Cheer team takes to competitive sport with high goals in mind

By Sam Eggleston

HOMETOWN NEWSPAPERS

Entering their second season of dual meets, the South Lyon Lions
cheerleading team is expecting to see improvements across the board.

From
teamwork to routines, the squad is looking to compete against each and every
one of their opponents.

“It’s
working out good,” said coach Stacie Soroka.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement, which is very exciting.”

Soroka knows the Kensington Valley Conference is tough, and
knows her team will have to work hard to prevail.

“The
KVC is one of the more competitive leagues in this sport,” she said.
“I expect we’ll compete, but in this league you never know which
teams are going to come out on top.”

Two seniors
on the team, Rachael Love and Jenna Turowski,
expect to see the perennial powerhouses to take the top spot once again.

“Hartland
and Brighton are always up there,”
said Love. “They have competitive teams every year because of how long
their program has been in place.”

Turowski said she and the other cheerleaders are looking at
teams like Novi to compete with this year.

“They
did such a great job last year,” she said of the Novi
cheer team. “We’d like to beat them. That would give us a good
indication of where we are as a program right now.”

Energy is
for the young

The South Lyon cheer team is young. So young, in fact, they
have just two seniors in Love in Turowski. The
squad has a big mix of freshmen, sophomores and juniors to keep building.

“We
should be extremely competitive over the next few seasons,” Love noted.
“It’s hard, at times, to keep everyone focused, but it’s
going to pay off.”

And when it
does, the rest of the league better watch out. South
Lyon has taken its fair share of lumps over the years and are finally finding a solid base.

“It
was at a point where we didn’t keep a coach for more than a
season,” Turowski said. “We were used
to having to do everything ourselves. It’s great to have a coach that
is staying and who plans to stay.”

Soroka said she believes she has found herself a home for a
while to come. The coach, who is in her third season at South Lyon, had went
into hiatus following some time coaching in Genessee County.

“These
girls are just great,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a
better group. I plan on staying in South Lyon
for a while.”

Working
through the pain

The South Lyon crew have an eager
team, but they also have a sideline full of injured reserves. That can make
practice as well as competition difficult. One girl even had a neck brace
from an injury.

“It
can be rough,” Turowski said.

She would
know too. She’s a flier — better known to the layman as one of
those people who get flung into the air and have to count on their teammates
to catch them. Love is one of the members of Turowski’s
base — she helps catch her as she tumbles from the sky.

“This
will be our third season together,” said Love of their stunt.
“That helps when you’re counting on someone to catch you.”

Cheerleading
isn’t for the faint of heart — especially if an athlete wants to
be a flier.

“Sometimes
when I’m coming down at an awkward angle I worry about if they’ll
be able to adjust,” Turowski admitted.
“Thankfully they do.”

Other
injuries, especially from stunts, are common.

“Other
athletes don’t know what it takes to do some of this,” Love
pointed out. “It’s a mixture of all kinds of sports like
gymnastics, running, weight lifting and a lot of other things combined
together. It’s not easy at all.”

Bringing in
respect

Cheerleading
isn’t the kind of sport that usually splashes across the front page of
a sports section. It’s not a sport most athletes consider when asked
which teams produce the best athletes.

Soroka and her team would like to see that changed. Quite
frankly, the sport doesn’t get near the credit it deserves in their
eyes.

“Definitely
not,” Soroka said. “These girls work so
hard. They have so much talent and I can see them accomplishing some big
things. Most people just don’t realize the amount of hard work put into
competitive cheer.”

But they
can. The team unanimously supported the idea of having fellow athletes from
around the school attend one of their meets. After all, when it comes to
other sports they are on the sidelines cheering them.

“I
think all it would take for us to gain the respect of the students and this
community is for them to attend one of our meets,” Soroka
said. “I think we could change a lot of people’s views on
cheerleading.”

Sam
Eggleston can be reached at (248) 349-1700, ext. 104 or at [email-masked].