Serving Greenville, Belding and Montcalm County, Michigan
since 1854.

Central
Montcalm second, Belding third at first competitive cheer meet of
season

Thursday,
January 8, 2007

By John Raffel - Daily News sports
editor

Central
Montcalm’s competitive cheerleading team performs
a routine during the first round of Saturday’s New Year Cheer hosted
by the Green Hornets. — Daily News/Greg DeKraker

STANTON — They came,
they cheered and they went home.

Another competitive
cheer season is under way.

Central
Montcalm finished second and Belding third among six teams taking part
in Division 3 at Saturday’s New Year Cheer that opened the season for
the two local competitive cheerleading squads.

Ovid-Elsie won the
division with 677.8 points in the three rounds followed by Central
Montcalm with 585.9 and Belding with 566.6.

Breckenridge was the
best of the five teams competing in Division 4 with 662.7 points while
Merrill came home second with 614.3.

“In our rounds 1
and 2 we had a few letdowns that could be worked out,” said Central
Montcalm Coach Deb Comden.

”I’m very
thrilled on how they did,” said Belding Coach Stacy Venneman.
“We had a key injury a week ago. We had Thursday and Friday to put
together a Round 3. Our Round 1 was pretty good.”

Round 1 features
required moves while Round 2 centers on compulsory skills and Round 3 on
mounts and open competition.

“Our Round 3
didn’t surprise me since we just finished it,” Comden said. “There’s
a lot of things we need to perfect.”

Belding will have a
home tournament Wednesday and Central Montcalm
will be among the guests.

“Hopefully
we’ll get better,” Venneman said.
“We’re still young.”

Saturday’s meet
was the beginning of a season that will include regionals
in late February.

“Today was a chance just to
get started and see what you need to work on and finish out with,” Comden explained.