Eagles
cheering under new coach

Thursday,
January 12, 2006

By Dean
Holzwarth

The Grand Rapids Press

HUDSONVILLE -- Amanda Cooper was
taught from one of the top coaches in the competitive cheer ranks when she
was at West Ottawa.

Cooper was the junior varsity coach
under Kelli Polinsky for five years, but recently
was hired to guide a varsity team of her own at Hudsonville.

"This is really exciting for
me," Cooper said.

"I
enjoyed my five years at West Ottawa and I
learned so much from Kelli so I feel I'm ready to take on the challenges of
being a head coach."

Cooper inherited a squad of 20, but
only 11 of a large sideline team came out for competitive cheer.

"It's such a good group of
girls and they're buying in to what I have to offer," Cooper said.
"They're working hard and getting better each week."

The Eagles debuted last month at
the Competitive Cheer Coaches Association of Michigan Scholarship
Invitational and placed third in a Class A pool.

"I was very pleased with their
performance--they did well," Cooper said.

Hudsonville's squad boasts seven
seniors, five juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen, but only three
seniors, Tina Birgman, Jennifer Behrens and Katie Troha competed last season.

Juniors Kristen Smith and Lindsey
Smith also return to the varsity, while the remaining seniors include Kelli Macqueen, Kylee Kubacki, Amanda Rouse and Alicia VanderLaan.

"The girls I got to come out
are the ones that want to be here and they thrive on competition,"
Cooper said.

Last weekend at the Unity Christian
Invitational, the Eagles took top honors in Class A with a score of 612.6.

"We're setting small goals and
trying to reach them before we take on the bigger ones," Cooper said.
"We're really focusing on the basics."