Colon brings the magic,
wins title

Nicole Watkins | Kalamazoo Gazette, February 21, 2009

The Colon competitive cheer squad
celebrates after capturing the Division 4 district championship at Climax-Scotts High School Saturday. The Magi are one of
four teams to advance to regional competition Feb. 28 at Sparta. - (Nicole Watkins / Gazette)

CLIMAX — Colon senior cheerleader Chante Harris said that the script ‘Magi’ on
the front of her squad’s uniforms often confuses other cheerleaders.

“We get questions
all the time, ‘What’s a Magi?’” Harris said, noting
that more recently, the lettering has been confused as something else.

“One girl asked me,
‘Is Maggie your name?” the senior laughed. “I said,
‘it’s Magi.’”

After Colon, with 699.712 points, captured
its first Division 4 district title at Climax-Scotts on Saturday, other
squads will have to soon take notice of the squad from the ‘Magic
Capital of the World.”

Gobles scored 651.442
points to finish second, followed by Bloomingdale (641.396) and Schoolcraft
(627.02). All four squads advance to next Saturday’s regional at Sparta High School.

This is the first year of
district competition for the sport. Previously, teams started the postseason
at the regional level.

Colon returned all but one of its
starters from last year’s squad that finished third at the state
finals.

“Only graduating
one senior really helped us this year, we have a lot of experience,” Colon coach Jayne Sabaitis,
who was named district coach of the year, said.
“We’re really hoping to take it up a notch and go for the win (at
states).”

Colon senior Rachel Green said the
extra level of competition will help her squad in the long run.

“I think it made it
better for us because it gave us more preparation for state,” Green
said.

Gobles, which started
with low scores in the first two rounds, bounced back with the highest
third-round score (286) of the day, and one of the Tigers’ highest
scores all year.

“We just know
that’s our round,” Gobles junior Heather Fabian said of the third
round, which entails the most tumbling and stunts. “We love to stunt
and that’s one of our favorite things — it’s what we love
to do.”

Schoolcraft used a strong
third round of its own to grab the final qualifying spot in a district that coach
Stephanie Harrison-Willis said the Tigers knew was going to be
“tough.”

“We were hoping to
bring the intensity and use the adrenaline to push us forward to qualify for regionals,” she said, while noting round three was
a deciding factor. “We felt it was our best all season, everything hit,
our tumbling was perfect and we were exciting to watch.”

Climax-Scotts, with
623.83 points, just missed qualifying because of a points
deduction in round two.

“We had an eight-point
penalty because one of our girls didn’t hold her arm the right way in a
skill,” C-S coach Jennifer Bingaman said. “It’s hard when
you don’t get beat, but you beat yourself — I think that’s
just a lesson to be applied for next season.