Sparta cheer team has sixth sense

Thursday,
March 17, 2005

By Kelly
Hill

The Grand
Rapids Press

Improvement was the
Spartans' goal.

After qualifying by a mere 2
1/2 points for the Class B state championships, which were held Saturday at the
DeltaPlex, Sparta's competitive cheer team were hoping to improve upon last
year's performance at the state championships.

A year ago, Sparta finished
eighth in the 10-team state finals field.

"We
went in there to beat our own goals," said coach Kensey Doolittle, who has been Sparta's head coach for
three seasons but who has coached many of the Spartans since elementary school.

"We didn't go in there
necessarily trying to beat our best scores, we just
wanted to improve on what we did last year."

Posting a team-best score in
the state championships can be difficult because scoring tends to be stricter
in the finals than it is during the regular season.

"Judging is always
harder at regional, but we did very well," Doolittle said.

The team achieved its goal
Saturday as it finished sixth in the 10-team state championship field.
Ovid-Elsie won the state title with a three-round total of 705.5 points. The
Spartans were finished with 680.5 points.

Teams very good

"The competition was
wonderful," Doolittle said. "The teams there were very good."

Sparta posted a first-round
score of 185 and followed that with marks of 198.5 and 297 points.

"We did the same
routines we had been doing this year but we tried to do them better,"
Doolittle said. "You try to get your routine the way you want it before
the regional, then when you qualify for state you can just spend that week
practicing."

Sparta's routines were
choreographed and performed well enough to qualify for the state finals, but
only by a slim margin. The Spartans finished second to Chippewa Hills by just
five points in regional action at Coopersville, but edged third-place Comstock
Park by only 2 1/2 points.

Only the top two teams in
each regional meet qualify for the state championships.

"The competition at the
regional was very good," Doolittle said. "It was very tight."

Chippewa Hills finished
fourth in Saturday's state championships, again just five points ahead of the
Spartans.

The Spartans' roster of 25
cheerleaders includes nine seniors whom Doolittle has coached since the fifth
or sixth grade. They are Nicole Bisel, Katie Cheslek, Courtney Dauber, Ashley Horton, Karla Ingersoll, Krista Ingersoll,
Brandi Keizer, Lauren Hall and Kari Smith.

"Our seniors this year
are great kids to have on the team," Doolittle said. "We are going to
miss them. I have been coaching most of them since fifth or sixth grade."

A coach in Sparta's rocket
program prior to accepting the head coaching position at Sparta, Doolittle has
coached the current Spartan juniors since they were in the second grade.

© 2005 Grand Rapids Press. Used
with permission