Cheerleaders receive collegiate opportunities
The Bigfork cheerleading squad has been
steadily building its program and skill level over the past several
years, and at first the proof of that was in their performances,
but now it is evident in the number of seniors who will likely
continue cheerleading or dance after graduation.
After seeing the squad perform at the
Class B state boys basketball tournament in March, the University
of Great Falls invited those squad members who will graduate from
Bigfork in June to attend a tryout with its cheerleading squad.
“Great Falls is really trying to build
its stunt program,” said Heather Epperly, one of the Bigfork
cheerleading squad’s co-coaches. “When they saw a picture of our
squad on our school’s website and saw how many boys we had, they
contacted me and said they were interested in seeing our squad. It
just happened to work out that we were performing at the state
basketball tournament, so they came and watched and liked what they
saw.”
The UGF head cheerleading coach Becky
Acra said she had her scouting person check out Bigfork because of
the boys’ apparent stunting experience as well as the squad’s
reputation.
“The fact that they have guys is kind
of hard to find in state, so any team that has guys is one that we
want to look at,” Acra said. “A team that has boys is always
helpful because if they have that experience and the strength, it
helps at the collegiate level. Also, Bigfork has typically been one
of the stronger teams in the state, so I wanted to see what they
had.”
Last week Colson McCoard, Jerry Rose,
T.J. Johnson, Kris Gimbel and Ariel Stallknecht went to check out
UGF and its cheerleading program.
“A lot of recruits that we look at, in
state and out of state, maybe aren’t quite there yet,” Acra said.
“They may not have the technique. You just don’t want to have to
teach them from the ground up. Others may do things a little bit
differently than the way we do, but you can tell that the
progression is there. Even though they don’t have collegiate
experience, they have the foundation to be able to learn
quickly.”
Following a two-day visit that included
a campus tour, workout and stunting practice, Acra invited the
Bigfork cheerleaders to join the squad with an offer that includes
a scholarship to cover the majority of their tuition.
“All of them showed great potential as
shown by the offer we extended to be a part of UGF athletics and
help build the dynasty of UGF cheerleading,” Acra said.
McCoard has committed to cheer at UGF,
while the others are considering if it is the right fit for them
and weighing other options.
“Cheerleading was kind of new to me
this year, but since they want me to go cheer for them it is pretty
exciting,” McCoard said. “I had no idea that I was even going to be
considering going to college on a cheerleading scholarship. I
always thought that only girls got to go to school on a
cheerleading scholarship.”
McCoard said he knows it will be a
challenge, but it is one he is up for trying.
“I think cheering at a collegiate level
is going to be more fun than anything. I don’t think there is going
to be much of an intimidation factor,” McCoard said. “I think I’m
just going to go through it with a smile on my face having
fun.”
Although cheerleading at Bigfork isn’t
at the same heightened level as a collegiate squad, the past few
seasons have helped prepare the squad members for what lies ahead.
The biggest change that occurred was an increase in the number of
boys on the squad. A few years ago there were one or two boys
consistently on the squad, but this year there were 11 at the start
of the season and eight were still participating in March.
“When you have as many boys as you do
varsity girls it makes you much more versatile and gives the girls
a lot more stunting experience,” Epperly said.
From there it became cyclic. More boys
meant more girls had to stunt, which led to the cheerleaders
pushing themselves for bigger and better stunts.
“The challenge about keeping kids
interested in cheer is that there isn’t the aspect of most sports
that you can say, ‘Yeah we won the game tonight,’” said Kerala
Hubbard, Bigfork cheerleading’s other co-coach. “Instead their
reward is that they are getting better and better. I think in that
way it takes a special kid to be able to be a part of the squad
because they have to be driven by themselves.”
Stunts were taken on as squad members
were introduced to them at camps, found them on the Internet and at
times even made them up on their own, though all of the stunts were
checked to ensure they met all safety regulations.
“It’s amazing the progression,”
Stallknecht said. “You start off doing the little things, and then
you see other things on the Internet or you see other squads doing
things and you try those and you do bigger and bigger stunts. Our
coaches helped us just keep doing bigger and better stunts and we
probably wouldn’t have gotten to where we were if it wasn’t for
them.”
Bigfork’s cheerleading performances
started to catch people’s eyes last year as flyers started going
higher and stunts became more creative, but this year things really
took off from there. There were the usual high-level stunts
including extend-elevators and pendulums, but they added mirrored
stunts, dead drops and other acrobatics that left crowds and squads
from other schools in awe.
“No one compares to us now in the
state,” Epperly said. “They are the exception. We had so many
stunts we couldn’t perform them all in a game. We had to leave kids
out that had the talent to do the stunts because we couldn’t get
them all in.”
That reputation is what is propelling
these seniors into new opportunities.
Stallknecht said she enjoyed her time
at UGF, but is also trying out for the University of Montana
cheerleading squad this weekend.
“You have to do a lot more partner
stunting in college,” Stallknecht said. “I really enjoy partner
stunting so I would like that. But there are other things I have to
work on like my back handspring, so I don’t know if they’ll give me
some leeway on that since I’m going to keep working on it this
summer. I’m just going to go there and give it all I got
basically.”
Stallknecht is not the only one still
auditioning for college squads. Rose and Johnson are sending
audition video tapes to Kansas State University in the upcoming
weeks. KSU puts on an annual camp at Bigfork for the cheerleaders,
so there is already some familiarity there.
“Cheerleading in college seems like a
lot of fun and the college up there (in Great Falls) seems like a
great school,” said Rose, who added that if he receives an offer
from KSU he would likely accept it over UGF. “I think the most
shocking thing for me that I’ll have to get over is that
cheerleading is actually all year long in college.”
Johnson is working on figuring out his
post-high school plan. He will soon apply to police academies
around the state and if he gets into one of those he will opt out
of attending UGF. Otherwise he is leaning toward accepting the
school’s offer.
“With the whole thing of it being
another challenge, it feels like something I really want to do,”
Johnson said. “There is a small part of me that hopes that I get
rejected from the academies and I get to do four years of
college-level cheer. But the other part would like to save
thousands of dollars on college and skip right to the academy.”
Johnson, as well as McCoard, didn’t
start cheerleading until this year so the idea of parlaying their
new found interest into a college scholarship is a bit
surprising.
“Honestly, I was really surprised when
I heard they wanted me to cheer for them because most people get a
scholarship because they’ve been doing a sport for a long time so
this really came as a surprise,” Johnson said.
Gimbel is also trying to decide if UGF
cheerleading is the right fit for him.
“I think it would be really fun, but it
would take a lot of my time,” he said. “Instead of focusing on
academics, I’d be focusing on that.”
At this point, Gimbel is leaning toward
keeping his original plan of working for a year and then attending
Montana State University in the fall of 2012, for which he has
already received his acceptance letter.
Fellow senior and squad member Bailey
Vogt will also be at MSU. She opted out of auditioning for UGF
because she wanted to attend MSU. Vogt attended a clinic at her
future school’s dance team, but decided it wasn’t for her.
“It was not really the style I was
interested in,” Vogt said. “It was more of a lyrical style, which
isn’t really what I enjoy. I prefer more of a pom style.”
Vogt, who was the squad’s dance captain
and often took the lead in choreographing their routines, is not
totally cutting dance out of her life though. In June she is
getting certified to be a Zumba instructor, which is a workout
class that combines Latin and other international music and dance
to create an unconventional fitness routine.
“I really love it. It is so fun and
energetic. Also, I love teaching so I think it will be a good match
for me,” said Vogt, who currently volunteers as a Bigfork LEAP
teacher and intends on majoring in elementary education in
college.
While the squad members are faced with
big decisions about their future, their coaches are simply excited
that they have the options to consider.
“It is exciting to think that
cheerleading can be the driving force behind kids getting an
education,” Epperly said.