Troy's cheer team keeps it challenging

January 28, 2007

BY CHRIS LAU

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Allison Murphy, left, Shanitra Thomas, center, and Staci Strickland, all
sophomores, show their moves in the unison round.

Cheers!

Troy's nine seniors share
their cheerleading thrills.

Melissa
Budabin

"Right
before you get onto the mat, your adrenaline is pumping and every girl gets
in a circle and cheers each other on. You're so secure, yet you're shaking
because in 30 seconds, you have to go out to the mat and get it done."

Davie Harrington

"When
we stick material at competition. It's great to practice and then see how
much it pays off."

Leigh-A
Karpinskas

"Right
before you take the mat and you look into the
stands and you see your parents and classmates and friends cheering you on.
And then you realize you're all under one name --
the Troy Colts."

Denitra Moss

"The
greatest thrill for me is finishing a round and coming off the mat happy
and having your team there to support you after you did a good job."

Andrea
Petitta

"I
like it when at practice, if I did something well and my coach or a teammates tells me, 'Oh, that was really good.' I feel
all the work I did was worth it."

Lauryn Przeslawski

"When
I get off the mat after the third round knowing I hit all my stunts
perfectly."

Jillian
Roettenberger

"When
you walk off the mat in the third round, and you
know you stuck every stunt and no one fell."

Carrie
Stock

"One
of the biggest things for me is competing. You work so hard for so long to
get good, so when you go out and hit it and get a good score from the
judges, it's the best feeling."

Marissa
Vittands

"The
feeling of accomplishment when you walk off the mat, and you stick all your
stunts and tumbling.

They are the
loud, energetic, smiley girls yelling cheers and doing flips for fans on the
sidelines of Troy football and home
basketball games.

That's the
surface.

Lesser known
is what it takes to be a competitive cheerleader at Troy.

"I don't
get how people say we're there just to look cute," Colts senior Andrea Petitta said.

"When you
come to practice and see how sweaty we are and how we're gasping for air,
that's not exactly cute."

A
competitive field

Competitive
cheer at Troy
is a May-to-March ordeal.

Tryouts take
place in May. There's no limit to the number of girls who can make the
varsity team, but one must have the athletic ability and skills necessary to
be competitive with Michigan's
top squads.

Campbell cuts it off where
there's a significant drop in scores. There are 22 cheerleaders on the team
now. There were 12 last year, and 20 in the fall.

Three years
ago, the nine current seniors came in with only basic skills. They have
developed into state contenders.

After recently
acquiring the hardest stunt -- the back tuck, in which a cheerleader does a
backward flip without her hands touching the ground -- the Colts aspire to be
one of 10 Class A teams to make it to the state meet, scheduled for March
9-10 at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids.

May to October
was the noncompetitive season, or football season. That's when the
cheerleaders tune up, so to speak. There are 2 1/2 hours of practice a day to
improve their skills.

"During
noncompetitive season," senior Denitra Moss
said, "we come in 15 minutes early to stretch, run a mile, then do jumps, tumbles, tucks, then a stunt sequence --
five of each. After that, we condition, which consists of sprints, abs and plyometrics."

That all leads
to another set of tryouts in November. Once competitive season starts, aside
from cheering at home basketball games, the cheerleaders compete at
tournaments each week.

Not just
clapping hands

A competition
consists of three rounds. Rounds 1 and 2, each 90 seconds, are the jump and
unison rounds. The jump round consists of, well, jumps. The unison round
requires each cheerleader to do five specific skills in unison.

The third, the
open round, allows the teams to do whatever they choose for 2 1/2 minutes.

"Two-and-a-half
minutes is a long time where you're running, tumbling, stunting and
yelling," Campbell
said.

So competitive
season practices get even more intense. Each session consists of roughly 40
tucks, 15 back handsprings, 15 back walkovers, 15 team splits and 20 toe
touches, to start off. And they do every routine in full at least three times
every practice.

"Competitive
cheer isn't just clapping hands," Campbell
said. "It's jumping, stunting, tumbling, endurance."

Better than
ever

The girls
sometimes enjoy watching old videos of themselves as younger cheerleaders,
when they could do only a fraction of what they do now.

Now they're
quicker, stronger, in better shape -- and louder, too.

"We want
to be good," senior Marissa Vittands said.
"Hard work is worth it when you succeed. You can forget about 2 1/2
hours of practice when you hear, 'First place: Troy High.' "

Following
realignment of teams this summer, the Colts are no longer in the same region
as defending state champion Rochester, Michigan's preeminent squad, and Lake
Orion, who also made states last year.

The top two
teams in each region make states, and the new placement gives Troy High hope
for earning a spot in the March state meet. Their primary competitors are
Utica Ford, Sterling Heights Stevenson, Warren Mott and archrival Troy
Athens.

States in
sight

Campbell estimates that
competitive cheer on her team is a 35-hour-a-week undertaking. "Our goal
for the season is to get to the state finals," senior Jillian Roettenberger said.

"We think
we can do it. It would be the best way to end the four years of cheering. The
sense of accomplishment would be overwhelming."