West Ottawa is top local cheer team in Class A

Sunday,
March 13, 2005

By Jayson Bussa

The Grand Rapids Press

WALKER -- Grandville High School
competitive cheer head coach Julie Smith-Boyd found herself pitted against
former pupils at the Class A state championship meet Saturday night at
DeltaPlex.

During Smith-Boyd's 24 years
at Grandville, she has coached a number of people who are still involved with
the sport.

Rockford coach Kathy Jo Resseguie
and West Ottawa coach Kelli Polinskey both
were Smith-Boyd's former students -- and both were leading opposing squads
Saturday.

After taking home a state
championship last year, Smith-Boyd's Bulldogs were unable to repeat. A shaky
third-round performance dropped Grandville from third to fifth place, where
they ended with a score of 701.5.

"It didn't really go
the way we wanted it to go," Smith-Boyd said. "I'm not upset with the
effort though, because they gave it their all."

Resseguie's Rockford team finished in seventh place with
a score of 681, the best finish in school history.

"I've been coaching for
11 years at Rockford
and I have found that Julie has taught me so much," Resseguie
said. "To be able to get up to this level and compete against this type of
caliber is just awesome."

Polinskey's team managed to surpass her former
coach as West Ottawa finished second with a
score of 716. The Panthers also took second in 2001.

"We (Polinskey and
Smith-Boyd) have been competing against each other for seven years now,"
Polinskey said. " I just feel very fortunate to
have such strong competition in this area which forces us all to get better. I
think she feels the same way."

Rochester Hills won with
ease after a 322-point third round that extracted a standing ovation from the
crowd. The Falcons finished with 742. The victory is their eighth title in the
last 10 years.

East
Kentwood
took sixth with 700.

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press. Used
with permission