Cheerleaders receive collegiate opportunities

The Bigfork cheerleading squad has been

steadily building its program and skill level over the past several

years, and at first the proof of that was in their performances,

but now it is evident in the number of seniors who will likely

continue cheerleading or dance after graduation.

After seeing the squad perform at the

Class B state boys basketball tournament in March, the University

of Great Falls invited those squad members who will graduate from

Bigfork in June to attend a tryout with its cheerleading squad.

“Great Falls is really trying to build

its stunt program,” said Heather Epperly, one of the Bigfork

cheerleading squad’s co-coaches. “When they saw a picture of our

squad on our school’s website and saw how many boys we had, they

contacted me and said they were interested in seeing our squad. It

just happened to work out that we were performing at the state

basketball tournament, so they came and watched and liked what they

saw.”

The UGF head cheerleading coach Becky

Acra said she had her scouting person check out Bigfork because of

the boys’ apparent stunting experience as well as the squad’s

reputation.

“The fact that they have guys is kind

of hard to find in state, so any team that has guys is one that we

want to look at,” Acra said. “A team that has boys is always

helpful because if they have that experience and the strength, it

helps at the collegiate level. Also, Bigfork has typically been one

of the stronger teams in the state, so I wanted to see what they

had.”

Last week Colson McCoard, Jerry Rose,

T.J. Johnson, Kris Gimbel and Ariel Stallknecht went to check out

UGF and its cheerleading program.

“A lot of recruits that we look at, in

state and out of state, maybe aren’t quite there yet,” Acra said.

“They may not have the technique. You just don’t want to have to

teach them from the ground up. Others may do things a little bit

differently than the way we do, but you can tell that the

progression is there. Even though they don’t have collegiate

experience, they have the foundation to be able to learn

quickly.”

Following a two-day visit that included

a campus tour, workout and stunting practice, Acra invited the

Bigfork cheerleaders to join the squad with an offer that includes

a scholarship to cover the majority of their tuition.

“All of them showed great potential as

shown by the offer we extended to be a part of UGF athletics and

help build the dynasty of UGF cheerleading,” Acra said.

McCoard has committed to cheer at UGF,

while the others are considering if it is the right fit for them

and weighing other options.

“Cheerleading was kind of new to me

this year, but since they want me to go cheer for them it is pretty

exciting,” McCoard said. “I had no idea that I was even going to be

considering going to college on a cheerleading scholarship. I

always thought that only girls got to go to school on a

cheerleading scholarship.”

McCoard said he knows it will be a

challenge, but it is one he is up for trying.

“I think cheering at a collegiate level

is going to be more fun than anything. I don’t think there is going

to be much of an intimidation factor,” McCoard said. “I think I’m

just going to go through it with a smile on my face having

fun.”

Although cheerleading at Bigfork isn’t

at the same heightened level as a collegiate squad, the past few

seasons have helped prepare the squad members for what lies ahead.

The biggest change that occurred was an increase in the number of

boys on the squad. A few years ago there were one or two boys

consistently on the squad, but this year there were 11 at the start

of the season and eight were still participating in March.

“When you have as many boys as you do

varsity girls it makes you much more versatile and gives the girls

a lot more stunting experience,” Epperly said.

From there it became cyclic. More boys

meant more girls had to stunt, which led to the cheerleaders

pushing themselves for bigger and better stunts.

“The challenge about keeping kids

interested in cheer is that there isn’t the aspect of most sports

that you can say, ‘Yeah we won the game tonight,’” said Kerala

Hubbard, Bigfork cheerleading’s other co-coach. “Instead their

reward is that they are getting better and better. I think in that

way it takes a special kid to be able to be a part of the squad

because they have to be driven by themselves.”

Stunts were taken on as squad members

were introduced to them at camps, found them on the Internet and at

times even made them up on their own, though all of the stunts were

checked to ensure they met all safety regulations.

“It’s amazing the progression,”

Stallknecht said. “You start off doing the little things, and then

you see other things on the Internet or you see other squads doing

things and you try those and you do bigger and bigger stunts. Our

coaches helped us just keep doing bigger and better stunts and we

probably wouldn’t have gotten to where we were if it wasn’t for

them.”

Bigfork’s cheerleading performances

started to catch people’s eyes last year as flyers started going

higher and stunts became more creative, but this year things really

took off from there. There were the usual high-level stunts

including extend-elevators and pendulums, but they added mirrored

stunts, dead drops and other acrobatics that left crowds and squads

from other schools in awe.

“No one compares to us now in the

state,” Epperly said. “They are the exception. We had so many

stunts we couldn’t perform them all in a game. We had to leave kids

out that had the talent to do the stunts because we couldn’t get

them all in.”

That reputation is what is propelling

these seniors into new opportunities.

Stallknecht said she enjoyed her time

at UGF, but is also trying out for the University of Montana

cheerleading squad this weekend.

“You have to do a lot more partner

stunting in college,” Stallknecht said. “I really enjoy partner

stunting so I would like that. But there are other things I have to

work on like my back handspring, so I don’t know if they’ll give me

some leeway on that since I’m going to keep working on it this

summer. I’m just going to go there and give it all I got

basically.”

Stallknecht is not the only one still

auditioning for college squads. Rose and Johnson are sending

audition video tapes to Kansas State University in the upcoming

weeks. KSU puts on an annual camp at Bigfork for the cheerleaders,

so there is already some familiarity there.

“Cheerleading in college seems like a

lot of fun and the college up there (in Great Falls) seems like a

great school,” said Rose, who added that if he receives an offer

from KSU he would likely accept it over UGF. “I think the most

shocking thing for me that I’ll have to get over is that

cheerleading is actually all year long in college.”

Johnson is working on figuring out his

post-high school plan. He will soon apply to police academies

around the state and if he gets into one of those he will opt out

of attending UGF. Otherwise he is leaning toward accepting the

school’s offer.

“With the whole thing of it being

another challenge, it feels like something I really want to do,”

Johnson said. “There is a small part of me that hopes that I get

rejected from the academies and I get to do four years of

college-level cheer. But the other part would like to save

thousands of dollars on college and skip right to the academy.”

Johnson, as well as McCoard, didn’t

start cheerleading until this year so the idea of parlaying their

new found interest into a college scholarship is a bit

surprising.

“Honestly, I was really surprised when

I heard they wanted me to cheer for them because most people get a

scholarship because they’ve been doing a sport for a long time so

this really came as a surprise,” Johnson said.

Gimbel is also trying to decide if UGF

cheerleading is the right fit for him.

“I think it would be really fun, but it

would take a lot of my time,” he said. “Instead of focusing on

academics, I’d be focusing on that.”

At this point, Gimbel is leaning toward

keeping his original plan of working for a year and then attending

Montana State University in the fall of 2012, for which he has

already received his acceptance letter.

Fellow senior and squad member Bailey

Vogt will also be at MSU. She opted out of auditioning for UGF

because she wanted to attend MSU. Vogt attended a clinic at her

future school’s dance team, but decided it wasn’t for her.

“It was not really the style I was

interested in,” Vogt said. “It was more of a lyrical style, which

isn’t really what I enjoy. I prefer more of a pom style.”

Vogt, who was the squad’s dance captain

and often took the lead in choreographing their routines, is not

totally cutting dance out of her life though. In June she is

getting certified to be a Zumba instructor, which is a workout

class that combines Latin and other international music and dance

to create an unconventional fitness routine.

“I really love it. It is so fun and

energetic. Also, I love teaching so I think it will be a good match

for me,” said Vogt, who currently volunteers as a Bigfork LEAP

teacher and intends on majoring in elementary education in

college.

While the squad members are faced with

big decisions about their future, their coaches are simply excited

that they have the options to consider.

“It is exciting to think that

cheerleading can be the driving force behind kids getting an

education,” Epperly said.