Hartland
cheerleaders learning impressive new skill

Jason Deegan,
January 28, 2009

Lydia Quella, a Hartland
senior, flips upside down attempting a “tuck full”.

A handful of Hartland
cheerleaders shout out the words "Together we can!"

The sequence signals
Lydia Quella to spring into action during a
practice.

Quella, a senior, jumps as high as she
can, throwing her arms over her shoulder. She becomes a blur as her body
twists and flies through the air. She lands back on her feet to nail a
"tuck full," a gymnastics move that is infiltrating the world of
competitive cheer.

Hartland coach Paula
Cunningham said her Eagles are in a heated race with Rochester to become the first team in state
history to integrate that move into their routine.

Three Eagles - Quella, Cassie Diamond and Lizzy
Ventura - are training with John Blacha, a
tumbling-gymnastics specialist, with hopes of using it before the end of the
season.

"It would set the
bar so much higher than other teams," Diamond said. "If we do this,
it shows our skills go off the charts."

Cunningham said the move
shows how much more demanding cheerleading has become.

"You've got to be a
gymnast to be a cheerleader today," she said. "You're finding more
and more middle-school girls who come in with more talent. They see the older
girls and what talents they need. I don't see where it's going to
stop."

Quella said the tuck full is more
difficult for cheerleaders because they aren't jumping off a spring floor
like gymnasts. She estimates she lands it 75 percent of the time and hopes to
use it soon.

"I really want to be
the first one to throw" the move in Michigan, she said. "It takes height
and speed. Your mind must show no fear."

Diamond admits she's
still got a ways to go before she masters it.

"I still haven't
figured it out," she said. "It's hard to maneuver in the air and
figure out what to do with yourself and where you're at."

The tuck full doesn't
score any more points from judges than the "tuck half," a move that
has become more common in cheer routines in the past year. The Eagles want to
incorporate the tuck full to shock, and maybe even intimidate,
their competition. Consider it cheerleading's version of the dunk in
basketball.

"It's for wow factor
and difficulty," Quella said. "It affects
cool levels."