Experience gives Kenowa something to cheer about

Thursday,
December 23, 2004By Jeff Chaney

The Grand Rapids Press

KENOWA HILLS -- The
Kenowa Hills competitive cheer team saw its O-K Rainbow Tier 2 Conference
championship streak end at two last season as
Holland Christian took home the title.

"It was horrible to
take second at conference," senior Kyla Nesky said.

"My first two years
we won it, and I felt like we should have won it. But they were a very good
team. We just need to work harder.

"I think we can win
our conference again. And hopefully if we keep getting better we can go to
state."

The Knights have high
expectations this year.

"We have
experience," said Kenowa Hills coach Mary Hurt, whose team also took
fifth at last year's regional meet.

"Most of the girls
have been on the team for three years. We graduated three seniors last year
on a team of 22. We return 18 girls this year, so we have some
experience."

Besides Nesky, some of the most experienced Knights are senior Becca Ziomkowski, junior Katie
Klein, junior Whitney Schmidt, senior Charlee Cordes and senior Liz Cutter.

Placed fifth in
competition

Kenowa Hills already has
had one competition, taking fifth overall at the Competitive Cheer Coaches
Association of Michigan held at Comstock
Park High
School on December 11.

Fifth place was good
according to Hurt considering some of the best teams in West
Michigan were at the invitational.

"We are going meet
by meet," Hurt said. "Of course our goals are to win conference and
go to state. But we can't control what other teams do. We can just control
what we do.

The next meet for the
Knights is one they host.

They host the Winterfest
Invitational on December 29.

"We are very excited
to start a new year, and we are very optimistic," Nesky
said.

"We have been
cheering for a while and we have some experience. We have added harder
tumbling and stunts, and we hope that can improve our scores."

So does Hurt

"We are adding to
our routines," Hurt said.

"We are adding
back-tucks to our round two routine, and that's the highest level you can go.

"The girls are
excited about the way the year is going. We are adding tougher stunts, and
hoping to compete with the big dogs this year."

© 2004 Grand Rapids Press.
Used with permission

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