Godwin Heights' Edwards enjoys cheer's intensity

Tuesday,
December 11, 2007

By
Lukas Cimbal

The Grand Rapids Press

Tori Edwards is out to prove a point.
She wants people to know competitive cheer is not the same as cheering on the
sidelines at a Friday night basketball game.

"In sideline cheer, you do
more regular cheers and are always working on jumps," Edwards said.
"Competitive cheerleading is much more intense. People think we don't
work all that hard, but we do a lot of conditioning and have to work well
together as a team to be successful.

"You need to have a lot of
trust in your teammates."

As the only senior on the Godwin Heights competitive cheer team,
Edwards is being counted on by coach Chris Hudson to teach her younger
teammates what it takes to compete at the varsity level.

"Tori
is one of the leaders on my team," Hudson said. "She's
the lone senior, and she's one of the strong bases for us. She's a four-year,
three-round performer on varsity, and she does a great job of showing the
other girls what to do."

Edwards appears ready to accept
the leadership role.

"It seems like you have to be
more of a leader," Edwards said. "It's kind of hard for me to take
that responsibility because it can get pretty lonely at times.

"I don't like to be a
follower, though, and a lot of the young girls are stepping up, which is
really helping our team chemistry."

Edwards, who also is active in the
"G club" at Godwin
Heights (students with
varsity letters who do volunteer activities such as pancake breakfasts and
blood drives), would like to be a pediatric nurse.

She isn't taking her last season
of competition for granted.

"Every round, every meet, I
still feel the butterflies," she said. "Even though we are in
somewhat of a rebuilding mode this season, the adrenaline that you feel each
time you compete is incredible."

Competitive cheer

Coach: Chris Hudson, fifth
year

Conference: O-K Silver

2006-07: Third in O-K Silver

Top returners: Senior Tori Edwards, junior Shannon Vanderploeg
and sophomore Becky Brinks

Outlook: A young team that
will look to be competitive and finish in the upper half of the O-K
Silver.

Coach's comment: "Being
a young team, we plan to focus on improving our round two scores. We're
learning as we go, but we seem to be getting stronger every day."

Key date: March 2 regionals
at Wyoming Park