Ithaca
wins the Division 4 competitive cheer district crown; Merrill third

Greg Mancina | The Saginaw News, February
21, 2009 3:14 p.m.

Brittany Bentley is a three-sport
athlete at Ithaca High School, but while she runs cross country in the fall
and participates in track during the spring, competitive cheer is
"pretty much my life" in the winter.

"It's the most
demanding of all the sports," said the sophomore. "And it's more
about being a team, and with a team you can't not have one person
there."

As another team's coach
put it, "These girls will compete through sprained ankles, they'll
compete through colds and the flu. They'll compete."

On Saturday, 12 competitive
cheer teams vied for the Division 4 district crown at Carrollton High School,
boiling down long hours of practice into five-and-a-half minutes to decide
which four teams would move onto next weekend's regionals at Mason High
School.

Ithaca, ranked No. 5 in
the state, and Laingsburg defied the pollsters by taking first and second
place in the district, while No. 4-ranked Merrill took third. Albion also
advanced to the regional with a fourth-place finish. Ithaca scored 732.609 to
693.475 for Laingsburg, which joined Albion in facing long and difficult
rides home in the winter storm.

"The rankings aren't
anything scientific," said Ithaca coach Jill Davenport, who was voted
the district coach of the year. "They're just out there for fun."

Because of the growth of
the sport, Saturday was the first time the Michigan High School Athletic
Association sponsored district competitions. The MHSAA reports state
champions back to 1994, and has held regionals in the past where the top two
advanced to the state finals.

Ithaca has had teams in
four of the last five years, missing a year because of a lack of
participants.

"It's difficult to
find people who want to make the commitment to it," said Davenport, who
has six sophomores and a freshman on her team.

"Anyone who works
hard and is willing to give a commitment is what we're looking for," she
said. "You have to give yourself entirely to the team."

Ithaca's district
championship came only after five-day-a-week practices at between two and
three hours per day. None of the Yellowjackets are on the "sideline
cheer" team that football and basketball fans see on game days, this is
a separate unit.

Former St. Charles
football coach Bob Welzein, who now is the school's athletic directed, seemed
to have a newfound respect after watching Saturday's competition in which his
school placed fifth.

"It's a lot
different than sideline cheer," he said.

The competitions consist
of three rounds with different requirements for each one. A panel of three
judges and two more safety judges watch over the rounds, which are one
minute, 30 seconds long in the first two rounds and 2 minutes, 30 seconds for
the third.

An 84-page rules and
regulations manual with guidelines, charts and pictures governs the sport.
Teams of four to 16 participants are evaluated on many criteria.

Laingsburg scored the
highest, 215.4, in the first round, which consists of at least two jumps,
five floor movements and six formations. Judges are looking for routines with
different arm motions, floor movements and level changes.

Round Two went to Ithaca
with a 212.90. That round consisted of a 10-count precision drill performed
in unison in addition to a cheer with five skills, all in unison.

Ithaca also dominated
Round Three with a 309.0, showing the best choreographed cheer with jumps,
stunts, gymnastics skill and tumbling.

Two safety judges monitor
the rounds, and on Saturday assessed a pair of penalties for teams that
exceeded the time limits.

"Our job is to make
sure they follow the rules and to keep kids from getting hurt," said
Malena Marr, a safety judge who is a Breckenridge school teacher and a former
participant and coach. "There are more concussions in cheerleading than
in football."

Some failed jumps or
stunts result in lower scores, something that hurt Merrill in the third
round.

The Vandals, who were
second after two rounds, just missed a couple of maneuvers in the final round
to fall to third.

"We didn't have a
very strong third round and you only get one chance to do it," said
Merrill coach Courtney Bluemer, whose teams finished fifth and seventh in the
state the last two years. "Hopefully, we'll hit next week's (regional)
routine."

That gives Ithaca at
least another week of rolling out the mats in the school cafeteria for
practices.

"We're like
family," Bentley said. "You almost have to be, that's the only way
it works."