Prepare to be inspired by the world of Competitive Cheer at West Ottawa High School as coach Mindy Vork, and seniors Kirstyn Wilson and Ashlyn Stonick reveal the intense dedication and resilience behind their sport.
Discover how synchronized movements and high-stakes stunts demand not only physical prowess but also mental toughness. Coach Vork provides a compelling perspective on what it takes to lead a team in this demanding sport, while Ashlyn shares her experience of navigating sudden changes and maintaining performance. We also examine the empowering evolution of competitive cheer as a varsity sport in Michigan, celebrating its role in elevating female athletes.
Journey alongside senior cheerleaders Ashlyn and Kirstyn as they recount their early days in ballet and competitive dance, which set the stage for their cheerleading careers. Coach Mindy offers a behind-the-scenes look at her transition from JV to varsity head coach, detailing the increased challenges and high expectations faced when competing against top teams like Jenison, Rockford and East Kentwood. This episode also sheds light on the strategic goals set by the team, emphasizing the necessity of focusing on accomplishments rather than missteps.
Explore the distinction between sideline and competitive cheer and how each aspect prepares athletes for the heightened rigor of competitive events. Uncover the creativity and teamwork that bring Competitive Cheer Routines to life. From crafting innovative cheers to the crucial role of vocal strength in competitions, this episode celebrates the collaborative effort and community support that drive success.
Learn about the Three Rounds of Competitive Cheer Competition, where the action is energized, detailed and performed at incredibly high levels.
Ashlyn and Kirstyn illustrate the whirlwind of quick changes and precision required between rounds, underscoring the trust essential for executing complex routines. As we discuss setting performance goals and the importance of community support, you'll gain insight into the passion, resilience, and unity that define West Ottawa High School's competitive cheer team.
This episode was recorded on February 10, 2025.
Podcasts now dropping at 5pm every Sunday evening for that late weekend chill, or listen Monday AM during that morning commute or workout. Please like, follow, subscribe, or leave a review. Even share with someone who might like to listen. Thanks for taking the time to get to know each other a little bit better. The people who make West Ottawa Athletics what it is. Go WO!
Special thanks to Laura Veldhof Photography.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think, because so many of these girls have done it
for so long, it's become moreof second nature.
And then when we get a newathlete in who might have done
another sport and not understandall the components to it,
that's when you realize oh yeah,this is really hard.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives ofstudent-athletes, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, Bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
(00:46):
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Ever have it where you andsomebody beside you did the same
thing at the same time?
Ever tried doing it on purpose,with 15 other people matching
up athletic movements, vocalsand high-end tumbling and
(01:06):
stunting all at once?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Today we're joined by Panthers competitive cheer
coach, mindy Vork, and seniorsKirsten Wilson and Ashlyn Stonic
.
The ladies join the pod to talkabout their season and lay out
the goals they have as they movetowards the postseason, while
also introducing us to someaspects that make their sport so
challenging while alsointroducing us to some aspects
that make their sport sochallenging.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It takes hours upon hours of practice and, at times,
a lot of guts, to learn tothrow a move that could cause
injury and maybe take out a rowof teeth, Coach Mindy Vork,
seniors Kirsten Wilson andAshlyn Stonic coming up next on
the 29.1 Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That is the sound of competitive cheer, one of the
most highly energized,physically demanding and
challenging sports here at WestOttawa High School.
Teamwork isn't just a part ofthe sport, it's everything.
Syncing up movements,performing stunts in unison,
pulling off high-level tumblingand being able to transition
from one thing to the next inshort order are just some of the
(02:34):
challenges faced in the worldof competitive cheer.
So, hey, everybody, welcomeback to another edition of the
29.1 podcast.
I'm your host, rodney Valinga,and I'm here with Panthers
athletic director, bill Kennedy,and we are super excited to
dive into the details, the teamand get to know and share the
stories of our three guests thatare with us today.
We are so excited that BillKennedy would do a backflip if
(02:57):
he could.
I can't, but that would destroyeverything in front of us and
that would not be a good move.
So it's our pleasure to ask whois it?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Kirsten Wilson Ashlyn .
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Stonic Mindy Vork.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Awesome.
We thank you, ladies, so muchfor coming in.
We know you're kind of fittingthis in before coming out of
this midwinter break.
You're getting ready for apractice later today.
You've got the biggestcompetition of the season upon
us this upcoming weekend withdistricts over at Hudsonville.
So thanks so much for carvingout some time to sit down with
us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You all just took the mat last Wednesday night in
Jenison, Ashlyn.
Are you totally exhausted aftera night like that?
What's that like for you?
Speaker 5 (03:37):
It's really exhausting and after three
rounds it really takes you outand you have to do a lot to
recover with short amounts oftime in between rounds too, it's
not a lot yeah for me, it wasmy first time ever watching, so
you know when you do a podcastlike this, there's some sports I
have not been exposed to.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I was really amazed at the, the energy levels, the
precision, the quick pace.
It's quite an event to be atand watch yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So before coming to west ottawa, all my experience
was in forest hills and for aperiod of time we didn't even
have sideline cheerleaders atforest hill central when I first
started coaching there.
It's kind of crazy.
The competitive cheer programreally was kind of non-existent.
And then coming here and wehost events, we've got our big
invite, we get some okay redcompetitions.
We've hosted a district herebefore.
The one thing I will say aboutcompetitive cheer is I like
(04:28):
hosting it because the girls areso helpful in getting things
set up.
It's uh.
I don't feel like I have toshoulder all of the burden you
guys don't have to be quiet howdo you girls feel about all that
it takes to kind of when wehost events here?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
um, it is a great experience.
I love setting it up, having itbe how we want it and knowing
how to run.
Also being excited to see theother teams come and see our
school.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Coach, what was it like for you last Wednesday
night?
What went well, what didn't goyour way?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Last week, wednesday, was a little rough.
We were missing some key people, and so we had to fill in some
holes last minute.
People were sick and it'salways tricky making sure that
people that are not in the roundare ready to be able to pop in
at a moment's notice, becausethere's so many elements that
come to play.
(05:23):
I really do think that our teamdid the best they could with
the time that we were given tofill those holes.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Absolutely.
What is that like as a studentathlete, ashlyn, as you're
getting prepared for an eventand then, all of a sudden,
someone maybe within your groupthat you're working with every
day is out.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, so I've actually had that happen to me
and you just have to.
You can't freak out, you haveto go with it and that's
something you have to learn veryquickly on a team like this and
like you watch the videos athome and you practice as well as
you can with the people missingthat's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Let me speak to the details of competitive cheer.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah.
So competitive cheer reallyI'll go kind of back to when it
became a varsity sport in thestate of Michigan it was the
early 90s, for Title IX reasonsultimately is where the sport
really gets born out of in thestate, because if you look
around, what offerings are therefor female student athletes in
the winter?
Back then there was one.
(06:26):
In fact it was volleyball backthen because basketball was in
the fall season, it was beforethe season shift.
So that's really wherecompetitive cheer has come from.
Now there's been some otherthings that have been added over
the years.
We've added girls wrestling andthat sort of thing.
But that's really where it camefrom, and West Ottawa was one
of those schools that gotstarted I want to say around 96,
95, 96, and has had somesuccess.
(06:48):
We have two state runner-upbanners hanging in the gym from
the early 2000s, so it'sdefinitely something that has
been here for a long period oftime.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Let's get to know you guys a little bit.
Mindy, you're a first-gradeteacher at North Holland.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yep, this is your second year coaching varsity,
but you've been coaching in thissport for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I started coaching when I was a sophomore
in college.
I took some time off to havesome kids in there, but overall
I've been coaching.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
This will be my 18th year coaching 18th year coaching
and you also did this.
You did competitive cheer atHope back in the day as well,
right, At the collegiate level,it's sideline.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Competitive cheer at Hope back in the day as well,
right At the collegiate level.
It's sideline.
And then you go to a camp overthe summer.
You get a bid for nationals andthat's how you compete at the
national level.
Hope was growing their programwhile I was there and we did get
a bid to nationals my sophomoreyear.
I was studying abroad, however,that year, so I didn't get to
travel with them, but they tookhome a third place at their
(07:45):
first time at nationals.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And you had to leave the sport because of concussions
right.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I did.
Yes, my third concussion wasalso that same year.
So we didn't know a whole lotabout concussions back then and
my doctor had told my parents,just to be safe, she shouldn't
be doing this sport anymore.
But I loved it, so I wasn'tready to give it up completely.
And then I connected with acoach from high school and I
(08:12):
went and coached over at Zealand.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Nice.
Any big injuries for you guysConcussions sort of stuff.
You probably had them.
Go ahead, Ashlyn.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I had two concussions on JV.
I believe they were both myfreshman year, do you?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
remember them.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Kind of.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But I haven't had any concussions since, thankfully.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And that's as a flyer .
Would that be as a?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
flyer.
Yeah, they were really scary.
Other than that, just likesmaller injuries, like I
sprained my ankle.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Right, and that's part of it.
How about yourself, Kirsten?
Speaker 4 (08:47):
I broke my hand during sidelines while tumbling.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Did you really you broke your hand during sideline?
Yes, which you would not expect.
It there probably right.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Yeah, I was at a different gym practicing like my
tumbling and like advance it,but I broke my handumbling and
advance it, but I broke my handby twisting it.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's going to be a tough injury in cheer.
We're sitting in here and youdid the physical movement of
your hand for the break and Icould feel it.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
She also got her front teeth knocked out at camp
summers ago An elbow to themouth, and we had to go to an
emergency dentist get them fixedwell, tell us about that we
were at elma, which is a cheercamp, and we were practicing new
stunts that the coaches hadshown us, and she, my flyer had
(09:41):
their her elbows on our basesknees and then we flipped her up
kind of from like a handstandposition and she came back with
her elbow to my mouth.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So you don't look like you've lost your teeth.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
They saved them.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
They saved them yes they did.
Nice job dentist.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
We went to an emergency dentist and they
numbed me all up and pushed myteeth back forward and then I
wore kind of like braces in myfront teeth for a couple of
weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And then she came back for our final day
performance.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I didn't want to miss it At camp.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You came back for it.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Heart and grit, baby.
Nothing better than that.
Ashlyn, you're a senior.
Yes, you guys are both captains, right?
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
How many captains do you have on the team?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Four.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And who are they?
Speaker 5 (10:30):
We have Kayla Vork and Adley Field.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And the two of you.
So that's a pretty big role tofill.
Huh, coach.
What are the responsibilitiesas captains?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
They lead warm up for the team.
They also are in charge ofplanning team bonding activities
and coming up with ourconnection circle prompts.
That we do every day.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
What's some of your team activities you guys like to
do?
Ashlyn?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
We've done a lot of different things.
I remember last year we did apool party, and then we also
have done we painted pumpkins.
Oh, pumpkins, oh nice and we'velike gone downtown too before
and then we just do like fun,like games, like bonding games
(11:15):
how important is that?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
that team chemistry, kirsten, when you're trying to
to build a, build a team whenwe're building a team, we can't
do anything about our team.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
we we always have to be together, and so we might as
well.
All like each other, andthrough team bonding we're able
to see other people on differentlevels, and see them in school,
out of school and just likethemselves.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, seeing somebody as a human being, other than
the sport that you're in, reallymakes a big difference.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Do you have to when you have your groups coach?
Help me out with terminologyhere.
If I'm working in a group andI'm the base in the group, what
am I calling my group?
Do I call?
Them, my group, your stuntgroup, my stunt group, okay, so
I'm not too far off.
Is it even more important foryou, as you're kind of going
through and you're buildingthese relationships, to build
(12:04):
them within that stunt group?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
yes, 100, yeah yeah, what kind of?
Um, sorry, and there's mostlyfour stunt groups really
interesting.
Uh, for you, ashlyn, you movedfrom a flyer to a base this year
yes, I did and one of thereally interesting things about
that is when you're identifyinggroups you identify the group by
(12:26):
the flyer, kirsten.
She made the move this year.
But that's a little bit of ahit right Kind of on that
athletic ego to kind of movefrom flyer to a different spot.
What's it like for you as ateammate for her to make a move
like that?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It's exciting being in all different types of
positions.
Not one is greater than theother.
It's you as a group who'sworking together and it's
exciting to see her grow, andall the people that are able to
grow with switching spots.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I do think it's really important for girls to
learn more than one positionbecause, especially in high
school, school bodies grow andchange like crazy and if you've
only done one position then itkind of takes you out of
stunting If you can't adapt andlearn another position if one
isn't working for you.
So I was very happy that Ashlynwas willing to take on the role
(13:22):
, learning how to base, and shedid it with grace and
determination to get into therounds.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And then you have to also.
I mean, you've got a group ofgirls who may not be assigned to
a particular stunt group.
Are they working on multiplepositions to be ready to go when
you have somebody sick or aninjury happens?
They have to be kind ofwell-rounded, they do yes,
somebody sick or an injuryhappens.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
they have to be kind of well-rounded they do.
Yes, it's easier to have thegirls on the bottom learn the
different roles main base versusside base versus back spot.
It's a little bit trickier forthat flyer role because it's
different in the technique theyhave to use to control their
body in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Kirsten, for yourself , you have a bit of a background
in gymnastics as a young person, right?
Can you share with us what youdid when you were younger?
Because you even as a freshmanhere you were not in competitive
cheer yet but tell us a littlebit about your gymnastics
background.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I went to Flipside Gymnastics and was there for
about six years.
I was on their team, which iswho competes, so that was
exciting.
I was on XL Gold.
I performed floor which istumbling and jumping beam and
then bars and vaults and it wasvery different coming to cheer,
(14:39):
but I really enjoyed thetumbling of gymnastics and how
strong you had to be.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, and it's something that you can really
bring into the team.
That is a huge asset, whereasAshlyn brought in some dance
performance as a youngster.
Right, ashlyn, tell us aboutyour early life.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yeah, so I did ballet for a long time when I was
little and then I decided to trysomething new and do
competitive dance and I actuallymet some of the girls on our
cheer team now way back then.
But yeah, it definitely helpedprepare me for like, doing the
(15:17):
face and performing and all thelike precise movements and stuff
.
And yeah, then I decided to trycheer in sixth grade and I've
stuck with it ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You two are almost a perfect combination of what's
required, right?
Coach?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
They are.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So, coach, we've got a really big senior class this
year.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We do.
There are 12 seniors on ourteam this year.
All right, so the seniors onour team this year, we have
Abriel Vanderswag, alinaRomero-Ortiz, ashlyn Stonic,
who's with us, brie Evans,ayanna Malgoza, kayla
(15:53):
Fredrickson, juliana Zivel,kiana Winfrey, kirsten Wilson,
who's also with us, mayaLoveless and Stephanie Garcia
and Tiaja Shakir that is a heckof a senior night right there it
is.
And it's been so fun because alot of these girls I've coached
for four years.
(16:13):
I coached them two years on JVand two years on varsity, so
they've been kind of rightalongside of me through this
journey yeah, you get to knoweach other really well.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Lots of time spent together, of course, with
practice and all.
So they've been kind of rightalongside of me through this
journey.
Yeah, you get to know eachother really well.
Lots of time spent together, ofcourse, with practice and all
that.
You really get to know peopleas you do these things.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Obviously, Mindy, I've known you since I've been
here at West Ottawa.
You've been a coach on ourstaff, but you made the
transition from JV to varsityhead coach a couple of years ago
.
What was?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
that transition like and how's that experience been
go?
What was that transition likeand how's that experience been?
So varsity is something thatI've been working towards and
have wanted, but it has been achallenge.
The ability difference, theexpectations between JV and D1
varsity are huge and I have hadconversations with past varsity
coaches and it's the samestruggle that they've all faced.
(17:03):
And I have had conversationswith past varsity coaches and
it's the same struggle thatthey've all faced.
And I think like the hardestthing for me was I had a very
successful JV team.
We won a lot or placed in thetop two and then moving up to
varsity, where we have some ofthe top teams in the state in
our conference, has been reallychallenging to figure out how to
(17:25):
go to compete with them.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, the pressure must be really really high,
right?
Because if you're at that meetat Jenison and I don't know
teams very well, but you haveJenison, you have Rockford, you
have EK First round, you guysare pretty much right there with
them for the most part, right,maybe 10, 12 point difference.
But then you get these nextlevels and it's like I don't
even know what to say, like it'sjust robotic.
Everyone's in sync, every youknow.
(17:50):
Arm angles are all super tight.
Do you feel like the pressureto compete at that level?
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Ashlyn, what's it like for you guys?
Yeah, we definitely watch theother teams a lot and we strive
to be like them, but we worktowards it and practice every
day and, yeah, we've broken someof our goals.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Exactly.
You have to set many goals foryourself.
What are some you might haveput out there as a team, Kirsten
?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
One of our goals was to break 700, which we recently
did as our final score, and thenanother goal that we are very
close to is breaking 200 in ourround two.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think we got 299.
299.76.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
So we definitely strive to pass that goal.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Was that a toe misplaced at that point?
No that was 199.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I misspoke 199.76.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh my gosh, that's so close.
How did you guys feel afterthat?
That was me.
That was me.
I did something wrong.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
It's definitely exciting.
I feel like after the fact wetry not to go into what we did
wrong but say, oh, we did thisreally good.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And we may have done this wrong or like done it not
as best as we could, but we havepractice and we have time to
fix it for our next comp and tomake ourselves better and to
work harder for that goal.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Makes sense.
That makes sense.
How many athletes on the teamright now on competitive cheer?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
We have 24.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
24.
So, and we're going to get intothe rounds of who's competing,
because I believe it's 16, 12and then 16 again and the three
different rounds.
Let's talk about the differencereal quick between sideline
cheer and competitive cheer.
One of the things as a personthat has not been into it is
where the public sees you, right, so public sees you at football
games, ashlyn, but that's atotally different element than
(19:39):
competitive cheer.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Right, maybe speakeline cheer, how you guys
view that, that type of thingyeah, so I feel like a lot of
people view us especially forsideline, like like peppy girls
that are just cheering on boysthat's not like you don't want
that, do you no?
So that's like the negativestereotypes that we get, and a
(20:01):
lot of that comes from, like themovies and shows too, but it's
just.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You have to deal with that kind of on the regular
basis, right?
Speaker 5 (20:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I must get old.
It does yes, it's got to getold.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yes, it does.
I feel like Sideline for us isalso practicing what we want to
do for competitive and showingpeople before we perform it on a
mat.
So it's getting us.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's almost like a pre-season for competitive are
you able to shed that, thatfeeling, because you almost feel
like second class athletes attimes is?
Would that be something likethat coach?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
one of the things I've been pushing for this past
season, especially in sideline,was more chant enhancements,
where they're still cheeringwords but they're doing stunts
with it, Because I think that ifthe crowd sees they're stunting
or they're tumbling, that'sgoing to show their athleticism
more than just standing on thesidelines and chanting.
(21:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
It does.
It does wow you when you dothose amazing things, because
the weird part for this is, likewhen you have to deal with that
on the regular, but your sportis so incredibly athletic like
it's really athletic and whenyou don't know anything about
something, you have amisconception.
I went from being someone thatnever watched it to going to see
it.
I'm like okay.
Conception.
I went from being someone thatnever watched it to going to see
(21:23):
it.
I'm like okay, all right,there's a lot they have to do.
I think the odd part is isthere's so much else you have to
do, right, like you have to thephysical presentation of
yourself as a person as far ashair, makeup, bows and hair.
For the most part, like it'sjust this different element that
you do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
but that's, that's part of the judging too, ashlyn
different element that you do,but that's part of the judging
too, ashlyn.
Yeah, so much as far as werequire them to wear red
lipstick, because that redlipstick pops to the judges.
It accentuates their facialexpressions.
Same thing with mascara there'sdifferent makeup that I ask of
them to wear so that theirfeatures are showcased.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, and it's not something you have on right now.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I mean that's definitely performance.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It's performance, art is part of it.
But you know you have thecomponents of cheer.
You got your motions and claps,jumps, splits and flexibility,
tumbling and stunting.
I don't know if there's a moredifficult sport than what you
guys are doing.
It's really difficult to pullthis stuff off.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, and you girls have become very familiar with
the spot upstairs with Frank anddoing some of that strength
training.
We always like to ask ourathletes what have you seen as
far as those benefits thatyou're getting out of those
sessions with Frank?
Kirsten, maybe you can speak tothat first out of those
sessions with Frank Kirsten.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Maybe you can speak to that first.
He definitely focuses on likeexplosion for our jumps and for
our tumbling and just likeexerting a bunch of our energy
so we can be ready even whenwe're tired.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, it's been really helpful for me,
especially switching from aflyer to a base.
I have to strengthen musclesthat I never really used before,
so Frank has really helped mewith that.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Let's go to those different positions, because
someone who's listening doesn'tknow what they are.
Maybe, uh, ashton, you want tostart with uh, just pick one of
them.
Maybe flyer Cause you did thatfor a long time.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah, so flyer is the one in the air, the one that
goes all the way up and we doall these cool things like lives
and flips and stuff in the airand they're kind of known for
being like the star of the show,but there's so much that goes
underneath them to make ithappen and I didn't even realize
(23:39):
how much goes into itunderneath until I became a base
.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Are these girls typically like smaller in
stature, so that it's easier tomake them fly in the air and
flip around?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, so the thing about that is you as a coach.
I have to consider their centerof gravity, so shorter girls
have more control over theircenter of gravity than taller
girls.
But if I put a taller flyer inthe air, your daughter, for
example.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
She is a taller flyer in the air.
Your daughter, for example.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
She is a taller flyer .
I need to have taller basesunder her to compensate for that
.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That's really cool.
And, kirsten, you're a backspot, correct?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Talk to us about that .
Speaker 4 (24:14):
The backspot stabilizes the group.
We're on ankles, which wedefinitely don't seem like we
lift a lot, but we stabilize theflyer and always make sure
she's safe.
If she's falling we catch herand there's no excuse for her to
fall on the floor.
We definitely support the groupand help the bases out.
We pull the ankles together soour flyer looks nice and pretty
(24:36):
in the air.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
A lot of detail with this stuff for the backspots to
a lot of people don't realize isthey have to have strong
shoulders because theirshoulders are always engaged,
especially when they're holdingsomething at an extended level.
They're pushing up throughthose shoulders to keep
everything safe and sturdy.
I say the backspot is thebackbone of the stunt.
They're controlling everythingand making sure it's strong.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
We also count the stunts.
So when we put our flyer in theair we're like supposed to
count.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Sometimes the whole group counts, but a lot of the
time it's just the back spot.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
We do everything to eight counts, tell us what we
don't know, because there's somethings I just I don't know.
So go ahead, Go detail.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We do everything to eight counts and we have a
specific number that we go up on.
Usually it's one, sometimes itcan be three, sometimes it can
be five, it's all over the place, but it just ensures that we're
on time with everything and ourwhole group is working together
to put our flyer up and ifwe're not all pushing up at the
(25:40):
same time, it goes on level andit's on balanced.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
So so everybody knowing what they have to do on
their certain counts is reallyimportant to making sure that a
stunt hits properly.
When one person is off, it'snot going to hit clean or strong
.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
No, and let's go.
Let's go through the rounds,because you kind of it's a
progressive.
You know, moving from round oneto two to three, it gets harder
as you go.
Right, fair enough, let's walkthrough a typical competition
day.
Let's talk about round one.
I'm going to always go back toJenison as my reference, but it
doesn't have to be yours.
The entrance first of all isit's high energy.
(26:17):
You come in, there's a lot ofthat going on, everything kind
of settles down.
You guys get out there, get allset.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Ashlyn explain what's happening in round one.
So the main thing about roundone is jumps, but we also do
formability and obviouslythere's voice.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Did you just say formability?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
What did you just say , florability?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I was like formability.
Okay, did you just sayFlorability?
I was like formability.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Okay, that's a new one All right.
Florability.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
How you move, like making different formations, yes
and then.
So how long is round one A?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
minute and a half.
A minute and a half is the maxthat it can be.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yes, so yeah, we say our words and we do our counts
to our jumps and coach has us doall these like cool little
spins and kicks and stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
All synchronized.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Tight.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
What's some challenging things in round one.
Kirsten as a team.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
In round one.
It's challenging becauseeverybody can be doing something
different.
Um, round one is a lot of likesqueezing and making sure you're
doing what you're supposed tobe doing on your time.
So it can be you and like, foran example, five other people
are doing the same thing.
You need them to be doing it atthe same time, in the same way,
(27:39):
to like the angle of their armsto the angle of their feet, so
then it doesn't look off timingwith the people behind them or
beside them.
Um, ensuring that the pictureis just there and it looks
pretty.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
But do you guys ever like just go?
How in the world are we pullingthis off like it's?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
it's so hard coach it's, I think, because so many
of these girls have done it forso long, it's become more of
second nature.
And then when we get a newathlete in who might have done
another sport and not understandall the components to it,
that's when you realize oh yeah,this is really hard.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, I mean how many ?
If you're just a guess, howmany hours of training have you
put into round one this season?
Ballpark figure?
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Oh well, at practice we usually spend like an hour.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
For sure at the beginning of the season.
It's an hour of our practicetime because the choreography is
so complex.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I have to teach this group their part and this group
their part, and then we have toput it together and see if it
looks good.
And if it doesn't look goodtogether, then we have to tweak
it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Who does the choreography?
Do you do it mostly?
Do you have input from theathletes?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's a year-by-year thing.
This year I had a pretty goodidea of what I wanted it to look
like, and then we brought insome other people.
We went to a clinic and gotsome feedback from one of the
coaches there and she ended upchoreographing a little part of
it.
We brought in a specialist aperformance specialist and then
she ended up giving somefeedback and we made some tweaks
(29:20):
with her feedback.
So it's been definitely acollaborative experience.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It's got to be fun to learn something new or have a
new routine.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Yeah it is it is.
I love learning new routinesand adding new parts to our old
routines, too that we've beendoing for so long.
It's cool to add new twists andstuff.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Russians it up a little bit oh, absolutely, you
gotta have to have that.
Are you gonna say you can't?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
you couldn't say hey, I really loved our round one
from 2022.
We're gonna roll back out withthat same one again, or is that
kind of frowned upon?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
um, honestly, it depends.
If anybody would remember, I'vetaken parts from old rounds.
Well, even this year there wassomething we did last year and
people really liked it, so Ibrought it back this year and
it's two different words and ata different point, but it's like
a repeat of the same motionsand movements with the team.
(30:20):
So it's fun for the girls, it'slike a little callback for them
yeah I noticed round one two isit feels like it's the loudest
vocals round one is ourstrongest with vocals and I
think it's because round twowe're doing tumbling and jumps
and yelling words at the sametime.
In round three we're stuntingand yelling words, but round one
(30:40):
we're just doing a lot ofmotions and floor movements.
And it's at the beginning, sotheir energy is still really
high, that's true.
And it is definitely wherewe're scoring the highest on our
vocals.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Kirsten, who gets to write these cheers.
Do you guys have any input onthat?
It's kind of fun to listen tothem, to be honest.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
To write them the words.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, the words, the rhymes, you guys in on that, or
not?
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Not really.
No, Coach Work does a lot of it.
She definitely has input andwill ask us about what we think
and if it flows and will ask usfor suggestions.
But she definitely makes up alot of it and spends her time
going through what she thinkswould sound good and sounds good
.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Do you have to like kind of follow rules on that, or
can you be creative in thatspace For the words?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
There's not really any rules on words.
We just it can't be likenegative or demeaning towards
anything?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
No, but you can have fun with it you know yeah.
I would.
I would try and have fun withit.
To be honest, it's kind of afun, creative space.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
We are hearing teams becoming more and more creative
with their words.
For example, this yearGranville says dogs got to eat.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Okay, a couple times.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So that was creative and out of the box thinking.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I remember back to my first year as AD here and we're
getting ready for our inviteand Kelly Polinski, who was a
coach here for years and she waskind of helping run the meet,
and she comes up to me and shegoes.
I need you to announce today.
And so I got like thrown in thefirst cheer event I have ever
been to and I was the leadannouncer.
(32:22):
But I remember round one justbeing blown away with how loud
it was from the girls on themats.
It definitely changes as theday goes on.
Round three you don't reallyhear much but they're up in the
air and stunting all over theplace and that's the one that
freaks me out as an AD now,because the tumbles are from way
(32:43):
up high.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
One other cool part I thought about round one.
Let's see what you guys thinkabout this.
Some schools start getting theparent section involved.
Kirsten, is that always beenaround?
Is that a new thing?
What's that like?
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I believe it's always been around.
It's definitely exciting.
It makes a little break for uswhile they're yelling the words
and it's just exciting to see wehave somebody cheering for us.
We have parents cheering for us.
We have friends and family thatare like willing to come and
watch our long, our long meets.
But it's definitely excitinghaving them be there for us and
(33:18):
just knowing a part of ourroutine.
I feel like I feel like if Iwere to ask some of the people
up there, they would be able tolike do it with us like our
actual routine.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Oh, no kidding, I love it.
Yeah, that's really sweet.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And there is a component to training the
parents to make sure that theydo cheer with us.
We always have a showcase atthe beginning of before we do
our first competition.
When we invite the parents in,we go through the different
round elements and then, if wedo have a callback section of
our chair, we tell them wherethat is and then we teach them
how to call back with us so thatthey're involved.
(33:52):
It's something that was morepopular on the east side but has
become popular on the west sideof the state now.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
It's a pretty fun element, at least looking at it
from the outside.
Round one ends.
You're busy, Ashlyn.
What's going on between rounds?
Because it's got to be hectic.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
So we quickly go to the locker room and change our
uniforms to the round two andsometimes, depending on our
order, we might be able to get aquick bite to eat.
So we stay energized.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
But usually then we have to go right back to the
practice room and get working onround two does it go by like
really fast, like does it feellike a whirlwind, like it's just
pedals down, we're going quickyes, most of the time yeah, I
can imagine that now you guyscome out.
Uh, round two has 12 instead of16.
Kirsten, explain the differenceum.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Round two.
Everybody is doing the exactsame thing throughout the whole
entire routine, to the timing onour jumps, to the timing on our
skills.
Everything has to be togetheror it starts being deductions.
Round two is very precise onwhere, like our arms are.
If somebody's arm is angled alittle bit differently, like
we're going to get a point off,and everybody has to be yelling
(35:05):
the words and giving the sameamount of like.
How they move their head has tobe the same.
So it's definitely down to yeah, it's definitely down to T, but
it's exciting it's a little bitquieter because there are only
12 instead of 16.
We're doing skills as well,like we're doing tumbling and
(35:25):
jumps, but it's definitelyexciting to see everybody doing
the same thing and to see howwell we can do that.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, it's pretty cool to watch.
It's a it's there's less people, but there's more demanding on
you.
This is where your gymnasticsbackground starts to come into
play, right.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yes, yeah, with the tumbling we do, fat can springs,
which is exciting.
It's definitely for the firsttime, doing it with somebody
right in front of you and rightbehind you, a mat length away,
is definitely scary, but thatgoes into doing it at the same
time and having our form be thesame, but it's definitely
(36:05):
exciting.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
If they don't go at the same time, they hit each
other, yes.
So that's where that precisionis important, and they always
get nervous the first coupletimes doing it, if they're new
in that round and they freak outand they think they're going to
hit somebody.
But then if they go on time ontheir right counts, nobody hits
and it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You have to really start trusting the people around
you.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah, Kind of goes back to all of those team
bonding activities and reallygetting to know everybody that's
on your team and building thattrust, Even when you're playing
games and that sort of thing.
You're starting to developthose habits.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
What does it take to score well in this round ashland
?
So, like they were saying, likeprecision is the biggest thing,
like we all have to look thesame, and that definitely takes
a lot of practice and yeah, andthen the tumbling and jumps, and
then flexibility, so that canbe splits.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
And there's different level of difficulty.
Right Coach.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
There is, yeah.
So each skill has a difficultyfactor put towards it and a lot
of the things that we do are adifficulty multiplier of one.
But if you can get those higherlevel skills back walkover,
back handspring, back tuck,those have higher difficulty
multipliers.
So if you got a 10 on a backhandspring you would get 12
(37:31):
points for the skill what's someof your top moves in round two?
Backhand springs right now areour top.
We've been working really hardon back tucks, the snow days
really.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I saw that on Instagram right.
Was that that Instagram reel?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah, the snow days really affected that progression
that we had, because we dobring in a private tumbling
coach and every snow day we hadthis year was on our tumbling
day, so we've missed so manytumbling days because, of the
snow.
But the girls do put in a lotof time.
I give them time at practice.
I've been doing a ton ofspotting and we're so close.
(38:09):
We'll see if we get them bydistricts.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That's the goal it's just so many people to be able
to execute a move at a highlevel you have to have 12 people
landing them.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
So if we we can't have 12 people landing them, I
don't want to put eight peoplethat can land them and then four
people that fall on their face.
That's not safe and it's notgoing to get us the points we
want.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
What is it, what's it like to try and bring people
along?
I'm sure for you, kirsten,that's something that, based on
your background, probably comesnaturally to you.
Fair enough or no?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Gymnastics is really almost different than cheer.
It's you put yourself out thereand you don't rely on anybody
else.
When you're training, yes, butwhen you're on the, on the floor
, on whatever event you're on,it's just how you do as an
individual.
But stepping onto a team likethis, you have to be doing well
(39:04):
and you have to make sure theperson next to you is also doing
well.
So it's checking in on them andchecking yourself.
It's definitely morecollaborative than how you just
do individually, because you cando it good individually, but if
you're the only one doing good,then it doesn't help.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
The ability to get better.
Like is it a long road to geteverybody to pull this move off?
How long does it take?
It must be pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
It's more about the mindset, because if the athlete
believes or really wants theskill, they're going to put the
work into it.
As soon as they start to feeldefeated or any self-doubt, they
put less work into the skilland then the execution of it
takes longer.
We have girls that have beenworking on back tucks for two
(39:50):
years now who will throw themsometimes, but not all the times
, because then they get nervousand they start overthinking
things.
So it's definitely for me as acoach more about helping them
believe that they can do a skillin order for them to start
executing it.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, that's got to be really hard, because I mean,
you're putting your body at riskas well.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Yeah, and then if you get hurt, that can create a big
mental block for you and itgets really scary.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And that happens in practice.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yes, we had a girl dislocate her elbow when she was
working on her back handspringand she had just gotten to the
point where she was feelingconfident to throw it on her own
and then she dislocated herelbow and we have not been able
to get her over that mentalblock all season.
Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's very understandable.
It's, I mean, I, I.
The challenges that you'refacing, just as a group are.
There's just so many from allthese different aspects, right,
the mental side, the physicalside, being able to do it in
unison.
And then round three comes.
We're good, old fashioned roundthree comes.
We're good, old-fashioned roundthree.
Round three comes out.
(40:59):
You guys had an incrediblyshort transition from round two
to round three at Jenison.
So I'm watching and I'm like,okay, let's see where they are.
All right.
So they're near the end ofround two and I looked at round
three.
I'm like, no way, how close isthat, Kirsten?
Is that about as close asyou've seen it?
Speaker 4 (41:21):
It was definitely close because we have to get off
of the mat and change and thenhave all of our round three
people in the mat room gettingwarmed up, warming up their
tumbling, warming up stunts, andit's just, it takes so much
time to change and get overthere that it's almost difficult
to start right away and westill have to rewarm up our
bodies.
It's almost difficult to likestart right away and we still
have to like rewarm up ourbodies and it's definitely like,
especially with such a shorttransition, it's hard to not
(41:44):
feel frantic and to not getahead of yourself and just to
feel really nervous.
Um, a lot of people get nervousbefore round or like after or
before round two.
Sorry um for for after forround three, but it definitely
is all mental because we know wecan do it in that short of a
time.
It's just we get all frantic.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Do you have any techniques to stay calm under
pressure?
Ashlyn, Is there anything youdo on purpose?
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Well, one thing that we do is that we visualize the
rounds before we go out there.
So we all get in a circle andwe close our eyes and we whisper
the words and the counts and wevisualize what we're gonna do
on the mat to help it runsmoothly I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, and that's a really kind of close moment as a
group right and everyone's kindof dialed in finding their
space.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Coach, do you share with your athletes the round
orders ahead of time so theyhave kind of an idea of where
they're going to be each round?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yes, I do share the round order and this Jenison one
was the first time this seasonthat we had such a short
turnover and it was verystressful for us.
We actually didn't get to fullywarm up our round three before
we had to go out on the mat.
So that was a little nervewracking, especially because we
had new people in spots that hadnever done the round before.
(43:09):
But I told them that that was agood practice for districts,
because we're going to haveanother short turnover between
round two and round three atdistricts.
So that was our little practicewith that transition.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Is round three one of the more creative rounds for
you as a team coach?
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, I love choreographing round three just
because you can do so manydifferent things with the stunts
to make the picture look funand creative.
But it is also challenging ifyou can't hit those elite level
stunts that you want to hit andthen you have to alter your
vision and change the level ofthe stunts.
(43:51):
But it's a lot of fun becauseyou have the stunting and you
have the tumbling aspect thatyou can tie in.
And then I get to showcase mydifferent abilities on my team.
So if I have girls that can dotucks but we don't have 12 tucks
, they get to do them in roundthree.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yes, it's a very creative round.
You're in your stunt groups.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
You're kind of moving all over the place too right,
kristen it's sometimes hard toget to our spots like cleanly,
but it is definitely exciting tobe moving all over the mat and
to get to showcase what we cando and what we can do.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Well, I always like round three.
I always will glance over atthe athletic trainers, and
they're the ones that are themost nervous about round three.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Do you guys do as seniors?
Are you in all three rounds, doyou are?
Speaker 5 (44:45):
you in a couple rounds.
What's it like for you guys?
Um, so I am in round one andI'm I've been in and out of
round three yeah um, yeah, I'mnot in round two, but yeah, and
that's part of being on a team,right?
Speaker 2 (44:57):
you?
You take your skills and applythem to a different spot where
your strengths are that sort ofthing, yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
And then I'm in all three.
You're in all three.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
So that's very demanding as well being in all
three.
Yes, that's not easy to pulloff.
No, it's definitely exhausting,but everybody else on the team,
regardless of whether they'rein the rounds or not, is also
(45:27):
working and cheering us on.
So it's rewarding to get tohear them cheering us on.
Ashlyn, as a captain, you're inround one and then sometimes
around three, but you still havea big role in round two and
three.
So you're a senior, you know yousee this stuff.
Now, what are you busy doing tomake an impact on your team in
round two, for an example?
Speaker 5 (45:42):
So a big thing to do is cheering them on, and when
they're performing, I go crazy.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 5 (45:50):
Yeah, I don't care if no one else is cheering.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Do you carry a cowbell with you?
No, just kidding.
I am not allowed to.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
But some of the parents do yeah, they do yeah,
um, but yeah, especially whenthey're going for those big
skills, it's important to cheerthem on and let them know that
they can do it.
And it's also when you're onthe mat everything feels really
quiet and you feel like isolated.
So it's important to like beable to hear the crowd and know
(46:18):
that someone is out therecheering for you.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
How does that make a difference for you?
What's what does that do foryou as an athlete?
Speaker 5 (46:25):
So, like when I am in round one, if I were to mess up
, I can start getting in my headand like start worrying and
then start making more mistakes.
But if someone is out therecheering for me and tells me to
keep going and stuff, then thatcan help me get over that and
keep going to do what I need todo for my team.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So you, you feel that and you give that to others.
Speaker 5 (46:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I got you.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
And this kind of segues perfectly.
Thanks for setting this up forme.
So we talked a little bit aboutthis as we were getting set up
today, one thing that stands outto me always in cheer is that
you go out for round one, two orthree and inevitably there's a
mistake made Right, and I wouldliken that to missing a shot in
basketball.
Except it is very different inthe world of cheer, because
(47:14):
there's not like anotherpossession, because there's not
like another possession.
It's the round that you're inand you've got, let's say, you
make this mistake 20 secondsinto a minute and a half.
You've got to kind of get overit.
What are some things, ashlyn,that you do kind of in your head
to get yourself over it?
Or is it just kind of focusingin on that crowd that you were
(47:35):
just talking about?
Speaker 5 (47:36):
Yeah, so I usually just when you make mistakes in
practice.
It's like you make mistakes inpractice and we work through
those to get over the mistakesso you learn how to work around
(47:58):
it.
You work on keep going, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
As seniors, when you guys you know we're kind of
getting near the end of thepodcast here, but like I must
imagine being involved in thissport, the life lessons here I
mean you face adversity, youface failure, you face new
challenges on the regular as asenior.
How has this impacted your life, kirsten?
Speaker 4 (48:24):
It definitely shows like if one thing goes wrong,
there's a million other ways toget over it.
It's taught so much aboutleadership, not even through
being a captain, but just likethrough being on a team that
relies on everybody.
It shows you that you can relyon other people and other people
can rely on you.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I know all these sports do a lot, but I I'm
actually kind of blown away bythe volume of things that you
have to deal with on a regularbasis to perform.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's, it's, so it's very overwhelming.
To be honest, coach, you'relaughing.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Yeah, practice is never long enough no, because we
we have to practice all threerounds but we also have to
practice the skills for therounds.
But then we also will facechallenges within the team that
we have to spend time workingthrough, because if we're not
united as a team it causesproblems in our competition, in
(49:20):
our performance.
So, making sure that we havethat time to build together as a
team and learn how to handleconflicts when they come our way
and learn how to just worktogether and that's most
athletic teams.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Most athletic teams deal with some version of that
right and whenever it's,whenever it's really good, makes
everything else easy.
When it's not as tight, it'stougher.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah so we're gonna, we're gonna hope for no snow,
right so?
Speaker 1 (49:50):
we can?
Speaker 3 (49:50):
we can get through this week of practice because
we've got a big meet on saturdaywe do over at hudsonville
districts.
This is our kind of entry intothe post season and we'll see
where things go on Saturday.
I'm excited to get back overthere for what is always a fun
meet.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
We'll just do one more thing here.
We'll try and work this in.
A lot of this is starting to doit.
When you're young.
You guys have a fairly healthyyouth program right now.
Coach, can you speak to a fewof those things?
There's the township rocket.
You got the fourth, fifth andsixth graders all active.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Yeah.
So when I took over thisprogram one of the things the
deficits I saw was not growingthat younger generation and
getting them excited for cheer.
So I had been working closelywith the township to build up
that hype for our youth cheerand my varsity girls are
actually the coaches for them.
So that's like a bigundertaking.
(50:45):
During our sideline season Itrain them how to coach and
handle children because that'slike a big task in itself of a
high school student.
But the biggest thing isbuilding those relationships
with those little girls andgetting them excited.
They come and sit and watchthem at football games and then
(51:08):
just keeping that connectionwith the families.
I've been letting them knowwhen our competitions are.
We had a huge group ofelementary girls at our home
competition cheering these girlson um.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
They've become role models how great was it, is it
for you two to be involved inthat.
When she mentioned that, youguys pretty much smiled ear to
ear yeah, I love the rocketgirls so much.
Speaker 5 (51:32):
I love being like a role model for them and showing
them what cheer is about.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
What's it like for you?
Speaker 4 (51:38):
It is definitely so exciting to see them at like the
practices, when we coach them,and just to see how happy they
can be and when we see them andacknowledge them and remember
their names.
It's just so excited to seethem light up and just to light
up about like the talk aboutcheer and just being excited to
(51:58):
go and being excited forsomething and just like the
expedition team when we watchedthem.
It was so exciting to see themand it was like we felt so proud
of them, about, like whatthey've accomplished and how
they've gotten over things.
Like when we coached them theywere not that far then.
To just see them and to seethem run off the mat after their
(52:20):
round is like they're allhugging each other and they're
all excited and it's we're allso proud all right, what do you
guys hope to do at districts?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
just have a nice performance, get 200 yeah, we
have our, our goals for eachround.
We want to be in the mid 220sfor round one, we need to cross
that 200 threshold in round two,and then high 200s for round
three so we can get an overallscore above 700.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
It's so important to do.
Those mini goals are everythingthey really are, and then you
feel like you've accomplishedsomething, you're moving forward
.
It's good to do.
You guys probably got to get topractice.
This has been really nice tospend time with you.
I think it's great for thecommunity to hear about the
really incredible things thatyou're doing.
Just remember everybody, we areWest Ottawa, we are a community
(53:06):
, we are each other, and youknow, listening to you guys talk
about your sport, it justencourages us as well.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Thanks so much again for taking some time to come in
and sit down with us.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Thanks.
I think, because so many of these girls have done it
for so long, it's become moreof second nature.
And then when we get a newathlete in who might have done
another sport and not understandall the components to it,
that's when you realize oh yeah,this is really hard.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Hey everybody, this is Rodney Valinga with the West
Ottawa High School AthleticProgram and you're listening to
the 29.1 Podcast 29 sports, oneteam, the show that brings you
into the lives ofstudent-athletes, coaches and
other faces in the Panthersports community, Bringing you
the stories you might otherwisenever hear.
Join myself and AthleticDirector Bill Kennedy as we dive
(00:46):
in with you to get to know eachother a little bit better.
Ever have it where you andsomebody beside you did the same
thing at the same time?
Ever tried doing it on purpose,with 15 other people matching
up athletic movements, vocalsand high-end tumbling and
(01:06):
stunting all at once?
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Today we're joined by Panthers competitive cheer
coach, mindy Vork, and seniorsKirsten Wilson and Ashlyn Stonic
.
The ladies join the pod to talkabout their season and lay out
the goals they have as they movetowards the postseason, while
also introducing us to someaspects that make their sport so
challenging while alsointroducing us to some aspects
that make their sport sochallenging.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It takes hours upon hours of practice and, at times,
a lot of guts, to learn tothrow a move that could cause
injury and maybe take out a rowof teeth, Coach Mindy Vork,
seniors Kirsten Wilson andAshlyn Stonic coming up next on
the 29.1 Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Let's get it.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That is the sound of competitive cheer, one of the
most highly energized,physically demanding and
challenging sports here at WestOttawa High School.
Teamwork isn't just a part ofthe sport, it's everything.
Syncing up movements,performing stunts in unison,
pulling off high-level tumblingand being able to transition
from one thing to the next inshort order are just some of the
(02:34):
challenges faced in the worldof competitive cheer.
So, hey, everybody, welcomeback to another edition of the
29.1 podcast.
I'm your host, rodney Valinga,and I'm here with Panthers
athletic director, bill Kennedy,and we are super excited to
dive into the details, the teamand get to know and share the
stories of our three guests thatare with us today.
We are so excited that BillKennedy would do a backflip if
(02:57):
he could.
I can't, but that would destroyeverything in front of us and
that would not be a good move.
So it's our pleasure to ask whois it?
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Kirsten Wilson Ashlyn .
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Stonic Mindy Vork.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Awesome.
We thank you, ladies, so muchfor coming in.
We know you're kind of fittingthis in before coming out of
this midwinter break.
You're getting ready for apractice later today.
You've got the biggestcompetition of the season upon
us this upcoming weekend withdistricts over at Hudsonville.
So thanks so much for carvingout some time to sit down with
us.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You all just took the mat last Wednesday night in
Jenison, Ashlyn.
Are you totally exhausted aftera night like that?
What's that like for you?
Speaker 5 (03:37):
It's really exhausting and after three
rounds it really takes you outand you have to do a lot to
recover with short amounts oftime in between rounds too, it's
not a lot yeah for me, it wasmy first time ever watching, so
you know when you do a podcastlike this, there's some sports I
have not been exposed to.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I was really amazed at the, the energy levels, the
precision, the quick pace.
It's quite an event to be atand watch yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So before coming to west ottawa, all my experience
was in forest hills and for aperiod of time we didn't even
have sideline cheerleaders atforest hill central when I first
started coaching there.
It's kind of crazy.
The competitive cheer programreally was kind of non-existent.
And then coming here and wehost events, we've got our big
invite, we get some okay redcompetitions.
We've hosted a district herebefore.
The one thing I will say aboutcompetitive cheer is I like
(04:28):
hosting it because the girls areso helpful in getting things
set up.
It's uh.
I don't feel like I have toshoulder all of the burden you
guys don't have to be quiet howdo you girls feel about all that
it takes to kind of when wehost events here?
Speaker 4 (04:44):
um, it is a great experience.
I love setting it up, having itbe how we want it and knowing
how to run.
Also being excited to see theother teams come and see our
school.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Coach, what was it like for you last Wednesday
night?
What went well, what didn't goyour way?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Last week, wednesday, was a little rough.
We were missing some key people, and so we had to fill in some
holes last minute.
People were sick and it'salways tricky making sure that
people that are not in the roundare ready to be able to pop in
at a moment's notice, becausethere's so many elements that
come to play.
(05:23):
I really do think that our teamdid the best they could with
the time that we were given tofill those holes.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Absolutely.
What is that like as a studentathlete, ashlyn, as you're
getting prepared for an eventand then, all of a sudden,
someone maybe within your groupthat you're working with every
day is out.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, so I've actually had that happen to me
and you just have to.
You can't freak out, you haveto go with it and that's
something you have to learn veryquickly on a team like this and
like you watch the videos athome and you practice as well as
you can with the people missingthat's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Let me speak to the details of competitive cheer.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
Yeah.
So competitive cheer reallyI'll go kind of back to when it
became a varsity sport in thestate of Michigan it was the
early 90s, for Title IX reasonsultimately is where the sport
really gets born out of in thestate, because if you look
around, what offerings are therefor female student athletes in
the winter?
Back then there was one.
(06:26):
In fact it was volleyball backthen because basketball was in
the fall season, it was beforethe season shift.
So that's really wherecompetitive cheer has come from.
Now there's been some otherthings that have been added over
the years.
We've added girls wrestling andthat sort of thing.
But that's really where it camefrom, and West Ottawa was one
of those schools that gotstarted I want to say around 96,
95, 96, and has had somesuccess.
(06:48):
We have two state runner-upbanners hanging in the gym from
the early 2000s, so it'sdefinitely something that has
been here for a long period oftime.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Let's get to know you guys a little bit.
Mindy, you're a first-gradeteacher at North Holland.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yes, I am.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yep, this is your second year coaching varsity,
but you've been coaching in thissport for quite some time.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah, I started coaching when I was a sophomore
in college.
I took some time off to havesome kids in there, but overall
I've been coaching.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
This will be my 18th year coaching 18th year coaching
and you also did this.
You did competitive cheer atHope back in the day as well,
right, At the collegiate level,it's sideline.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Competitive cheer at Hope back in the day as well,
right At the collegiate level.
It's sideline.
And then you go to a camp overthe summer.
You get a bid for nationals andthat's how you compete at the
national level.
Hope was growing their programwhile I was there and we did get
a bid to nationals my sophomoreyear.
I was studying abroad, however,that year, so I didn't get to
travel with them, but they tookhome a third place at their
(07:45):
first time at nationals.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And you had to leave the sport because of concussions
right.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I did.
Yes, my third concussion wasalso that same year.
So we didn't know a whole lotabout concussions back then and
my doctor had told my parents,just to be safe, she shouldn't
be doing this sport anymore.
But I loved it, so I wasn'tready to give it up completely.
And then I connected with acoach from high school and I
(08:12):
went and coached over at Zealand.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Nice.
Any big injuries for you guysConcussions sort of stuff.
You probably had them.
Go ahead, Ashlyn.
Speaker 5 (08:20):
I had two concussions on JV.
I believe they were both myfreshman year, do you?
Speaker 2 (08:27):
remember them.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Kind of.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
But I haven't had any concussions since, thankfully.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
And that's as a flyer .
Would that be as a?
Speaker 5 (08:35):
flyer.
Yeah, they were really scary.
Other than that, just likesmaller injuries, like I
sprained my ankle.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Right, and that's part of it.
How about yourself, Kirsten?
Speaker 4 (08:47):
I broke my hand during sidelines while tumbling.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Did you really you broke your hand during sideline?
Yes, which you would not expect.
It there probably right.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
Yeah, I was at a different gym practicing like my
tumbling and like advance it,but I broke my handumbling and
advance it, but I broke my handby twisting it.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's going to be a tough injury in cheer.
We're sitting in here and youdid the physical movement of
your hand for the break and Icould feel it.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
She also got her front teeth knocked out at camp
summers ago An elbow to themouth, and we had to go to an
emergency dentist get them fixedwell, tell us about that we
were at elma, which is a cheercamp, and we were practicing new
stunts that the coaches hadshown us, and she, my flyer had
(09:41):
their her elbows on our basesknees and then we flipped her up
kind of from like a handstandposition and she came back with
her elbow to my mouth.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
So you don't look like you've lost your teeth.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
They saved them.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
They saved them yes they did.
Nice job dentist.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
We went to an emergency dentist and they
numbed me all up and pushed myteeth back forward and then I
wore kind of like braces in myfront teeth for a couple of
weeks.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
And then she came back for our final day
performance.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
I didn't want to miss it At camp.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
You came back for it.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Heart and grit, baby.
Nothing better than that.
Ashlyn, you're a senior.
Yes, you guys are both captains, right?
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
How many captains do you have on the team?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Four.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
And who are they?
Speaker 5 (10:30):
We have Kayla Vork and Adley Field.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And the two of you.
So that's a pretty big role tofill.
Huh, coach.
What are the responsibilitiesas captains?
Speaker 1 (10:39):
They lead warm up for the team.
They also are in charge ofplanning team bonding activities
and coming up with ourconnection circle prompts.
That we do every day.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
What's some of your team activities you guys like to
do?
Ashlyn?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
We've done a lot of different things.
I remember last year we did apool party, and then we also
have done we painted pumpkins.
Oh, pumpkins, oh nice and we'velike gone downtown too before
and then we just do like fun,like games, like bonding games
(11:15):
how important is that?
Speaker 2 (11:16):
that team chemistry, kirsten, when you're trying to
to build a, build a team whenwe're building a team, we can't
do anything about our team.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
we we always have to be together, and so we might as
well.
All like each other, andthrough team bonding we're able
to see other people on differentlevels, and see them in school,
out of school and just likethemselves.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yeah, seeing somebody as a human being, other than
the sport that you're in, reallymakes a big difference.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Do you have to when you have your groups coach?
Help me out with terminologyhere.
If I'm working in a group andI'm the base in the group, what
am I calling my group?
Do I call?
Them, my group, your stuntgroup, my stunt group, okay, so
I'm not too far off.
Is it even more important foryou, as you're kind of going
through and you're buildingthese relationships, to build
(12:04):
them within that stunt group?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
yes, 100, yeah yeah, what kind of?
Um, sorry, and there's mostlyfour stunt groups really
interesting.
Uh, for you, ashlyn, you movedfrom a flyer to a base this year
yes, I did and one of thereally interesting things about
that is when you're identifyinggroups you identify the group by
(12:26):
the flyer, kirsten.
She made the move this year.
But that's a little bit of ahit right Kind of on that
athletic ego to kind of movefrom flyer to a different spot.
What's it like for you as ateammate for her to make a move
like that?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It's exciting being in all different types of
positions.
Not one is greater than theother.
It's you as a group who'sworking together and it's
exciting to see her grow, andall the people that are able to
grow with switching spots.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
I do think it's really important for girls to
learn more than one positionbecause, especially in high
school, school bodies grow andchange like crazy and if you've
only done one position then itkind of takes you out of
stunting If you can't adapt andlearn another position if one
isn't working for you.
So I was very happy that Ashlynwas willing to take on the role
(13:22):
, learning how to base, and shedid it with grace and
determination to get into therounds.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
And then you have to also.
I mean, you've got a group ofgirls who may not be assigned to
a particular stunt group.
Are they working on multiplepositions to be ready to go when
you have somebody sick or aninjury happens?
They have to be kind ofwell-rounded, they do yes,
somebody sick or an injuryhappens.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
they have to be kind of well-rounded they do.
Yes, it's easier to have thegirls on the bottom learn the
different roles main base versusside base versus back spot.
It's a little bit trickier forthat flyer role because it's
different in the technique theyhave to use to control their
body in the air.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Kirsten, for yourself , you have a bit of a background
in gymnastics as a young person, right?
Can you share with us what youdid when you were younger?
Because you even as a freshmanhere you were not in competitive
cheer yet but tell us a littlebit about your gymnastics
background.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I went to Flipside Gymnastics and was there for
about six years.
I was on their team, which iswho competes, so that was
exciting.
I was on XL Gold.
I performed floor which istumbling and jumping beam and
then bars and vaults and it wasvery different coming to cheer,
(14:39):
but I really enjoyed thetumbling of gymnastics and how
strong you had to be.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yeah, and it's something that you can really
bring into the team.
That is a huge asset, whereasAshlyn brought in some dance
performance as a youngster.
Right, ashlyn, tell us aboutyour early life.
Speaker 5 (14:55):
Yeah, so I did ballet for a long time when I was
little and then I decided to trysomething new and do
competitive dance and I actuallymet some of the girls on our
cheer team now way back then.
But yeah, it definitely helpedprepare me for like, doing the
(15:17):
face and performing and all thelike precise movements and stuff
.
And yeah, then I decided to trycheer in sixth grade and I've
stuck with it ever since.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
You two are almost a perfect combination of what's
required, right?
Coach?
Speaker 1 (15:29):
They are.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
So, coach, we've got a really big senior class this
year.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
We do.
There are 12 seniors on ourteam this year.
All right, so the seniors onour team this year, we have
Abriel Vanderswag, alinaRomero-Ortiz, ashlyn Stonic,
who's with us, brie Evans,ayanna Malgoza, kayla
(15:53):
Fredrickson, juliana Zivel,kiana Winfrey, kirsten Wilson,
who's also with us, mayaLoveless and Stephanie Garcia
and Tiaja Shakir that is a heckof a senior night right there it
is.
And it's been so fun because alot of these girls I've coached
for four years.
(16:13):
I coached them two years on JVand two years on varsity, so
they've been kind of rightalongside of me through this
journey yeah, you get to knoweach other really well.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Lots of time spent together, of course, with
practice and all.
So they've been kind of rightalongside of me through this
journey.
Yeah, you get to know eachother really well.
Lots of time spent together, ofcourse, with practice and all
that.
You really get to know peopleas you do these things.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Obviously, Mindy, I've known you since I've been
here at West Ottawa.
You've been a coach on ourstaff, but you made the
transition from JV to varsityhead coach a couple of years ago
.
What was?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
that transition like and how's that experience been
go?
What was that transition likeand how's that experience been?
So varsity is something thatI've been working towards and
have wanted, but it has been achallenge.
The ability difference, theexpectations between JV and D1
varsity are huge and I have hadconversations with past varsity
coaches and it's the samestruggle that they've all faced.
(17:03):
And I have had conversationswith past varsity coaches and
it's the same struggle thatthey've all faced.
And I think like the hardestthing for me was I had a very
successful JV team.
We won a lot or placed in thetop two and then moving up to
varsity, where we have some ofthe top teams in the state in
our conference, has been reallychallenging to figure out how to
(17:25):
go to compete with them.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Yeah, the pressure must be really really high,
right?
Because if you're at that meetat Jenison and I don't know
teams very well, but you haveJenison, you have Rockford, you
have EK First round, you guysare pretty much right there with
them for the most part, right,maybe 10, 12 point difference.
But then you get these nextlevels and it's like I don't
even know what to say, like it'sjust robotic.
Everyone's in sync, every youknow.
(17:50):
Arm angles are all super tight.
Do you feel like the pressureto compete at that level?
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Ashlyn, what's it like for you guys?
Yeah, we definitely watch theother teams a lot and we strive
to be like them, but we worktowards it and practice every
day and, yeah, we've broken someof our goals.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Exactly.
You have to set many goals foryourself.
What are some you might haveput out there as a team, Kirsten
?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
One of our goals was to break 700, which we recently
did as our final score, and thenanother goal that we are very
close to is breaking 200 in ourround two.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
I think we got 299.
299.76.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
So we definitely strive to pass that goal.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Was that a toe misplaced at that point?
No that was 199.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I misspoke 199.76.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh my gosh, that's so close.
How did you guys feel afterthat?
That was me.
That was me.
I did something wrong.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
It's definitely exciting.
I feel like after the fact wetry not to go into what we did
wrong but say, oh, we did thisreally good.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
And we may have done this wrong or like done it not
as best as we could, but we havepractice and we have time to
fix it for our next comp and tomake ourselves better and to
work harder for that goal.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Makes sense.
That makes sense.
How many athletes on the teamright now on competitive cheer?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
We have 24.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
24.
So, and we're going to get intothe rounds of who's competing,
because I believe it's 16, 12and then 16 again and the three
different rounds.
Let's talk about the differencereal quick between sideline
cheer and competitive cheer.
One of the things as a personthat has not been into it is
where the public sees you, right, so public sees you at football
games, ashlyn, but that's atotally different element than
(19:39):
competitive cheer.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Right, maybe speakeline cheer, how you guys
view that, that type of thingyeah, so I feel like a lot of
people view us especially forsideline, like like peppy girls
that are just cheering on boysthat's not like you don't want
that, do you no?
So that's like the negativestereotypes that we get, and a
(20:01):
lot of that comes from, like themovies and shows too, but it's
just.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
You have to deal with that kind of on the regular
basis, right?
Speaker 5 (20:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
I must get old.
It does yes, it's got to getold.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yes, it does.
I feel like Sideline for us isalso practicing what we want to
do for competitive and showingpeople before we perform it on a
mat.
So it's getting us.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's almost like a pre-season for competitive are
you able to shed that, thatfeeling, because you almost feel
like second class athletes attimes is?
Would that be something likethat coach?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
one of the things I've been pushing for this past
season, especially in sideline,was more chant enhancements,
where they're still cheeringwords but they're doing stunts
with it, Because I think that ifthe crowd sees they're stunting
or they're tumbling, that'sgoing to show their athleticism
more than just standing on thesidelines and chanting.
(21:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
It does.
It does wow you when you dothose amazing things, because
the weird part for this is, likewhen you have to deal with that
on the regular, but your sportis so incredibly athletic like
it's really athletic and whenyou don't know anything about
something, you have amisconception.
I went from being someone thatnever watched it to going to see
it.
I'm like okay.
Conception.
I went from being someone thatnever watched it to going to see
(21:23):
it.
I'm like okay, all right,there's a lot they have to do.
I think the odd part is isthere's so much else you have to
do, right, like you have to thephysical presentation of
yourself as a person as far ashair, makeup, bows and hair.
For the most part, like it'sjust this different element that
you do.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
but that's, that's part of the judging too, ashlyn
different element that you do,but that's part of the judging
too, ashlyn.
Yeah, so much as far as werequire them to wear red
lipstick, because that redlipstick pops to the judges.
It accentuates their facialexpressions.
Same thing with mascara there'sdifferent makeup that I ask of
them to wear so that theirfeatures are showcased.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Yeah, and it's not something you have on right now.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
I mean that's definitely performance.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
It's performance, art is part of it.
But you know you have thecomponents of cheer.
You got your motions and claps,jumps, splits and flexibility,
tumbling and stunting.
I don't know if there's a moredifficult sport than what you
guys are doing.
It's really difficult to pullthis stuff off.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Yeah, and you girls have become very familiar with
the spot upstairs with Frank anddoing some of that strength
training.
We always like to ask ourathletes what have you seen as
far as those benefits thatyou're getting out of those
sessions with Frank?
Kirsten, maybe you can speak tothat first out of those
sessions with Frank Kirsten.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Maybe you can speak to that first.
He definitely focuses on likeexplosion for our jumps and for
our tumbling and just likeexerting a bunch of our energy
so we can be ready even whenwe're tired.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, it's been really helpful for me,
especially switching from aflyer to a base.
I have to strengthen musclesthat I never really used before,
so Frank has really helped mewith that.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Let's go to those different positions, because
someone who's listening doesn'tknow what they are.
Maybe, uh, ashton, you want tostart with uh, just pick one of
them.
Maybe flyer Cause you did thatfor a long time.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah, so flyer is the one in the air, the one that
goes all the way up and we doall these cool things like lives
and flips and stuff in the airand they're kind of known for
being like the star of the show,but there's so much that goes
underneath them to make ithappen and I didn't even realize
(23:39):
how much goes into itunderneath until I became a base
.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Are these girls typically like smaller in
stature, so that it's easier tomake them fly in the air and
flip around?
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Yeah, so the thing about that is you as a coach.
I have to consider their centerof gravity, so shorter girls
have more control over theircenter of gravity than taller
girls.
But if I put a taller flyer inthe air, your daughter, for
example.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
She is a taller flyer in the air.
Your daughter, for example.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
She is a taller flyer .
I need to have taller basesunder her to compensate for that
.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
That's really cool.
And, kirsten, you're a backspot, correct?
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Talk to us about that .
Speaker 4 (24:14):
The backspot stabilizes the group.
We're on ankles, which wedefinitely don't seem like we
lift a lot, but we stabilize theflyer and always make sure
she's safe.
If she's falling we catch herand there's no excuse for her to
fall on the floor.
We definitely support the groupand help the bases out.
We pull the ankles together soour flyer looks nice and pretty
(24:36):
in the air.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
A lot of detail with this stuff for the backspots to
a lot of people don't realize isthey have to have strong
shoulders because theirshoulders are always engaged,
especially when they're holdingsomething at an extended level.
They're pushing up throughthose shoulders to keep
everything safe and sturdy.
I say the backspot is thebackbone of the stunt.
They're controlling everythingand making sure it's strong.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
We also count the stunts.
So when we put our flyer in theair we're like supposed to
count.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Sometimes the whole group counts, but a lot of the
time it's just the back spot.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
We do everything to eight counts, tell us what we
don't know, because there's somethings I just I don't know.
So go ahead, Go detail.
Speaker 4 (25:20):
We do everything to eight counts and we have a
specific number that we go up on.
Usually it's one, sometimes itcan be three, sometimes it can
be five, it's all over the place, but it just ensures that we're
on time with everything and ourwhole group is working together
to put our flyer up and ifwe're not all pushing up at the
(25:40):
same time, it goes on level andit's on balanced.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
So so everybody knowing what they have to do on
their certain counts is reallyimportant to making sure that a
stunt hits properly.
When one person is off, it'snot going to hit clean or strong
.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
No, and let's go.
Let's go through the rounds,because you kind of it's a
progressive.
You know, moving from round oneto two to three, it gets harder
as you go.
Right, fair enough, let's walkthrough a typical competition
day.
Let's talk about round one.
I'm going to always go back toJenison as my reference, but it
doesn't have to be yours.
The entrance first of all isit's high energy.
(26:17):
You come in, there's a lot ofthat going on, everything kind
of settles down.
You guys get out there, get allset.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
Ashlyn explain what's happening in round one.
So the main thing about roundone is jumps, but we also do
formability and obviouslythere's voice.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
Did you just say formability?
Speaker 1 (26:40):
What did you just say , florability?
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I was like formability.
Okay, did you just sayFlorability?
I was like formability.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Okay, that's a new one All right.
Florability.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
How you move, like making different formations, yes
and then.
So how long is round one A?
Speaker 1 (26:54):
minute and a half.
A minute and a half is the maxthat it can be.
Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yes, so yeah, we say our words and we do our counts
to our jumps and coach has us doall these like cool little
spins and kicks and stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
All synchronized.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Tight.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
What's some challenging things in round one.
Kirsten as a team.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
In round one.
It's challenging becauseeverybody can be doing something
different.
Um, round one is a lot of likesqueezing and making sure you're
doing what you're supposed tobe doing on your time.
So it can be you and like, foran example, five other people
are doing the same thing.
You need them to be doing it atthe same time, in the same way,
(27:39):
to like the angle of their armsto the angle of their feet, so
then it doesn't look off timingwith the people behind them or
beside them.
Um, ensuring that the pictureis just there and it looks
pretty.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
But do you guys ever like just go?
How in the world are we pullingthis off like it's?
Speaker 1 (27:57):
it's so hard coach it's, I think, because so many
of these girls have done it forso long, it's become more of
second nature.
And then when we get a newathlete in who might have done
another sport and not understandall the components to it,
that's when you realize oh yeah,this is really hard.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
Yeah, I mean how many ?
If you're just a guess, howmany hours of training have you
put into round one this season?
Ballpark figure?
Speaker 5 (28:30):
Oh well, at practice we usually spend like an hour.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
For sure at the beginning of the season.
It's an hour of our practicetime because the choreography is
so complex.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
And.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
I have to teach this group their part and this group
their part, and then we have toput it together and see if it
looks good.
And if it doesn't look goodtogether, then we have to tweak
it.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Who does the choreography?
Do you do it mostly?
Do you have input from theathletes?
Speaker 1 (28:59):
It's a year-by-year thing.
This year I had a pretty goodidea of what I wanted it to look
like, and then we brought insome other people.
We went to a clinic and gotsome feedback from one of the
coaches there and she ended upchoreographing a little part of
it.
We brought in a specialist aperformance specialist and then
she ended up giving somefeedback and we made some tweaks
(29:20):
with her feedback.
So it's been definitely acollaborative experience.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It's got to be fun to learn something new or have a
new routine.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Yeah it is it is.
I love learning new routinesand adding new parts to our old
routines, too that we've beendoing for so long.
It's cool to add new twists andstuff.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Russians it up a little bit oh, absolutely, you
gotta have to have that.
Are you gonna say you can't?
Speaker 3 (29:47):
you couldn't say hey, I really loved our round one
from 2022.
We're gonna roll back out withthat same one again, or is that
kind of frowned upon?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
um, honestly, it depends.
If anybody would remember, I'vetaken parts from old rounds.
Well, even this year there wassomething we did last year and
people really liked it, so Ibrought it back this year and
it's two different words and ata different point, but it's like
a repeat of the same motionsand movements with the team.
(30:20):
So it's fun for the girls, it'slike a little callback for them
yeah I noticed round one two isit feels like it's the loudest
vocals round one is ourstrongest with vocals and I
think it's because round twowe're doing tumbling and jumps
and yelling words at the sametime.
In round three we're stuntingand yelling words, but round one
(30:40):
we're just doing a lot ofmotions and floor movements.
And it's at the beginning, sotheir energy is still really
high, that's true.
And it is definitely wherewe're scoring the highest on our
vocals.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Kirsten, who gets to write these cheers.
Do you guys have any input onthat?
It's kind of fun to listen tothem, to be honest.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
To write them the words.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Yeah, the words, the rhymes, you guys in on that, or
not?
Speaker 4 (31:08):
Not really.
No, Coach Work does a lot of it.
She definitely has input andwill ask us about what we think
and if it flows and will ask usfor suggestions.
But she definitely makes up alot of it and spends her time
going through what she thinkswould sound good and sounds good
.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Do you have to like kind of follow rules on that, or
can you be creative in thatspace For the words?
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
There's not really any rules on words.
We just it can't be likenegative or demeaning towards
anything?
Speaker 2 (31:38):
No, but you can have fun with it you know yeah.
I would.
I would try and have fun withit.
To be honest, it's kind of afun, creative space.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
We are hearing teams becoming more and more creative
with their words.
For example, this yearGranville says dogs got to eat.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Okay, a couple times.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
So that was creative and out of the box thinking.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
I remember back to my first year as AD here and we're
getting ready for our inviteand Kelly Polinski, who was a
coach here for years and she waskind of helping run the meet,
and she comes up to me and shegoes.
I need you to announce today.
And so I got like thrown in thefirst cheer event I have ever
been to and I was the leadannouncer.
(32:22):
But I remember round one justbeing blown away with how loud
it was from the girls on themats.
It definitely changes as theday goes on.
Round three you don't reallyhear much but they're up in the
air and stunting all over theplace and that's the one that
freaks me out as an AD now,because the tumbles are from way
(32:43):
up high.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
One other cool part I thought about round one.
Let's see what you guys thinkabout this.
Some schools start getting theparent section involved.
Kirsten, is that always beenaround?
Is that a new thing?
What's that like?
Speaker 4 (32:55):
I believe it's always been around.
It's definitely exciting.
It makes a little break for uswhile they're yelling the words
and it's just exciting to see wehave somebody cheering for us.
We have parents cheering for us.
We have friends and family thatare like willing to come and
watch our long, our long meets.
But it's definitely excitinghaving them be there for us and
(33:18):
just knowing a part of ourroutine.
I feel like I feel like if Iwere to ask some of the people
up there, they would be able tolike do it with us like our
actual routine.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Oh, no kidding, I love it.
Yeah, that's really sweet.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
And there is a component to training the
parents to make sure that theydo cheer with us.
We always have a showcase atthe beginning of before we do
our first competition.
When we invite the parents in,we go through the different
round elements and then, if wedo have a callback section of
our chair, we tell them wherethat is and then we teach them
how to call back with us so thatthey're involved.
(33:52):
It's something that was morepopular on the east side but has
become popular on the west sideof the state now.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
It's a pretty fun element, at least looking at it
from the outside.
Round one ends.
You're busy, Ashlyn.
What's going on between rounds?
Because it's got to be hectic.
Speaker 5 (34:08):
So we quickly go to the locker room and change our
uniforms to the round two andsometimes, depending on our
order, we might be able to get aquick bite to eat.
So we stay energized.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
But usually then we have to go right back to the
practice room and get working onround two does it go by like
really fast, like does it feellike a whirlwind, like it's just
pedals down, we're going quickyes, most of the time yeah, I
can imagine that now you guyscome out.
Uh, round two has 12 instead of16.
Kirsten, explain the differenceum.
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Round two.
Everybody is doing the exactsame thing throughout the whole
entire routine, to the timing onour jumps, to the timing on our
skills.
Everything has to be togetheror it starts being deductions.
Round two is very precise onwhere, like our arms are.
If somebody's arm is angled alittle bit differently, like
we're going to get a point off,and everybody has to be yelling
(35:05):
the words and giving the sameamount of like.
How they move their head has tobe the same.
So it's definitely down to yeah, it's definitely down to T, but
it's exciting it's a little bitquieter because there are only
12 instead of 16.
We're doing skills as well,like we're doing tumbling and
(35:25):
jumps, but it's definitelyexciting to see everybody doing
the same thing and to see howwell we can do that.
Speaker 2 (35:33):
Yeah, it's pretty cool to watch.
It's a it's there's less people, but there's more demanding on
you.
This is where your gymnasticsbackground starts to come into
play, right.
Speaker 4 (35:43):
Yes, yeah, with the tumbling we do, fat can springs,
which is exciting.
It's definitely for the firsttime, doing it with somebody
right in front of you and rightbehind you, a mat length away,
is definitely scary, but thatgoes into doing it at the same
time and having our form be thesame, but it's definitely
(36:05):
exciting.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
If they don't go at the same time, they hit each
other, yes.
So that's where that precisionis important, and they always
get nervous the first coupletimes doing it, if they're new
in that round and they freak outand they think they're going to
hit somebody.
But then if they go on time ontheir right counts, nobody hits
and it's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
You have to really start trusting the people around
you.
Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah, Kind of goes back to all of those team
bonding activities and reallygetting to know everybody that's
on your team and building thattrust, Even when you're playing
games and that sort of thing.
You're starting to developthose habits.
Speaker 5 (36:47):
What does it take to score well in this round ashland
?
So, like they were saying, likeprecision is the biggest thing,
like we all have to look thesame, and that definitely takes
a lot of practice and yeah, andthen the tumbling and jumps, and
then flexibility, so that canbe splits.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
And there's different level of difficulty.
Right Coach.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
There is, yeah.
So each skill has a difficultyfactor put towards it and a lot
of the things that we do are adifficulty multiplier of one.
But if you can get those higherlevel skills back walkover,
back handspring, back tuck,those have higher difficulty
multipliers.
So if you got a 10 on a backhandspring you would get 12
(37:31):
points for the skill what's someof your top moves in round two?
Backhand springs right now areour top.
We've been working really hardon back tucks, the snow days
really.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
I saw that on Instagram right.
Was that that Instagram reel?
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Yeah, the snow days really affected that progression
that we had, because we dobring in a private tumbling
coach and every snow day we hadthis year was on our tumbling
day, so we've missed so manytumbling days because, of the
snow.
But the girls do put in a lotof time.
I give them time at practice.
I've been doing a ton ofspotting and we're so close.
(38:09):
We'll see if we get them bydistricts.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
That's the goal it's just so many people to be able
to execute a move at a highlevel you have to have 12 people
landing them.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
So if we we can't have 12 people landing them, I
don't want to put eight peoplethat can land them and then four
people that fall on their face.
That's not safe and it's notgoing to get us the points we
want.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
What is it, what's it like to try and bring people
along?
I'm sure for you, kirsten,that's something that, based on
your background, probably comesnaturally to you.
Fair enough or no?
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (38:42):
Gymnastics is really almost different than cheer.
It's you put yourself out thereand you don't rely on anybody
else.
When you're training, yes, butwhen you're on the, on the floor
, on whatever event you're on,it's just how you do as an
individual.
But stepping onto a team likethis, you have to be doing well
(39:04):
and you have to make sure theperson next to you is also doing
well.
So it's checking in on them andchecking yourself.
It's definitely morecollaborative than how you just
do individually, because you cando it good individually, but if
you're the only one doing good,then it doesn't help.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
The ability to get better.
Like is it a long road to geteverybody to pull this move off?
How long does it take?
It must be pretty hard.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
It's more about the mindset, because if the athlete
believes or really wants theskill, they're going to put the
work into it.
As soon as they start to feeldefeated or any self-doubt, they
put less work into the skilland then the execution of it
takes longer.
We have girls that have beenworking on back tucks for two
(39:50):
years now who will throw themsometimes, but not all the times
, because then they get nervousand they start overthinking
things.
So it's definitely for me as acoach more about helping them
believe that they can do a skillin order for them to start
executing it.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, that's got to be really hard, because I mean,
you're putting your body at riskas well.
Speaker 5 (40:12):
Yeah, and then if you get hurt, that can create a big
mental block for you and itgets really scary.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And that happens in practice.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Yes, we had a girl dislocate her elbow when she was
working on her back handspringand she had just gotten to the
point where she was feelingconfident to throw it on her own
and then she dislocated herelbow and we have not been able
to get her over that mentalblock all season.
Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's very understandable.
It's, I mean, I, I.
The challenges that you'refacing, just as a group are.
There's just so many from allthese different aspects, right,
the mental side, the physicalside, being able to do it in
unison.
And then round three comes.
We're good, old fashioned roundthree comes.
We're good, old-fashioned roundthree.
Round three comes out.
(40:59):
You guys had an incrediblyshort transition from round two
to round three at Jenison.
So I'm watching and I'm like,okay, let's see where they are.
All right.
So they're near the end ofround two and I looked at round
three.
I'm like, no way, how close isthat, Kirsten?
Is that about as close asyou've seen it?
Speaker 4 (41:21):
It was definitely close because we have to get off
of the mat and change and thenhave all of our round three
people in the mat room gettingwarmed up, warming up their
tumbling, warming up stunts, andit's just, it takes so much
time to change and get overthere that it's almost difficult
to start right away and westill have to rewarm up our
bodies.
It's almost difficult to likestart right away and we still
have to like rewarm up ourbodies and it's definitely like,
especially with such a shorttransition, it's hard to not
(41:44):
feel frantic and to not getahead of yourself and just to
feel really nervous.
Um, a lot of people get nervousbefore round or like after or
before round two.
Sorry um for for after forround three, but it definitely
is all mental because we know wecan do it in that short of a
time.
It's just we get all frantic.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Do you have any techniques to stay calm under
pressure?
Ashlyn, Is there anything youdo on purpose?
Speaker 5 (42:13):
Well, one thing that we do is that we visualize the
rounds before we go out there.
So we all get in a circle andwe close our eyes and we whisper
the words and the counts and wevisualize what we're gonna do
on the mat to help it runsmoothly I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, and that's a really kind of close moment as a
group right and everyone's kindof dialed in finding their
space.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
Coach, do you share with your athletes the round
orders ahead of time so theyhave kind of an idea of where
they're going to be each round?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yes, I do share the round order and this Jenison one
was the first time this seasonthat we had such a short
turnover and it was verystressful for us.
We actually didn't get to fullywarm up our round three before
we had to go out on the mat.
So that was a little nervewracking, especially because we
had new people in spots that hadnever done the round before.
(43:09):
But I told them that that was agood practice for districts,
because we're going to haveanother short turnover between
round two and round three atdistricts.
So that was our little practicewith that transition.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Is round three one of the more creative rounds for
you as a team coach?
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, I love choreographing round three just
because you can do so manydifferent things with the stunts
to make the picture look funand creative.
But it is also challenging ifyou can't hit those elite level
stunts that you want to hit andthen you have to alter your
vision and change the level ofthe stunts.
(43:51):
But it's a lot of fun becauseyou have the stunting and you
have the tumbling aspect thatyou can tie in.
And then I get to showcase mydifferent abilities on my team.
So if I have girls that can dotucks but we don't have 12 tucks
, they get to do them in roundthree.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yes, it's a very creative round.
You're in your stunt groups.
Speaker 4 (44:14):
You're kind of moving all over the place too right,
kristen it's sometimes hard toget to our spots like cleanly,
but it is definitely exciting tobe moving all over the mat and
to get to showcase what we cando and what we can do.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Well, I always like round three.
I always will glance over atthe athletic trainers, and
they're the ones that are themost nervous about round three.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Do you guys do as seniors?
Are you in all three rounds, doyou are?
Speaker 5 (44:45):
you in a couple rounds.
What's it like for you guys?
Um, so I am in round one andI'm I've been in and out of
round three yeah um, yeah, I'mnot in round two, but yeah, and
that's part of being on a team,right?
Speaker 2 (44:57):
you?
You take your skills and applythem to a different spot where
your strengths are that sort ofthing, yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:03):
And then I'm in all three.
You're in all three.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
So that's very demanding as well being in all
three.
Yes, that's not easy to pulloff.
No, it's definitely exhausting,but everybody else on the team,
regardless of whether they'rein the rounds or not, is also
(45:27):
working and cheering us on.
So it's rewarding to get tohear them cheering us on.
Ashlyn, as a captain, you're inround one and then sometimes
around three, but you still havea big role in round two and
three.
So you're a senior, you know yousee this stuff.
Now, what are you busy doing tomake an impact on your team in
round two, for an example?
Speaker 5 (45:42):
So a big thing to do is cheering them on, and when
they're performing, I go crazy.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
I'm not kidding.
Speaker 5 (45:50):
Yeah, I don't care if no one else is cheering.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Do you carry a cowbell with you?
No, just kidding.
I am not allowed to.
Speaker 5 (45:55):
But some of the parents do yeah, they do yeah,
um, but yeah, especially whenthey're going for those big
skills, it's important to cheerthem on and let them know that
they can do it.
And it's also when you're onthe mat everything feels really
quiet and you feel like isolated.
So it's important to like beable to hear the crowd and know
(46:18):
that someone is out therecheering for you.
Speaker 2 (46:20):
How does that make a difference for you?
What's what does that do foryou as an athlete?
Speaker 5 (46:25):
So, like when I am in round one, if I were to mess up
, I can start getting in my headand like start worrying and
then start making more mistakes.
But if someone is out therecheering for me and tells me to
keep going and stuff, then thatcan help me get over that and
keep going to do what I need todo for my team.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
So you, you feel that and you give that to others.
Speaker 5 (46:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:50):
I got you.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
And this kind of segues perfectly.
Thanks for setting this up forme.
So we talked a little bit aboutthis as we were getting set up
today, one thing that stands outto me always in cheer is that
you go out for round one, two orthree and inevitably there's a
mistake made Right, and I wouldliken that to missing a shot in
basketball.
Except it is very different inthe world of cheer, because
(47:14):
there's not like anotherpossession, because there's not
like another possession.
It's the round that you're inand you've got, let's say, you
make this mistake 20 secondsinto a minute and a half.
You've got to kind of get overit.
What are some things, ashlyn,that you do kind of in your head
to get yourself over it?
Or is it just kind of focusingin on that crowd that you were
(47:35):
just talking about?
Speaker 5 (47:36):
Yeah, so I usually just when you make mistakes in
practice.
It's like you make mistakes inpractice and we work through
those to get over the mistakesso you learn how to work around
(47:58):
it.
You work on keep going, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:04):
As seniors, when you guys you know we're kind of
getting near the end of thepodcast here, but like I must
imagine being involved in thissport, the life lessons here I
mean you face adversity, youface failure, you face new
challenges on the regular as asenior.
How has this impacted your life, kirsten?
Speaker 4 (48:24):
It definitely shows like if one thing goes wrong,
there's a million other ways toget over it.
It's taught so much aboutleadership, not even through
being a captain, but just likethrough being on a team that
relies on everybody.
It shows you that you can relyon other people and other people
can rely on you.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
I know all these sports do a lot, but I I'm
actually kind of blown away bythe volume of things that you
have to deal with on a regularbasis to perform.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's, it's, so it's very overwhelming.
To be honest, coach, you'relaughing.
Speaker 1 (48:59):
Yeah, practice is never long enough no, because we
we have to practice all threerounds but we also have to
practice the skills for therounds.
But then we also will facechallenges within the team that
we have to spend time workingthrough, because if we're not
united as a team it causesproblems in our competition, in
(49:20):
our performance.
So, making sure that we havethat time to build together as a
team and learn how to handleconflicts when they come our way
and learn how to just worktogether and that's most
athletic teams.
Speaker 2 (49:34):
Most athletic teams deal with some version of that
right and whenever it's,whenever it's really good, makes
everything else easy.
When it's not as tight, it'stougher.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
Yeah so we're gonna, we're gonna hope for no snow,
right so?
Speaker 1 (49:50):
we can?
Speaker 3 (49:50):
we can get through this week of practice because
we've got a big meet on saturdaywe do over at hudsonville
districts.
This is our kind of entry intothe post season and we'll see
where things go on Saturday.
I'm excited to get back overthere for what is always a fun
meet.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
We'll just do one more thing here.
We'll try and work this in.
A lot of this is starting to doit.
When you're young.
You guys have a fairly healthyyouth program right now.
Coach, can you speak to a fewof those things?
There's the township rocket.
You got the fourth, fifth andsixth graders all active.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
Yeah.
So when I took over thisprogram one of the things the
deficits I saw was not growingthat younger generation and
getting them excited for cheer.
So I had been working closelywith the township to build up
that hype for our youth cheerand my varsity girls are
actually the coaches for them.
So that's like a bigundertaking.
(50:45):
During our sideline season Itrain them how to coach and
handle children because that'slike a big task in itself of a
high school student.
But the biggest thing isbuilding those relationships
with those little girls andgetting them excited.
They come and sit and watchthem at football games and then
(51:08):
just keeping that connectionwith the families.
I've been letting them knowwhen our competitions are.
We had a huge group ofelementary girls at our home
competition cheering these girlson um.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
They've become role models how great was it, is it
for you two to be involved inthat.
When she mentioned that, youguys pretty much smiled ear to
ear yeah, I love the rocketgirls so much.
Speaker 5 (51:32):
I love being like a role model for them and showing
them what cheer is about.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
What's it like for you?
Speaker 4 (51:38):
It is definitely so exciting to see them at like the
practices, when we coach them,and just to see how happy they
can be and when we see them andacknowledge them and remember
their names.
It's just so excited to seethem light up and just to light
up about like the talk aboutcheer and just being excited to
(51:58):
go and being excited forsomething and just like the
expedition team when we watchedthem.
It was so exciting to see themand it was like we felt so proud
of them, about, like whatthey've accomplished and how
they've gotten over things.
Like when we coached them theywere not that far then.
To just see them and to seethem run off the mat after their
(52:20):
round is like they're allhugging each other and they're
all excited and it's we're allso proud all right, what do you
guys hope to do at districts?
Speaker 1 (52:27):
just have a nice performance, get 200 yeah, we
have our, our goals for eachround.
We want to be in the mid 220sfor round one, we need to cross
that 200 threshold in round two,and then high 200s for round
three so we can get an overallscore above 700.
Speaker 2 (52:46):
It's so important to do.
Those mini goals are everythingthey really are, and then you
feel like you've accomplishedsomething, you're moving forward
.
It's good to do.
You guys probably got to get topractice.
This has been really nice tospend time with you.
I think it's great for thecommunity to hear about the
really incredible things thatyou're doing.
Just remember everybody, we areWest Ottawa, we are a community
(53:06):
, we are each other, and youknow, listening to you guys talk
about your sport, it justencourages us as well.
Speaker 3 (53:13):
Thanks so much again for taking some time to come in
and sit down with us.
Speaker 1 (53:16):
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2 (53:19):
Thanks.
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