Hamilton competitive cheer team facing
roadblocks

Thursday,
January 11, 2007

By
Steve Vedder

The Grand Rapids Press

There is no doubt Hamilton's cheer team
is facing an uphill battle.

The 6-year-old program
faces many of the problems schools the size of Hamilton have in
fielding a cheer team. For starters, the team has to compete with volleyball
for players during the winter season. The sport is also handicapped at Hamilton by the lack of
a gymnastics team, which could contribute to sending more polished athletes
into competitive cheer.

And because Hamilton doesn't have
cheerleading at the junior high level, many of the girls who comprise the
varsity competitive cheer team have virtually no experience when they're
freshmen.

Hawkeyes first-year coach Angie Kidwell
said the concerns don't dampen the team's hopes of moving up in the O-K
Rainbow this season.

"We're not going in
with a goal of taking a lot of firsts," she said. "But I think we
have a good shot to move up instead of finishing in one of the last two spots
in the conference. We're happy with that.

"We're got a great
group of girls who try hard. But we do have a lot of work to do because we
don't have much experience."

Hamilton has obstacles to overcome. Kidwell
said because gymnastics is so much like competitive cheer in the need for
strength and to learn scripted moves, gymnasts often make quality competitive
cheer athletes.

Throw in obstacles like
having to compete with a strong volleyball program at Hamilton and the lack of sideline cheer
teams in the system and it's not hard to see where building numbers is a
challenge.

Hamilton began the season with 16 girls on
the roster and now has 13. That's up from eight a year ago, but Hamilton combined
varsity and sideline teams for the first time this season.

"We haven't had big
numbers so we don't have the advanatge of bigger
schools," said Kidwell, who was on Hamilton's cheer team in high school
before becoming a varsity assistant for one year and the program's junior
varsity coach for a season. "It would also probably help if we did
awesome. It would help get kids out."

Hamilton, which opened its season in
Wednesday's Allendale Invitational, has four returning lettermen to go along
with four sophomores, a freshman and four first-year juniors. The returnees
are senior Kristina Jackson, juniors Lauren Harper and Julie Schrotenboer and sophomore Amanda Schoeppe.

Because of numbers and
inexperience, Kidwell said building a program will take time.

"Competitive cheer
isn't easy," Kidwell said. "You need strong girls. The rest comes
with practice, but you need an athletic background. When there is no junior
high cheerleading, you have a lot of girls going out for the first
time."