Originally published January 27, 2008

700 Club

By DAN STICKRADT

Staff Writer

Often times a true
testament of how tough a league is from top to bottom is to check the scores
of every school in the conference, not just the ones topping the state
rankings.

The OAA Division I
competitive cheer circle is as good as it gets.

All five teams
eclipsed the 700 mark Wednesday at the second OAA Division I Jamboree at
Rochester Stoney Creek.

Top-ranked Rochester won with 774.800 points, followed by No. 10
Stoney Creek (749.216), Lake Orion (748.728), Troy (720.650) and Troy Athens (708.260).
But that doesn't tell the whole story.

"I think the gap
from the top to the bottom of our league is closing fast," said Rochester coach Sue
Wood. "Which makes it more fun to sit around and wait
to hear everyone's scores."

While the Grand
Rapids-area Ottawa Kent Conference Red Division is the only other cheer conference
in Michigan
that often has multiple teams over 700 points, the OAA-I showed its mettle,
too, Wednesday. And with the state regionals only a
month off, multiple teams from the league have a solid shot of qualifying for
the state finals again this season.

"If you look at,
four of us could qualify for the state finals if everything goes well for all
of us," said Trisha Williams, who has helped Stoney
Creek build into a quality program even
though the school is only in its sixth school year of operation. "Rochester, us and Lake
Orion will likely be battling for
the two spots in our regional, and Troy
and Troy Athens are in a different regional," said Williams. "Last
year, three of us qualified for the state finals. That just shows you how
strong our league is."

Last year, Rochester won the Division 1 state crown, while Lake Orion
was sixth and Troy Athens ninth. No other league in the state had more than
two teams participating in the finals and the only other leagues to have two
schools was the Kensington Valley Conference (Brighton and Novi) and the
aforementioned OK-Red (East Kentwood and Grandville).

"The one region
over in Grand Rapids
is very tough, so there's always a couple of schools
that are ranked each year that don't get through," said Wood. "But
up until last year, all of us we're usually in the same region. There have
been times that three or four of us have been ranked and only a couple of us
made it (to the state finals)."

Rochester won all three rounds, but was far from
perfect. It was the battle for second between Stoney Creek and Lake Orion
which turned out to be closest.

"We've been
neck-and-neck the past few years with Lake Orion,"
said Williams. "Look, we only beat them by the narrowest of margins. It
seems every time we compete against them, we're really close in scores."

Troy has come on strong in
recent weeks after finishing seventh at its region a year ago and Athens is gaining
ground after winning its region last season.

The four OAA league
meets will take place Feb. 2 at West Bloomfield.

The two OAA jamborees
in each division count 25 percent each toward the final league standings,
while the league meet will count for the other 50 percent.

"Lake Orion
beat us at one of the OAA meets last year, which was a good wake-up call for
us," said Wood.

"I guess that
shows how tough our league is. We won the state championship and Lake Orion
beat us a couple of times last season."

Stoney Creek finished
10th in the state in 2005 and Athens
was eighth in 2004.

Lake Orion was ninth in 2006,
but the Dragons qualified eight straight times from 1996-2003 and had a best
third-place finish in '98. Troy
last made the state meet in '97, placing 10th.

Rochester has finished in the top three in Class
A/Division 1 every year since 1994 - the first year that MHSAA hosted a
tournament in the sport. That includes 10 state titles and three runner-up
trophies.