and Howie Mogil have led the Steperettes since 1977, turning a small parade-day baton corps into one of the Midwest’s most respected color guard programs. The two met at Northwestern University, where Vicki was already spinning with the Wildcat Marching Band — a fact that inspired Howie to fall for marching band, drum corps, and color guard right along with her. It clearly worked: the couple has now been married for more than 40 years.

Vicki grew up in the activity, marching in her first parade at age five behind her father, Jerry Pickell, a saxophonist in the Naperville Municipal Band. She took over directing the Steperettes in 1977, and with Howie by her side, guided the program through state, national, and world championships, an international tour of Spain, and a pivotal shift from baton twirling to color guard in the late 1980s. Both Vicki and Howie hold PhDs, and they’ve brought that same rigor and care to nearly five decades of coaching — mentoring generations of Naperville kids in confidence, discipline, and teamwork along the way.

In 2017, the Naperville Jaycees honored the Mogils as Grand Marshals of the Last Fling Parade, recognizing both their four decades of service to Naperville families and the Steperettes’ 40th anniversary.

“Naperville is about kids. Kids need family. Howie and Vicky are and always will be Naperville’s most caring family members, for all of Naperville kids, and especially our kids.”

– Former Naperville Councilwoman Patty Gustin