“Competition cheer
is not for everyone. I
completely get that,”
said Ann Michele.
“You have to consider
both the time and the
risk involved.”
In the 1970s, the Dallas Cowboy
Cheerleaders helped recreate the image of
cheerleaders as pretty and energetic girls
dressed in skimpy outfits. But it was actually
an ESPN broadcast of the National High School
Cheerleading competition in 1983 that “gave
way to more stunting, flying, and tumbling
than cheerleading had ever seen before,”
according to cheerleading.lovetoknow.com.
American films like Bring It On and the
five sequels that followed continued to present
cheer as a highly competitive sport into the
2000s. And with Netflix’s 2020 docu-series
Cheer, attention has once again been brought to the sport.
But this time, it’s not high school girls proving themselves
to one another in dance offs but a realization that
cheerleading is indeed a competitive sport in its own right.
One of the first things Ann Michele purposed to do as
Head Cheerleading Coach at Vidalia High School was to
educate both students and the community about the sport
with performances and radio interviews with local sports
reporters. In the early years, she even offered extra credit to
students who sat in practices for competitions to give the
team an audience.
“We performed at pep rallies,” said Ann Michele. “Then
we started holding a community event at the beginning of
each season to showcase what the team’s upcoming season
would look like. This event has proven to be motivational
and advantageous for us over the years because it gives us
an opportunity to be in front of our people in advance of
our first competition.”
All the exposure helped everyone to see what
competitive cheerleading was really about. The team
even earned the respect of the football coaches in the
weight room when they saw how hard they worked, the
commitment of time, and the athleticism required to be
a success. “There’s probably more respect and support for
the sport on our campus than most. Of course, winning
championships has helped.” Ann Michele smiled.
“Julie Spivey is my Assistant Coach,” said Ann
Michele, “and I attribute my success to our partnership.
We’ve been coaching together for about fifteen years. We
complement each other well. Julie teaches fifth grade at
Sally D. Meadows. We actually started the middle school
competition cheer program together in 2011. Tiffany Smiley
Toole is currently the middle school cheerleading coach now,
and she does a great job.”
The Indians first big win came in 2004, which was only
Ann Michele’s second year of coaching competition cheer.
“We had gained a little exposure, and several kids that had
the skills we needed had joined the team that year. We
actually had ‘five fulls’ that year, which is a high-level skill
for tumbling. It’s almost unheard of for a AA school to have
that many advanced level tumblers.”
Tumbling skills are not gained overnight. “It’s
something you have to work on year-round,” said Ann
Michele, which is why cheerleaders are required to take
a tumbling class on their own in addition to competition
cheer practices. “Those skills require muscle memory and
that takes time.”
The training schedule is no small commitment. Practice
is four days a week with competitions on Saturdays. Sunday
afternoon, the team comes together to watch the film of
their performance the day before to go over their scores and
set goals for the following week. “The only day off is Friday,
unless you also do spirit cheer, which means you perform
game nights, too.”
Practices begin with 30 to 45 minutes of conditioning,
flexibility, and strength training including drills for stunting
and jumps. “We also have a small workout room where we
lift weights. We regularly do agility training with resistance
jump bands to work on quick action for jumps.”
In the last 45 minutes of practice, the focus is on stunt
group chemistry and timing. Stunt groups are made up of
four people: two bases that lift, a flyer, and a safety person
in back. “During the summer, we continue conditioning,
drills and stunt progression training, which includes work
on the four basic body positions performed by the fliers: the
heel stretch, scorpion, bow and arrow, and scale.”
Competition and spirit cheerleaders each have a week
of summer camp, which means some will go to both. “We
do both fundraising and conditioning in the months of
June and July,” said Ann Michele. “We also meet with our
choreographer, Happy Hooper, in Alabama during the
month of June. He has a fantastic All Star program called
Ace AllStars of Alabama. We’ve been going to ACE for the
past six years for him to put our routine together, which
is two minutes and thirty seconds; approximately forty
8-counts. August and September are spent putting together
the elements of the choreography for our first competition,
which is usually the third weekend of September.”
One look at the score sheet explains the need for all the
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