Cheer team
goes to bowl

After injury, Memphis coach and mom calls
group's trip 'fate'

By MATT SCHOCH

Times Herald

January 2, 2009

HAPPY
DAY: The Memphis cheerleading squad participated Thursday in the Capital
One Bowl. The team includes, in back row, Krysta Verschure, Courtney Tyvaert,
Amber Bergen, Felicia Marcath, Amber
Wallace. In front are Alexandra Van Buren, and Kristen Abbey. (Courtesy
photo)

With clear skies and 70-degree
temperatures, Memphis High School cheerleading Coach Sheryl Van
Buren said it's nice to be in Florida for the new year.

But as her daughter, Alexandra,
prepared to cheer with her teammates during Thursday's Capital One Bowl, Van
Buren also said she felt blessed.

"I believe in fate and things
happening for a reason," Sheryl Van Buren said this week from Orlando. "I wouldn't be down here
right now otherwise."

The seven cheerleaders were among
hundreds of performers for Thursday's halftime show during Michigan State's football game against Georgia.

"It was great. I've never
seen anything like it," Sheryl Van Buren said. "The girls did great
out there."

Alexandra Van Buren now is healthy
and back cheering after being in a near-death car accident in May.

"I'm doing good
-- just as well (physically) as everybody else is," she said. "I
thought coming here, I wouldn't be fully ready. But I'm so happy to be here,
so grateful."

Van Buren ran her car into a
telephone pole after school May 1, four days after her 16th birthday.

Her dad, Darrin, a Memphis firefighter, happened to be the
first responder to the accident because he was at their Riley Township home, recently laid off from his
job.

"I looked and saw that it's
my daughter," he said. "Like any parent would, I was shaken. But
everything went perfectly."

Alexandra Van Buren was shocked
with a defibrillator once on the street and once in the ambulance while
transported to Port Huron Hospital. She soon was airlifted to Ann Arbor.

After lying comatose for nearly
two days at University of Michigan Pediatric Hospital, Van Buren's condition
steadily improved.

During the ordeal, a nurse in Ann Arbor struck up small talk with Sheryl
Van Buren, finding cheerleading as a common bond. The nurse suggested Van
Buren take the Memphis team to an Alma College camp during the summer.

The coach scrapped the previous
plans and let fate drive her to the camp.

There, the team was named
"Most Improved" and was among a handful of top teams to earn the
option of performing in Orlando for the bowl game.

The girls organized bake sales,
car washes and other events until more than $1,000 per girl was raised for
the trip. Then, gas prices just happened to drop and the Spartans were added
to the Capital One fold after finishing third in the Big Ten this fall.

The Van Burens
believe there are too many "just happeneds"
to be a coincidence.

"This is a blessed group of
girls," Darrin Van Buren said.

Teammates Kristen Abbey, Krysta Verschure, Felicia Marcath, Courtney Tyvaert,
Amber Bergen and Amber Wallace joined Alexandra Van Buren on the field
Thursday.

"It was a blast,"
Alexandra said. "It was the best experience of my life. Nothing compares
to the excitement and thrill of going onto that field to perform."

"There were millions of
people watching. It was nuts. It was very fun."

The group also visited Universal
Studios and Disney World's Magic Kingdom while on the six-day trip.

Mercath, a senior, said she's going to
MSU for veterinary school after one year at Macomb Community College.

"I'm more excited because of
that, but I think I'll be nervous out there," Marcath
said Tuesday.

She said the moves were more like
dance than the cheer moves they were used to, which was an adjustment.

Tyvaert, the other senior on the team,
said the experience wouldn't be the same without Van Buren.

"We're really grateful that
she is still here," Tyvaert said. "It was
really upsetting, but we're really glad to hear we could cheer with
her."

Alexandra Van Buren said fate and
perseverance are the lessons of her long road back.

"I went in there and I gave
it my all (in cheerleading after the accident), and I felt fine," she
said. "Now, I'm here cheering."