Grandville cheer team shakes off rough start

Thursday, January 8, 2009

By Dean Holzworth

JENISON -- Grandville's disappointing
fifth-place finish in an invitational last month was the perfect motivation
for an O-K Red pre-conference tournament at Jenison.

The defending Class A champion Bulldogs rebounded from a
fifth-place finish at the Competitive Cheer Coaches Association of Michigan's
Scholarship Invitational to win Wednesday with a final score of 789.476.

Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd was pleased with her
team's improved performance in round 3.

"We wanted to redeem ourselves," Smith-Boyd
said. "We have a lot of new people in round 3 and it's just a matter of
the confidence, and really, learning the position.

"Round 3 is the one that is going to make us work for
it, and we did 100 times better than the first one. It's been a struggle, but
I can see the potential now."

Grandville had a score of 305. 5 in round 3, which was
second-best among the eight teams.

Senior Kelsey VanderWiere said
the Bulldogs were determined to shake off last month's meet.

"There was a lot of motivation for us and we really
knew that we had to kick it out," she said. "We didn't want a
repeat of fifth place and we were really fighting to stick everything and
finish it without anything coming down."

Jenison finished runner-up to Grandville
with a final score of 777.843 and closed with a solid round 3 to vault them
past third-place East Kentwood (773.048).

Jenison had a tournament-best score of
313 in that round.

"We've been known to come out with a strong round 3,
but with a smaller and younger team, we weren't sure how round three would
end up," Jenison coach Wendy Kenney said. "But we capitalized on the things we're
good at. We have good tumblers and great twisting stunts."

Grandville had high scores of 232 and 252 in rounds 1 and
2, respectively. It held a five-point lead over East Kentwood entering the pivotal third round.