Bittersweet the feeling for Otsego

February 14, 2009

Jon Schultz, Kalamazoo Gazette

Otsego cheer coach Nicole Durr, center, leads the
Bulldogs in celebration following their winning performance at the Wolverine
Conference championship Saturday afternoon at Plainwell

PLAINWELL — The local ski resort has proved to be one of the biggest challenges
to the Otsego competitive cheer team’s season.

First,
sophomore Ashley Markley took a hard fall snowboarding and sat out the
Greater Kalamazoo meet last week. After competition that day, senior Chelsie
Johnson sprained her knee while snowboarding, and had to miss
Saturday’s Wolverine Conference finals.

But
that didn’t keep the Bulldogs from placing first, and earning
back-to-back conference titles, with a score of 731.4544 (221.2, 211.6544,
298.6). Gull Lake placed second with 716.3472
(212.6, 217.6472, 286.1).

Gull Lake senior Maggie Klein said the
performance felt “bittersweet” because they pushed harder than ever
but lost. The Bulldogs have been feeling Bittersweet, in their own way.

“We
live right next to Bittersweet, we go there a lot,” Johnson said of the
local ski hill. “The night before it happened, I was like, ‘I
never get hurt going snowboarding,’ and then Emily (Stack) is like,
‘Knock on wood,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I don’t
need to.’ And the next day, I got hurt.”

Freshman
Taylor Stone and sophomore Dani Diller filled in for Johnson in rounds two
and three, respectively. Despite the shakeup, the Bulldogs brought one of
their most intense performances of the season, coach Nicole Durr said.

“They
were phenomenal. They had a fire today that they hadn’t had all year,
and that’s really what they needed to do,” Durr said. “Our
goal all week was to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who
the conference champs were, and that’s what they did today.”

Otsego
held just a two-point advantage over Gull Lake heading into the third round,
leaving the title up for grabs. The Bulldogs, who performed second to last,
spent most of their time making tunnels for the other teams while they
waited.

“We
just warm up a couple times, maybe pick at a couple things and let it go
because they need to be fresh, they need to be energized,” Durr said.
“The key for my team is to stay loose and to have a good time, not get
so bound up that they almost force themselves to make mistakes because
they’re so tense.”

The
Blue Devils were the last team to take the floor, and contrastingly took the
opportunity to warm up their routine in the practice room.

“It
all comes down to judging and the judges saw something a little more in
Otsego today and they gave it to them,” Gull Lake coach Angie Brown
said. “Maybe they were just a little bit more on fire. I know we both
came out here and gave our best performance.”

After
years of competing at the top of the Wolverine, a sort of friendly rivalry
has developed between the two teams.

“They’re
definitely the ones at practice (that) we’re like, ‘OK,
they’re working their butts off right now; they want to beat us, so we
need to work harder, we need to beat them,’” Otsego senior Emily
Stack said of the Blue Devils.

Plainwell,
the host team, placed third (673.324; 202.4, 186.324, 284.6) in the meet and
fourth in the conference. Three Rivers placed fourth (659.3912; 198.9,
178.4912, 282) for the day and third in the Wolverine.

“I
was really excited that we finished at conference at finals at home the best
we have done at any of the conference meets,” Plainwell coach Sara Snow
said.

Otsego,
ranked No. 6 in Division 3, now looks ahead to hosting districts, which are
new to the sport this year. And if the past is any indicator, the Bulldogs
better take Stack’s advice before shredding the slopes this week.

“If they do (snowboard), then I’ll tell them
to knock on wood this time,” she said.