Tournament
celebrates growth

Sunday,
December 16, 2007

By
Dean Holzwarth

The Grand Rapids Press

COMSTOCK PARK -- Longtime coaches Kathy Felty of Comstock Park and Julie Smith-Boyd of Grandville
remember when the Competitive Cheer Coaches Association of Michigan's
Scholarship Invitational attracted only a handful of teams and raised a few
thousand dollars.

On Saturday, growth of the sport, and
the event, was evident by a record number of teams competing at Comstock Park High School.

Twenty-two teams took part in an
attempt to raise scholarship money for current seniors.

"When we first did this years ago, we had 10 or 12 teams and now we have four
sites and over 80 teams," said Felty, who is
the acting treasurer for CCCAM.

"Last year we had three sites
and over 60 teams and gave out $20,000 in scholarships. With more teams we're
hoping for maybe $25,000, so it's very exciting."

Smith-Boyd, whose program is a
perennial powerhouse, was thrilled to see the amount of teams and spectators
show up.

"It's just incredible,"
Smith-Boyd said. "I think when we first started we had less than 10
teams and we thought it was great to give away $3,000 or something and last
year it was like twenty grand--that was huge. The sport has just exploded and
I think it's awesome."

Each team did two rounds in the
morning session and then was separated into four pools for the afternoon,
which consisted of three rounds.

Grandville captured top honors in
Pool A with a three-round total of 738.948.

The Bulldogs, last year's Division
1 runner-ups, defeated second-place East Kentwood (713.840) and third-place
West Ottawa
(707.140).

"I'm very happy with how we did
because we have a very young team with only seven seniors," Smith-Boyd
said. "We had a few issues this morning, but we did much better in the
afternoon. And in rounds 1 and 2 I was thrilled--our scores were really
good."

Jenison edged Hudsonville in Pool B with
a combined total of 724.530.

It was a pleasant surprise for
Wildcats' coach Wendy Kenney, whose team has several underclassmen.

"I have a lot of freshmen and
sophomores so I was unsure how we do the first time out," Kenney said.
"But they stepped up and did really well.

"This was our second year
doing this competition and it's nice to have or rounds done or almost done
how we want them in December so the rest of the season we can just work on
fine-tuning."

Felty's team also had a successful debut
on the mat in winning Pool C. The Panthers tallied a score of 703. 940.

"We have a young team, but
very talented," Felty said.

Allegan (595.320) beat out
runner-up Calvin Christian (551.700) in Pool D.