Grandville takes a tumble in competitive cheer

Thursday,
March 03, 2005

By Dean
Holzwarth

The Grand Rapids Press

For a good part of the
regular season, the Grandville competitive cheer team appeared poised to defend
their Class A state title with little resistance.

But in a span of two
weekends, the Bulldogs have discovered a few bumps in their road to a repeat.

After opening the season
with five straight invitational titles and owning the No.1-ranking, Grandville
has tumbled to No. 3 (behind West Ottawa and top-ranked Rochester) and has failed to take first place
in their last two meets.

A
third-place finish at the Chesaning Invitational was followed by last weekend's
runner-up effort at the Tier 1 conference meet.

Both meets were won by
hard-charging West Ottawa, which has been
Grandville's closest competitor on this side of the state in the past five
years.

"West
Ottawa has looked very good lately and I think maybe the last few
weeks have been a wake-up call for us," Grandville coach Julie Smith-Boyd
said. "It's hard to have the same energy every time and to go out every
time and be perfect, but I think the girls are realizing that they have to
perform at a high level if they want to win."

While the past two outings
have been disappointing, Smith-Boyd points out that it's the month of March
that really counts.

The Bulldogs will travel to
Kenowa Hills on Saturday in search of their 12th straight regional title as
well as their 12th consecutive trip to the state finals. The top two teams in
each regional advance to the Class A state finals on March 12 at The DeltaPlex.

And while it may appear that
Grandville has an easier road with West Ottawa, East Kentwood and Jenison absent from the region, Smith-Boyd isn't taking
anything for granted.

"There are a lot of
good teams in this regional and we're not going to take it lightly," she
said.

Smith-Boyd also added that
her team must overcome the fatigue factor that tends to set in this time of the
year.

"It becomes a mental
game because you don't want your body to shut down," she said.

Jenison, which finished fourth at the
conference meet, will host arguably one of the toughest regionals in the state
as three of the top five teams in Class A will contend for only two spots. West
Ottawa and fourth-ranked East Kentwood also
are slated to compete in that regional.

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press. Used
with permission