Breckenridge,
Chesaning cheering for another state title

Thursday,
March 09, 2006

Deb Gaines says she's not bored at
all.

Winning never gets boring.

Gaines, the Breckenridge
competitive cheer coach, takes the Huskies to the Delta Plex
in Grand Rapids
for the competitive cheer state championships.

It has become old hat for the
Huskies, who have won the last two Class C-D titles and five of the last six.

"It comes down to how much the
girls work," Gaines said. "We work a lot in the off-season. We go
year-round. During the summer, we have workouts once a week. The workouts
aren't mandatory, but the kids are there because they're dedicated."

The biggest obstacle for the
Huskies is Pewamo-Westphalia, but Breckenridge finished ahead of the Pirates
at the Merrill regional tournament. The Huskies are led by senior Jill
Ostrander, who is eyeing her third state title.

"Hudson is also coming on strong,"
Gaines said. "More teams are competing and their programs are
improving."

For now, however, Breckenridge has
everybody else in Class C-D in its rear-view mirror.

It's a little different for
Chesaning. The Indians are also perennial contenders, having won the state
title in Class B in 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2003.

The two-year championship hiatus,
however, is wearing on the Indians, who posted the top score in the Chippewa
Hills regional.

The regional title was significant
because it came over Chippewa Hills, Chesaning's biggest rival.

"Over the years and even this
year, it's been us or Chip Hills," Chesaning coach Lisa Maike said. "We believe we'll have a chance to
reclaim the title, but Chip Hills is going to be right there. During the
season, they beat us at our home meet, so it was especially nice to win the
regional at their place."

Chesaning was the favorite to win
the state title last season, but one of the Indians did a standing back tuck
in the wrong direction.

"It's kind of like a gymnast
falling off the beam," Maike said. "We
were done. It was a mental mistake."

The Indians are led by four
seniors, who have competed all four years at Chesaning. They are Nicole Reiber, Stacey Maslowski, Kacey Lister and Lindsay Aldrich.

Mount
Pleasant also qualified in the regionals
and will compete in Class A. All the finals are at the Delta Plex, with Class A at 10 a.m., Class C-D at 2 p.m. and
Class B at 6 p.m. Admission is $6.