Troy Athens competitve
cheerleaders stuck the tuck

Team has its best
finish at states

BY CHRIS LAU • FREE PRESS
SPORTS WRITER • March 16, 2008

Photos by ADAM BIRD/Special to the Free Press

The Troy Athens competitive cheer team jumps the
toe-touch in the state finals March 7 in Grand Rapids. The team placed seventh in
Division 1, Athens'
highest state showing yet.

Rochester's competitive cheer team jumps
the herkie in unison and all the way to a
Division 1 second place at the state finals.

Not five minutes after
reaching the hotel on the evening of March 7, after her cheerleading team
competed in the state finals at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids, Troy Athens coach Stephanie Brosky was met with a request from parents and fans that
perhaps was a bit premature.

"The first thing
they said, 'Ninth last year, seventh this year -- will it be fifth place next
year?' " Brosky said.
"The girls just laughed and said: 'We're tired. We need a break!' "

Hey, they deserve one.

The Red Hawks
competitive cheer team had just completed the best season in school history.
Before the Division 1 finals, the squad had set school-record scores in all
three rounds (224.5 in Round 1, 224.0 in Round 2 and 317.5 in Round 3). And
at the finals, they placed seventh in Class A with a score of 726.6, the best
ever for an Athens
team.

"They kept
breaking and re-breaking school records all year," Brosky
said. "Heading into the finals, the highest the school ever placed was
eighth. They really wanted to walk out and say, 'We literally broke every
record.' "

They did just that.

The Red Hawks now say
good-bye to six seniors: Emily Marsden, Ashley Michaels, Liz Ostergaard, Cloryssa
Pennington, Christina Richardson and Hanna Smeekens.

That class played a
huge role in Athens'
rise into the state's elite. The Red Hawks have qualified for states three
out of the past five years: 2004, 2007 and 2008. The top two teams from each
of the state's five regions make it, and Athens placed second this season.

Troy Athens' ascent was
centered on one difficult skill: the back tuck.

"A back tuck is
basically a back handspring with no hands," Brosky
said. "They throw themselves in the air, flip backwards and land on
their feet."

It's arguably the most
difficult skill in cheerleading. It requires strength and athleticism, but
the mental factor is probably the biggest roadblock to acquiring it. At least
14 girls must have it for a team to incorporate it into competition, and most
of the schools in the state can't do it.

Athens didn't have the back tuck when it
made the state finals in 2004. The underclassmen realized they needed it if
they were to return to the tournament.

"It was obvious
everyone at states could do it," Brosky said.
"My girls said, 'Enough is enough, we need to add this skill,' and it
took off from there."

Once a week during the
season, Brosky would bring in a private gymnastics
instructor, who would help her team with skills including the back tuck. Most
girls join the program without the back tuck. Half of them acquire it by the
time they make varsity, and most of them have it by the first competition.

This season, 15 of Brosky's 21 cheerleaders had the tuck.

"When I was a
sophomore, my first season on varsity, it was the first year we incorporated
the back tuck," said Michaels, an all-region cheerleader. "It was
really exciting because we finally were able to be a competitor in our
region."

At the hotel, the
parents weren't unreasonable when they suggested a fifth-place finish at next
year's state finals. The Red Hawks have 10 juniors, four sophomores and a
freshman, and it's logical to assume that several junior varsity and freshman
cheerleaders will have the back tuck by next winter.

Brosky isn't thinking about that yet.

"Right now,"
she said, "the team and coaching staff is basking, knowing we
accomplished every single goal we set."