Sparta hopes to improve on last year's state
performance

Thursday,
March 10, 2005

By Jeff
Chaney

The Grand Rapids Press

The Sparta
competitive cheer team is making its second straight trip to the Class B state
finals thanks to a second-place finish at the regional at Coopersville High School
on Saturday.

Sparta finished with a score of 699.5
points, 2.5 points ahead of third place Comstock Park
and five points behind champion Chippewa Hills. The top two teams qualify for
the state finals.

"It was a tight
race," Sparta
coach Kensey Doolittle said. "I was very happy
with our performance. It was one of our best performances of the year. The
girls were really clean and really excited."

Now the Spartans will try
and improve on the eighth-place finish they had at last year's state finals.

"We are really excited
to get back to state and we just want to go out and have fun and do the best we
can do," Doolittle said.

Senior Kari Smith admits it
is a big honor just to get back to the state finals for two consecutive years.

"It's exciting because
this is the seniors last year," Smith said. "And it is fun to know
that we will be there."

Smith believes last year's
trip will help the Spartans.

"We know what to
expect. We know how good the teams are there, and we know that we have to work
extra hard."

And as far as a place the
team would like to finish this year.

"There is no particular
place that will make us happy," Smith said. "We just want to go and
do our best and whatever place we finish in will be fine."

Doolittle says the whole
team will be key to the success of the Spartans this
year.

Besides Smith, her main
leaders are the Ingersoll twins, Karla and Krista,
who are both seniors, junior Heather Jansma and
junior Tomi Tomson.

Krista Ingersoll
was second team all-state last year, while Tomson was
honorable mention.

Doolittle believes her team
will be ready.

"This is my third year
as varsity coach, but I have been coaching a lot of girls since second
grade." Doolittle said. "This is a close group and I couldn't ask for
a better one. They have heart and talent."

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press. Used
with permission