Area
competitive cheer teams fired up to take on best in state

Thursday,
March 9, 2006

By Alan
Gerould

[email-masked]
388-8400

The Wolverine Conference will be
well-represented at the competitive cheer state championships Saturday at the
Delta Plex in Grand
Rapids.

Gull Lake and Allegan, which finished first
and second in the Wolverine, will be among the 10 teams vying for the Class B
state title.

Ovid-Elsie, defending champ, was
ousted in its regional final by Chesaning and Remus Chippewa Hills. Those
teams along with Holland Christian will be favored on Saturday.

Gull Lake, coached by Julie Jones, the dean
of area coaches, has as good a shot at the crown as anybody. The Blue Devils,
who finished fifth in last year's state competition, were edged by No. 1-ranked
Chesaning in a meet earlier this year.

Senior captains Molli
Balcom and Emily Gesmundo,
who have been part of the last four regional championship teams at Gull Lake
since making the varsity as freshmen, know this is their last shot at a state
championship.

``I think that we realistically
have a good opportunity to win it (state championship) Saturday,'' said Balcom, who is following in the footsteps of older
sisters Staci and Kelli, both of whom were top performers for the Blue
Devils. ``We haven't had our best performance yet, but if we nail all three
rounds, I like our chances.''

Jones, the only coach Gull Lake
has had since the sport became an official MHSAA-sponsored team competition
in 1994, feels that the top five or six teams will be separated by just a few
points with no team really dominant.

Colon and Gobles will represent this
area in Class C/D, also at the Delta Plex on
Saturday. Colon
is making its third consecutive trip to the state championship since
beginning competitive cheer five years ago.

The Magi won their first regional
title under first-year coach Jayne Sabaitas, who
built a successful programs as the coach at
Plainwell for eight years.

Sabaitas, who was a senior at Plainwell in
1993 when the competition was in its test period before becoming an official
sport, credits her three seniors, Erin Waltke,
Kristen Wirgau and Terri Ackerman, with the current
team's success.

Laurie Ann Harbaugh,
who coached Gobles to the state championships in its first year of competitive
cheer, also credits her seniors, Brittany Duchesneau,
Cortnee Moore and Melinda Poffenberger,
for this year's success.

``Those three have been with me
since freshmen and, as far as I know, they are the only three to ever make a
varsity team as freshmen at Gobles,'' Harbaugh
said.