Sports

Cheerleaders finish ninth

Colin
Baumgartner

March 15, 2006 - Rochester came from behind to win their 10th state title, but a seasoned Lake Orion
squad expects to give their rivals a run for their money next year.

A Dragon team with just eight graduating seniors
finished ninth overall with a score of 677.8, just over 30 points back of the
champs, at the state finals on March 11 in Grand Rapids.

"Overall I was pleased," said coach
Nancy DeAvila. "The girls seemed nervous at first, but we performed
well."

"All in all it was a great day for our
program," she added.

The team scored 183, 198.8 and 296 points in the
first, second and third rounds, respectively.

The scores were a bit lower than in recent weeks,
but DeAvila said that is to be expected at the state finals, where the
judging gets considerably tougher.

DeAvila credited her senior leadership for making
the season a successful one, but noted that almost half of the team's 35
members are juniors.

"We're really stacked with a lot of juniors,
so my goal was to get this team to the state finals," she said, noting
the atmosphere of that competition, which includes television cameras, is
quite different from the regular competitions.

"You have no idea what it's like until you
get there and experience it for yourself," she said.

The coach said the team accomplished its goal of
getting to the state finals because of their good training and conditioning
before and during the season.

"It was one of our best seasons,"
DeAvila said. "Our goal was to get better each week of the season."

They certainly accomplished that goal and DeAvila
said the team is already excited about next year.