Grandville cheer team regains conference crown

by Daniel Schoonmaker

Tuesday February 26,
2008, 10:15 AM

Angela Kuhn

The Grandville competitive cheer team performs a routine at the
league meet.

GRANDVILLE
-- The Bulldog cheer squad secured its first conference championship since
2006 on Saturday with a first-place finish in the post-conference meet at
Grandville.

"Winning
conference is pretty amazing," said Bulldog senior Kedna
Sall. An all-state honorable mention selection last
year, Sall missed the post-conference meet last
year and watched as Grandville struggled to a third-place finish.

"To
come back and take first was just amazing. I personally feel like we're all
coming together now as a team. I was really impressed with our performance
and I'm really looking forward to regionals."

Bulldog
coach Julie Smith-Boyd said that she felt the squad was moving toward its
peak this week, especially after a strong performance in a weather
cancellation make-up event earlier in the week.

"We
have been kind of building up and we hadn't really felt like we had peaked
yet," she said. "That competition went really well and we carried
that confidence into today...When you have a young team it does take time to
get the rhythm and camaraderie."

Smith-Boyd
credited her seniors for the team's strong season.

"They've
kept a young team going and have set a high bar for the rest of them to live
up to," she said.

The
Bulldogs won the preseason meet last month for a clean sweep of the
conference race. On Saturday, they won all three rounds for a final score of
798 (228, 249, 320.5), 16 points ahead of second-place East
Kentwood.

East Kentwood
and Jenison tied for runner-up in the final
conference standings. The Wildcats bested Kentwood by a point in the preseason meet,
helping them to their best O-K Red finish in several years.

"We
were hopeful for a finish like this," said Wildcat coach Wendy
Contreras. "We've been off for two weeks and working hard on drills. We
knew we had some good rounds."

Jenison finished fourth last year and fifth the year before.
Contreras said her three fourth-year varsity cheerleaders--Kelly Dotson, Rhianna D'amico and Cathy Mazure--have been a key part of the team's resurgence.

On
Saturday, the Wildcats started slow with a 217.5 first round and 232 in the
second round, placing them just ahead of West Ottawa
for fifth place going into the third round. The Wildcats' third round score
of 319.5 was just one point shy of Grandville's round-winning score, vaulting
Jenison past Rockford
and Hudsonville in the standings.

"Last
year they had a really good round three too, but they didn't have the round
two to go with it," said Smith-Boyd of Jenison.
"This year they do."

Fourth-place
Hudsonville (226.5, 235, 304.5) finished three
points back with a score of 766.

East Kentwood had the opposite problem of the Wildcats: Round 1
(228) and Round 2 (249) were high scores, but falls in the final round (310)
cost the Falcons dearly.

"If
we're going to fall I would much rather have it be today than next
week," said Kentwood
coach Stacy Sheler. "If we fall next week
we're not going to state. I think we can go out and win regionals.
I think we're better than any team here and I think we'll show that next
Saturday."

The
Falcons have been improving each week, Sheler said,
even knocking off Grandville by 25 points the previous week.

"I
think we would have beat them today if we didn't
have the falls," she said. "Grandville did a great job, they had a
great round. This is an amazing conference, but when I watch all the teams,
this is the first year since I've been coach that I think we have the best
team."

Sheler was especially proud of her four flyers, all
underclassmen: Shali Clark, Chantel
Martin, Miranda Sheppard and Shelby Davis.

The
Falcons finished third in the conference last year and second the year
before. Both years they went on to qualify for the state meet.

"When
you see each other on a weekly basis, it only makes everyone better,"
said Smith-Boyd. "Kentwood was right
there and Jenison came back in the third
round. It's going to be tight next week, too."

East Kentwood hosts the regional tourney on Saturday.

Rockford took fifth on Saturday with a
score of 756, but still managed fourth place overall. Hudsonville finished in
fifth place, followed by defending champ West Ottawa and O-K Red newcomer Muskegon.

West Ottawa won the JV and freshman contests. Grandville was
runner-up in both.