Eagles cheer third at Brighton
invite — Fowlerville, Pinckney also compete

By Rick Shepich

DAILY PRESS & ARGUS

Photo by MARK A.
DULL

The Pinckney varsity cheerleading squad placed
eighth at the Brighton Best Invitational Saturday. Under fourth-year coach
Courtney Carruthers, the Pirates have re-entered
the sport of the competitive cheerleading after nearly a decade.

Article published Jan 21, 2007

BRIGHTON — It was a real battle for first place at the Brighton
Best Invitational on Saturday.

The top three places
were all within 10 points of one another, and Southgate repeated as the winner with 686.8
points.

Lake Orion was second (685.2),
Hartland finished third (676.5), Northville was fourth (592.8) and Livonia
Stevenson was fifth (584.9).

"We did good as a team, but we know we can do better,"
Hartland senior Hanah Papp said. "We have a
lot more fire to give."

The top five places in
Division 1 were awarded trophies and there were nine teams competing at that
level. Pinckney, which is back in competitive cheerleading for the first time
in nearly a decade, finished eighth with 545.5 points.

"We knew Southgate and Hartland
were going to be here and they are awesome teams," Pinckney coach
Courtney Carruthers said. "We had no intention
of beating them. It's more to learn from them really. This is our first year
and they did really well I think."

In the combined
Division 2 and 3 field, Mount
Pleasant placed first (704.8), followed by DeWitt
(658.8) and Columbia Central (606.8).

Fowlerville narrowly
missed out on a trophy, placing fourth (606.1).

"It went really
well," Fowlerville coach Cindy Champagne said. "We have a lot of
injuries, but we scored the highest we have all season and it's only our third
meet. I've been happy because the scores keep going up."

For the Eagles,
Saturday's meet was a good chance to see where they stand amongst the rest of
the competition.

"We still need
more work," Papp said. "We need to clean up things a little. It's
good competition. We have kind of a new team and lot of the
girls haven't competed before so we did well."

Hartland senior April Kohsmann said the best part was "sticking everything
in round three."

"I'm proud of
everyone," she added. "Everyone did great."

Hartland coach Paula
Cunningham was pleased overall with her team's efforts.

"I was extremely
proud of our team," Cunningham said. "I thought we did real well. I
was a little disappointed in the scores in round three. Nothing the girls
did, just the scores. We have some things to clean up in that round and we
realize that. It's a difficult round-three routine.

"That's pretty
much our style. We do it really big, instead of plain and simple, and then we
clean it up. It works for us. We start big and by the time it's cleaned up
we're right where we need to be."

This was the first big
meet of the season for the Pirates.

"It's
exciting," said Pinckney senior Jenna Letourneau. "It's a lot of
hard work to live up to the other teams that are really good. We're doing
good and trying our best."

Pinckney senior Andrea
Sanborn said it gave the Pirates a chance to test out their routines in a
front of a crowd.

"We're coming out
and trying the things we've been practicing," she said. "We're also
seeing the other teams and what they have to offer. I like it. It gives us
something to do and to practice for. We're actually competing for something
and working for something rather than just standing on the sidelines."

Carruthers has been coaching
Pinckney for the last four years and decided it was time for the Pirates to
re-enter the world of competitive cheerleading.

"It's extremely
hard to coach a team when they don't have any goals," Carruthers said. "They go to the games and cheer
from the sidelines and they do that very well. When you're here at the gym it's way different. Everyone here knows how hard they've
worked. At basketball games, those fans don't know how hard you've worked and
they don't appreciate it. Here, everyone knows how hard you've worked and the
effort you've put in."

The chance to get out
and go through a meet like the Brighton Invitational is a big step for the
Pirates.

"It's good
because it's all about the experience," Carruthers
said. "They're used to duals, which are really quick. Now they realize
how much work and energy it takes to do this for a whole day.

"Competition
helps. It makes them so much better in just one season."

Champagne said her team is
young and is only going to get better.

"We did our best
and we hit it," said Fowlerville senior and tri-captain Kaela Stillson. "We've put
in so much extra work and for it to come out as well as it has is a great
feeling."

Junior tri-captain
Amanda McCoy said the second round was the best for the Glads.

"We hit
everything," McCoy said. "It was loud and crowd was with it."

Fowlerville senior
tri-captain Jenna Koopikka said the whole thing can
be a little scary.

"We were so
pumped up," she said. "Watching the other teams can be
intimidating, but it pushes you to try your best and do better all day."

The Brighton
cheerleaders worked behind the scenes at the meet, doing the announcing and
selling concessions and helping to make everything run smoothly.

"It's a lot of
work," said Brighton junior Jillian
Wilson. "We run around and round up the other teams. It's really
exciting to see what the other girls have come up with and watch them
perform. It's a long day, but it's vey much worth
it."

Brighton coach Kim Klaus said
the team uses the event as one of its main fundraisers.

"We use the money to get new warmups or uniforms or whatever we need," she said.