Competitive cheer is starting to take center stage at
Clio

Sunday,
January 07, 2007

By Greg
Chrapek

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• 810.766.6184

With the Clio basketball
team off to a fast start, one question that has been making the rounds at
Mustang games is, "Where are the cheerleaders?"

Like the Mustang
basketball team, they are working on putting together a strong season of
their own.

Over the past several
years, the trend in high school cheerleading in the winter season has been
away from the traditional sideline cheerleading squads to competitive
cheerleading squads. Last year, Clio joined the growing number of schools who
are no longer fielding sideline cheerleading teams, but rather having
competitive cheer teams that compete at events of their own and are
recognized by the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA).

"Last year was our
first year of competitive cheerleading," said Clio coach LeeAnn Zietz. "A lot of
people have been wondering where the cheerleading team is. We practice from
four-to-six days a week and have a number of competitions on the weekend.

The MHSAA has recognized
competitive cheer as a sport and that is what we've been doing."

That is not to say that
the team will not be at some basketball games this season.

"The girls still want
to be at some of the basketball games," said Zietz.
"A lot of it depends on our competitive schedule. We are going to try
and be at four or six games this season. The girls really want to be at the Snowcoming game."

The trend toward
competitive cheer teams began several years ago. All of the Metro League and
all of the Big Nine Conference have competitive cheer teams. In only a few
cases at schools with large enrollments are there still sideline cheer teams.

Competitive cheer teams
compete at meets just like any other athletic team. Clio's first tournament
was scheduled for Jan. 6 at Vermontville
Maple Valley
High School. The team
will compete in 8-to-10 meets this season.

Competitive cheer meets
consist of three rounds. All the rounds are scored and the team with the high
score at the end of three rounds wins. The first round of a cheer meet
requires a team to complete two jumps and involves a lot of level changes and
arm whips. The second round requires a team to perform the five different
skills of cheerleading in their routine.

The third round is a
combination round where teams combine everything into one final routine.

Scores are posted at the
end of each round.

"It's really
neat," said Zietz. "It's a lot of fun and
the girls really enjoy competing. It's also a lot harder then sideline cheer.
We practice four-to-six days a week and its very demanding physically."

The Mustang competitive
cheerleading team will compete for the Metro League title this year. One of
the highlights of the schedule Feb. 7 when Clio will host part two of the
Metro League competitive cheer meet.

"That will be a good
time for people to come out and see what competitive cheerleading is all
about," said Zietz.

The team will then compete
in the MHSAA regional March 3 with the opportunity to move on to the state
finals and compete against the top teams in the state.

This year's Clio
competitive cheer team is a large squad that includes 17 cheerleaders. The
team is led by seniors Courtney Bloomfield, Meagan Sly and Tori Weiss along with juniors Stephanie Bois, Erin Comley, Jaimie Herriman, Ashley Hetzer, Kaitlin LeDuc, Brittany
Papineau and Nicole Vallaire.
The squad also includes sophomores Ashlyn Dotson,
Jenna Hippensteel, Amanda Mihalic,
Jennifer Triplett and Kelsey Zeek along with
freshmen Shayne Harrington and Ashley Schuette.

Zietz is joined by cheerleading
coordinator Margret Herriman along with coach
Jessica Owens.

"Margret is our
cheerleading coordinator and she is a huge help to our team," said Zietz. "Jessica helps me coach the team and is
considered a co-coach."

The team is looking
forward to a successful season as it enters its second year of competitive
cheerleading.

"This is one of the
best teams I've ever had the chance to work with," said Zietz. "They've been doing a super job. I'm really
encouraged by their maturity and how they are working and I think it will pay
off in a big way this year."