Falcons cheer team the runner-up at regionals, heads to
state

Thursday,
March 10, 2005

By Steve Vedder

The Grand Rapids Press

Stacy Sheler saw this coming weeks ago. At least she thought she did.

The East Kentwood
competitive cheer coach thought her young team was improving every time out, so
last Saturday's runner-up finish at the Class A regional at Jenison
was no shock.

Even with a rebuilt team
from last year's second place finish at state, Sheler had waited patiently for
the Falcons to again approach that level this season.

That time came last
Saturday. The Falcons finished with a score of 731.5 to finish second behind West Ottawa's 734.5. Both teams qualified for Saturday's
10-team state meet at the DeltaPlex. The meet starts at 6 p.m.

"The last couple weeks
we've come on strong and hit our peak. We're having fun with that," Sheler
said.

Despite losing 11 seniors
from the 2004 state runner-up team, Sheler thought this team, after a slow
start, could match or even exceed those expectations. What the team needed, she
said, was experience.

"I think we have more
talent, we just had to develop confidence," she said.

The Falcons won the Comstock
Park Invitational as well as two invitationals at East
Kentwood. They were second at Grandville and tied for third in the
O-K Conference Rainbow Tier 1 meet. But it was at the post-conference meet
where the Falcons finished third and came within less than a half-dozen points
of first that Sheler thought a threshold had been crossed.

"Each meet we got a
little better, but we still weren't competing like I thought we could,"
Sheler said. " We began doing a little better and
then it was like, 'Holy cow, this team can be as good as last year.' "

Part of the reason was
experience. East Kentwood has just five
seniors on the team in Mettie Rogers, Brianna Wood,
Ashley Beswick, Janai Smith
and Janyei Harrison. All are captains.

Among the teams East
Kentwood will have to top for a state title are conference rivals Grandville, Rockford and West Ottawa.
Among the other top challengers will be Rochester,
Brighton and Stony Creek.

"It's just whoever has
the best day," she said. "I think we have a shot.

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press. Used
with permission