Davison competitive cheer team finishes 10th at
regionals

By Bill
Marshall | Monday, March 09, 2009

The
Davison competitive cheer team does more than just get the crowds excited at
sporting events.

Varsity
coach Leslye Long and the girls have shown that
there is yet another Davison sports team making its mark in the area.

Long, in
her second year as cheerleading coach after previously coaching at Saginaw
Valley State, has led the competitive cheer team to a third straight Big Nine
title and they also made a splash at districts.

At the
Division 1 competitive cheer districts at Lake Orion Feb. 21, the girls finished
fourth in a competitive field, which was good enough to qualify for regionals at Brighton on Feb. 28. The Cardinals put together a solid
performance and finished in 10th place there, demonstrating that they're an
up-and-coming program that can compete with the best.

And this group has been competing with a chip on its shoulder all
year, in part because of a Grand Blanc cheerleader's comment in a local paper
that criticized the Cardinals' performance against the Bobcats earlier in the
season.

"I
saved the article and it helped to motivate my girls this year," Long
said. "When other programs talk badly about us, it just helps (us)
out."

It should
be noted that the top four teams from districts qualify for regional
competition and Grand Blanc placed fifth, one spot behind Davison. The
Cardinals are a young team who has the work ethic already to beat any Big
Nine team at any given competition, so the last thing they need is additional
motivation. Long admits that her cheerleaders who will be returning next year
are already hungry.

"Eleven
of the 24 girls on the team are seniors," she said. "So we have a
lot of girls with experience and a lot of girls have been in the situation
before. And I have a really talented group of sophomores and juniors that
have the drive and want it really bad. They're already talking about next
year and asking when we're going to start spring workouts."

Junior
cheerleader Jessica Poster spoke highly of her team's accomplishments this
season, but realizes that they have set the bar high for themselves.

"We
managed to get team standing tucks and it was the first time a Davison team
has ever done that, which is a very big deal for us," Poster said.
"And it won't be the last time."