School News

Cheer team hopes to improve
stunting, defeating Lapeer West

Casey Curtis

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Front row: (left to right) Natalie
Lukas, Rachel Pollack, Stacy Smith, Michelle Sekelsky,
Aleashia Capogna,
Ashley VanAtten. Middle row: Eden Kammerer,
Libby Ardelan, April Smith, Nicole Gallo, Alyssa
Johnson, Katelyn Eldridge. Back row: Kylie Trevis, Ashlee-Morgan Eller, Coach Alanna
Stockley, Jule Ardelan, Caralyn Debash. (Not pictured: Kelly Mick)

December 07,
2005 - After last season ended, Varsity
Cheer Coach Allanna Stockley
saw a few things her team needed to improve on. This season, she plans on
tackling those points and coming out on top.

"Last year, the stunting wasn't as good as
they are this year," she said. "That's going to be a major
improvement the public will see."

Stockley said her fifteen girls on the team will be working on harder
gymnastic skills, like liberty's with twist cradles
and double twist cradles. She also believes the teams strong tumbling skills,
like back hand springs and walk-overs, will help
carry them to the win.

Team captains this year are seniors Stacy Smith
and Nicole Gallo and juniors Libby Ardelan and
Rachel Pollack. Stockley said although they are not
captains there are many leaders on the team that are not captains, including
junior April Smith, senior Aleashia Capogna, junior Ashlee-Morgan Eller and junior Ashley Vanatten.

Since most of her team consists of
girls she coached when they were in seventh and eighth grades, Stockely said she "expects them to be awesome"
and that she's really excited to see them perform in their last year.

Rigorous training at local gyms helps the girls
practice their routines. They also weight lift, run and do plyometrics to keep in shape for competitions.

Stockley said the cheer team is striving to beat Lapeer West in
competition this season after they won the Flint-Metro League title last
year.

"Two years ago, we were FML champs and are
looking to get it back," she said.

The cheer team competes every Saturday and will
be cheering at home basketball games. December 17 is their first competition
at Gross Ille for the Competitive Cheer Coaches
Association Scholarship.