The Saline Reporter

A Heritage Newspaper

Weekly Publication

Cheerleading
squad places second

PUBLISHED: March 3, 2005

The Saline Varsity Cheerleaders
took second place Saturday in the Capital Area Open Cheer Competition in Grand
Ledge.

The Saline squad beat out six other varsity
teams from Lowell, Davison, Waverly, Northview, Garden City, and Dearborn, but
finished behind the Grand Ledge squad.

"I am very excited and proud of the
girls," said Coach Launie Aben.
"They have worked extremely hard all season to come this far. The success
of this competition will give the team great momentum going into our Regional
competition next Saturday."

Aben is in her second year of coaching the Saline
Varsity Cheer squad.

The Saline Varsity Cheerleading squad is
competing this year after two consecutive years off from competition. The squad
is competing in the Michigan Cheerleading Coaches Association (MCCA), which is
a different association from the Universal Cheerleading Association that they
participated in two years ago.

With competitive cheerleading emerging as
an athletic sport, the Saline Varsity Cheerleading squad has had to learn a
whole new way of cheering and performing to compete at this level of
competition.

"Cheerleading has become intense with
the squads often having to learn many new skills, refine and perfect these
skills so they perform in perfect unison," said Aben.
"Arm motions must be tight and precise, jumps must be exact so all 28 feet
hit the ground at the same moment. The squad needs to be able to perform
tumbling and gymnastic skills and many difficult stunts to be
competitive."

During competition, squads are evaluated
and judged on their leadership abilities such as confidence, enthusiasm, presence,
facial expressions, voice clarity and volume; difficulty and variety of jumps,
tumbling and flexibility; floor mobility; execution of skills; difficulty and
variety of stunts, pyramids, and basket tosses; ability to get the crowd
involved; precision and synchronization of the team; choreography and overall
impression.

Squads are also assessed penalities, resulting in a deduction of points ranging from
5-20 points, for such rule infractions as illegal entry and exit on the mat;
stepping off the mat during performance; being under the minimum time limit or
over the maximum time limit; chanting and use of voice; stepping on signs or
props; spotting infractions; safety guideline infractions such as jewelry,
fingernail length, glitter, hair pins; illegal stunts; dropping a flyer; and
jumps, skills and stunts not performed in unison.

The Saline Varsity Cheerleading squad
begins getting ready for its competitive season during summer practices. The squad practices from August through March with four or five 2-1/2-hour
practices a week. During their eight months of practices, the squad
continues to prepare for their competitive season in addition to conditioning
and practicing cheers and routines for football and basketball games.

As in other sports, competitive cheer is
not without its share of injuries. The squad has continued to compete even with
several of the members experiencing wrist, shoulder and back injuries, strained
knee and ankle ligaments and even a broken nose.

The Saline Varsity Cheerleading squad will
compete in the MCCA Regional competition March 5 in West Bloomfield. The squad
will compete in Region 4, against 16 other Class A schools, the largest and
most competitive Class A region in the state.