BELOIT—Plenty of new faces arrived at the start of the season into a Beloit Turner cheerleading program that suddenly had sky-high expectations after an appearance at the WACPC Cheer State Championships last year.
This edition of the Trojans managed to exceed that lofty goal as the game day squad punched its ticket to the championships while its non-tumble team is returning for a second-straight appearance.
“This year we brought in a bunch of freshmen,” head coach Kayla McLain said. “I would say about half of our team are freshmen at this point. We went from a team of nine to 25. A few years back we created a youth team starting at fifth grade all the way through eighth grade. And that has really helped develop the skills in those athletes.”
Cheerleading is not a sanctioned sport in Wisconsin, so the Trojans compete through the Wisconsin Association of Cheer/Pom Coaches (WACPC), which is endorsed by the WIAA. The championship will be held on Saturday at the Fox Cities Exhibition Center in Appleton.
McLain emphasized the impact that the youth coaches have had on the incoming cheerleaders.
“When they go to try out for varsity, they already have those base skills. A lot of these freshmen were right where I needed them to be to be able to compete on the mat with us.”
In addition to sending an extra group in the game day category, Turner’s increased numbers has it competing in the large division instead of the small, as it did last season.
And while the Trojans are a young team, there are plenty of upperclassmen who are making as big of an impact as ever.
“Our returners have a great work ethic,” McLain said. “They are typically multi-sport athletes, and they work hard whether it’s in the weight room or in the classroom. They have really set the tone to be successful cheerleaders and show the younger girls what it’s all about.”
Bethini Mosher, one of two seniors on the squad, stepped up big to bring a steady presence to the youthful team.
“She is a fantastic leader,” McLain said. “She’s very consistent, and she comes to practice and works very hard. She excels in the academic area, so she’s shining a positive light there. She brings a positive attitude, always making sure that she is giving her stunt group everything that they need. She is a great performer, her flyer is actually her sister, so that’s been a lot of fun.”
Turner’s season starts in May with tryouts and the cheerleaders work through the summer at camps to focus on the basic skills. The fall season consists largely of cheering on the sidelines of football games, which is where the Trojans hone in on their game day routine.
“It focuses a little bit more on basic skills and not as big of stunts, but really more on engaging the crowd,” McLain said. “And so we work on that, then we compete at our conference competition in October.”
Tryouts are held once again in November for their traditional routine that involves bigger stunts, jumps and dances.
“We compete both the game day routine with the 25 girls and the traditional routine with the 15 girls at a competition in December and in January,” the head coach continued. “And then we have the state prelims and finals in February.”
The squads qualified for the state championships out of the preliminary round hosted at Hartford Union High School on Saturday, and the game day squad set the tone with a stellar performance to begin the day.
“A lot of it is engaging the crowd and bringing the energy, and that’s exactly what they did,” McLain said. “They were out there for three minutes and they didn’t stop the whole time. You could feel the energy radiating off of them. They had a lot of fun and were really able to show that to the judges.”
As the awards were called, Turner was the first team announced which was both a pleasant surprise and a sigh of relief for the cheerleaders.
Next up was the non-tumble team, but McLain said that a delay in their warmups caused their routine to be more shaky than usual.
“We didn’t put our best performance out there,” she said. “We still hit a lot of really great skills, but we didn’t do as great as we thought we could. Going into awards, we were pretty nervous where we were going to place for that.
“Some of the scores that go into it are difficulty, execution, appearance, those kinds of things. And so the judges scored us high enough for us to get into finals.”
The Trojans hope to do just fine going up against some larger schools, which they are no stranger to facing, at the championships.
“We go up against a lot of big schools, but that’s not something that they let get in their head,” McLain said. “They really just focus on the skill at hand. When it came down to really getting down to learning new skills and stunts — they fought really hard to learn those.”
Turner’s game day routine, making its first ever state appearance, will perform at 12:25 p.m. on Saturday while the non-tumble division, looking to capitalize on a redemption opportunity from prelims, goes at 4:40 p.m.
“They have a lot to be proud of,” McLain said. “It’s such an honor and privilege to be able to qualify at the top of the state and compete in finals, so I want them to have fun. We have a great chance at placing. If we hit a solid routine we have a solid chance, for sure.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0