Lady Knights bring it on at OCC cheerleading competition
It’s a whimsical quote about cheerleading, but in many ways it’s true.
Especially in the months and weeks leading up to a competition like the Ohio Cardinal Conference (OCC) championship tournament, held Sunday, Nov. 6, inside the Wooster High School gymnasium.
“These girls practiced for two months, three days a week, for three hours,” explained third-year coach, and former West Holmes cheerleader, Megge Boals after watching the Lady Knights sweep all three titles on the Lady Generals’ home floor – with the freshmen team (Kassi Baker, Morgan Clark, Jallyn Giauque, Jordan Gilstrap, Jordan Lint, Kaci Martin, and Brittany Rodriguez) beating Wooster head-to-head; the nine-member strong junior varsity squad (made up of Brianne Galbraith, Cara Hartley, Abby Johnson, Madeleine Knebusch, Maryah Marks, Olivia Mirich, Emma Monter, Mandy Taylor, and Breanna Zemrock) taking the top spot over five other OCC representatives; and the 12-member varsity team (Kiana Austin, Jordain Bellville, Olivia Boley, Chloe Dial, Kristin Doretich, Allyson Flinner, Felicia Messner, Caity Monter, Tiffany Mullet, Taylor Nussbaum, Amber Stutzman, and Kori Weber) finishing in first place ahead of six other schools. “It’s nice to have it pay off. I was so proud of my girls. They made me cry I was so happy.
“It’s a lot of time and sometimes it can be discouraging because you get so tired.”
No wonder, since cheerleaders have a longer continuous season than that of any other high school athletes, stretching from fall through winter, as they cheer at football and basketball games while also training for competitions like the OCC tournament, Regionals, and the State championship, held each February in Columbus.
And make no mistake, these girls are athletes.
“There is a lot of athleticism,” explained Boals, who was a member of the last West Holmes varsity cheerleading squads to finish in first place in the OCC prior to this year, as a junior in 2004 and again as a senior back in ‘05. “It’s impossible to do well without having the gymnastics part of it. You’d be crazy to think you don’t need that. You absolutely need that because that’s what the judges want to see.”
In fact, at the cheerleading competitions each squad is judged and awarded points, on a 10-point scale, based on jumps, tumbling, a choreographed dance routine, a cheer and a chant.
“You have to have a lot of great talent,” said Boals, who does have a lot of great talent this year, starting with the varsity squad – led by the two seniors, Monter and Weber. “You have to have good jumpers. You have to have good tumblers. It’s extremely tiring and difficult to do.
“It’s hard for someone to understand who isn’t involved in cheerleading. It’s really hard to understand. If people would just go watch a competition they would see how much is involved and that you can’t just go out and wing something like that. It takes tons of time and practice and energy.”
A lot of people did go out on a Sunday afternoon to watch the best-of-the-best square off for the OCC title, including a large contingent from the West Holmes community who helped pump up the Lady Knights.
“I’ve never heard that crowd as loud as they were for our school,” explained the 2006 West Holmes graduate who guides the Lady Knights cheerleading program along with second-year coach, and 2005 West Holmes graduate Ashten Truit. “I’ve heard them loud for other schools, but this year they were huge supporters of our girls and they just loved watching them perform.”
In turn, the West Holmes girls seemed to love performing in front of the revved up crowd, nailing their routines to near perfection and racking up enough points to take home team titles at all three levels of competition.
“They were extremely fired up,” said Boals. “I have never seen the girls do the routine as good as they did it. Just doing it in front of a crowd of people, it gets them excited. It gets them really pumped up and their adrenaline is just going on competition days and I think that’s part of what makes them the best…they just go out there, and like the movie, they Bring It.”
Oh yeah, the movie.
The 2000 hit, Bring It On, starring Kirsten Dunst, which originated the memorable quote, “These aren’t spirit fingers…these are spirit fingers!” – from fictional choreographer Sparky Polastri – and served to reinforce the stereotypical view of high school cheerleaders.
“Basically, I don’t let that get to me,” said Boals, whose varsity squad actually does employ a professional studio out of the Akron-Canton area to help choreograph the dance portion of its program, as do a majority of competitive cheerleading teams, in order to come up with top-notch routines that stay within the rules of the competition. “I know my girls are all excellent students. They get awesome grades and they always keep up so they’re eligible to cheer.
“You can laugh at things like that [Bring It On] for sure. But as long as my girls are creating a good image for our school and supporting our different teams at the high school, then I don’t really worry about all that.”
Three OCC championships certainly create a good image for the school.
But with the cheerleading squad also set to compete at the Northeast Regional tournament in February 2012, looking to move on to the State championship later in the month, maybe it’s time for some of the different teams at the high school to show their support for this talented group of athletes too.