Grand
Haven cheer team finishes season

Advance
Newspapers, February 24, 2009

The Grand Haven
competitive cheer team completed its 2008-09 season by finishing tenth in the
MHSAA Division I District Tournament at Rockford Feb. 21.

Coach Holly Holmes'
team finished with 200.7 points in the opening round, followed by a 179.348
effort in round two. The Buccaneers had 269 points in the third round to
finish with 633.048 points.

East Kentwood won the district
tournament with 805.5720 points, followed by West Ottawa (804.2272 points),
Grandville (797.7480 points) and Rockford (795.8504 points),
all whom advanced to the regional competition. Rounding the 14-team field
were: Jenison (fifth place with 788.6536 points), Hudsonville (sixth place
with 776.7340 points), Forest Hills (seventh place with 735.0152 points),
Battle Creek Central (eighth place with 676.2400 points), Portage Central
(ninth place with 663.1334 points), Traverse City West (11th place
with 617.8208 points), Kalamazoo Central (12th place with 600.5400
points), Loy Norrix (13th place with 571.8880 points) and Muskegon
(14th place with 379.9940 points).

"We made a lot
of progress this year," said Holmes, who completed her second season as
head coach. "West Michigan is a very strong area for
competitive cheer. We just need to keep getting better and work hard to be
the best we can be. We need to start a middle school program and that would
help the high school program a lot. The scores were close and we were happy
with our results. The competition is very tough in West Michigan."

Holmes wanted to
credit her five seniors for their strong leadership this season. Those
seniors included Sallie Krupp, Kelsey Miller, Jaime Smith, Tiffany Hatton and
Monica Johnson.