Team has much
to cheer about

FENTON TOWNSHIP

THE
FENTON PRESS

Sunday,
March 05, 2006

By
Bernie Hillman

[email-masked]
• 810.766.6378

LAKE FENTON
- Back-to-back state cheerleading trophies in 2003 and 2004 have a place of
honor in the showcase at Lake
Fenton High
School. Now the varsity squad aims to add one
more.

After blowing away the competition
at the regionals on Feb. 25 - finishing 93 points
ahead of their nearest challenger - the cheerleaders were shooting for a
third state championship Saturday at the Michigan Cheerleading Coaches
Association contest at Saginaw Valley State University. Results were not
known at press time.

"Our motto this year is
"Live the Legacy," said cheerleading coach Ashlee Latimer, 24, of Linden.

Lake Fenton's cheer legacy goes back years to
exceptional teams, and besides state honors, it's racked up six regional
championships in a row.

"A lot of these girls have
been in cheerleading since fourth or fifth grade." Latimer said.
"By the time they get to varsity, we clean everything up, advance it. We
work on what we call the pretty points - facial expressions, how loud you are, leadership qualities, overall impression - the 'wow
factor.' We want to wow our crowd to be proud of us and what we're
doing." The team is made up of seniors Whitney Peters, Jamie Primel and Heather Rosenbrook;
juniors Amanda Ciosu, Mary Hitt,
Megan MacNeil, Missy Mora, Taylor Nunley, Andrea Packard and Brittany Walker; sophomores Brystol Balasko, Andrea
Beaulieu, Elizabeth Bair and Brooke Hull; and freshman Samantha Worstenholm.

This season has included winning
the Bobcat Cheer Class in Grand Blanc and the Pistons Invitational. They
performed at half-time at a Pistons game in December.

"It was absolutely a blast - a
great experience," Latimer said.

This is Latimer's second year
coaching. She works at Young Life in Grand Blanc, a national Christian
outreach ministry for teens, and teaches dance at a studio in Linden.

It's the girls' dedication and
skills that separate them form other teams, Latimer said.

"We have a lot of tumblers.
Our precision is really good. I have 17 girls on our team, and we try to make
it look ... nice, crisp and clean," she said.

Junior Missy Mora, 17, was voted
most improved team member in her first year on varsity.

"We pushed all the nerves
inside," Missy said. "We went knowing what
we can do, and we know we worked for it, and we had fun."

Missy is a flier, which means she's
the one teammates lift up high on their hands.

Her specialty is for two girls to
hold her one foot while she stands up straight above them.

"My other foot is lifted in
the air, close to (my) head and straight," she said.

Latimer graduated from Lake Fenton
in 2000, after three years on the varsity team. She applied for the coaching
job in 2004 at the urging of former coach Tammy Beck.

Beck and Howard Schrock led cheer
champions for years and still support the team and Latimer. They were named
MCCA Coaches of the Year in 2003.

Missy was excited and a bit nervous
at the prospect of beating regional champ teams from around the state that
her team has not seen perform.

"If we step it up a little
bit, I think we have a wonderful chance," she said. "Yell a lot
louder, push a little harder."