East Kentwood rallies in cheer
event

Sunday,
January 28, 2007

By Dean
Holzwarth

The Grand Rapids Press

KENTWOOD -- East
Kentwood competitive cheer co-coach Stacy Sheler had been
waiting for her team to produce a stellar third round.

The Falcons finally
achieved it to help them win Saturday's Lake Michigan Competitive Cheer
Officials Scholarship Meet.

East
Kentwood
tallied the top round 3 score with a 313.5 to push past runner-up Holland
Christian and third-place Hudsonville.

"We finally hit round
3 and it was strong," said Sheler, who shares coaching duties with
Stephanie Stephenson. "They finally performed it like we see it in
practice every day. We just nailed that round.

"We have a young team
so to see them go out and hit something like that this early is really good
for us."

East
Kentwood
concluded with a three-round total of 711.1, while Holland Christian scored
701.1 points. Hudsonville finished with 678.1 points.

Holland Christian, ranked
third in Division 2, topped 700 points for the second time this week.

"We broke 700 for the
first time on Thursday and we did it again today so that was good,"
Holland Christian coach Beth Cunningham said. "It was one of the best
round 1s that we've had and our round 2 is getting better each time we do it.
We stuck everything in round 3 so everything went well."

East
Kentwood
hosted the fourth annual event, which attracted 15 freshman, junior varsity
and varsity teams from around the area. Money raised was given as
scholarships to senior athletes.

"This is our first
year doing this and this was the biggest meet that we've ever had,"
LMCCOA secretary Heather Stam said. "All of
the judges donated their time and other members of our association also came
to help out. These girls are student-athletes and this is a way that we can
recognize their academic and leadership excellence."

Andrea Phillips (East
Kentwood), Cassandra Pierson (Rockford),
Bridget Parsons (Three Rivers) and Lindsey Snyder (Hudsonville) were each
awarded $1,000 scholarships.

"It was a great day
and we look forward to building the meet and making it better," LMCCOA
president Peggy Lintemuth said. "If there's
anything we would like to do it's to give more money to more kids."

It was the first time East Kentwood had taken part in the scholarship meet.

"I wanted to be able
to give the girls an opportunity to earn a scholarship and I loved this
event," Sheler said. "It was well run and they did a great job.
We'll definitely come back next year."