Cheer teams to advance through districts
before heading to state

December 11, 2008

Allowing for more competitive cheerleading teams to advance at
tournament time, the Michigan High School Athletic Associaton has
instituted district-level competition among cheer divisions throughout the
state.

Until 2008-09, competitive cheerleaders competed at the regional level
to advance to state finals, with the top two teams in each division
qualifying to do so.

According to new MHSAA rules, four teams per Division per tournament
site will qualify from Districts to Regionals. Four teams per Division per
tournament site will then qualify for the State finals. (If there is a tie
for fourth place at District or Regional tournament competition, both fourth
place teams will qualify for the next tournament level.)

Districts for competitive cheer have been divided into six districts
with 15-16 schools in each district. The top four teams from each district
will advance to one of two "regionals."
Each Regional competition will then have 12 teams competing, and the top
four teams from each region will then advance to State.

This means there will only be eight teams at the State finals this year
in each division, rather than last year's 10 teams.

"This will make it much more difficult to advance [from the
regional level]," Houghton Lake High School Varsity Coach Celeste Kubiak said. "It's a tough year for us."

At the 2008 State finals, Houghton
Lake placed sixth of 10 teams
in Division 3 with a score of 701.772.

Additionally, Kubiak said the scoring system
has changed again. Competitive cheer judges will score teams to the nearest
10th, rather than to the nearest half-point.

There are four divisions in Michigan,
based on student enrollment. Houghton
Lake and Roscommon high schools
compete in Division 3.

Houghton Lake
and Roscommon will compete in District No. 17-3 competition,
scheduled for Feb. 21, 2009
at 11 am. at Houghton Lake, where
14 teams will vie for the four spots to regionals:
Cheboygan Area, Elk Rapids, Fremont, Gladstone, Grayling, Harrison
Community, Houghton Lake, Howard City-Tri County Area, Kingsford, Newaygo,
Oscoda, Remus-Chippewa Hills, Roscommon and
Shelby