Cause for cheer

The Butler University men's basketball roster is loaded with players from Indiana.

They include Zach Hahn and Chase Stigall from New Castle, Matt Howard of Connersville and Emerson Kampen from Yorktown. Leading scorer Gordon Hayward is from Brownsburg, and other members of the team hail from Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Noblesville and Kokomo.

And when the Bulldogs play Michigan State in the Final Four Saturday at 6 p.m., there will also be a former Jay County High School athlete on the floor.

Erika Hunt, a 2008 JCHS graduate, is a Butler cheerleader.

"It's been exciting, for sure," said Hunt, who rooted the Bulldogs on during the victories over UTEP, Murray State, Syracuse and Kansas State so far in the tournament. "I'm never going to forget this whole experience."

It was no guarantee that Hunt, a sophomore, would be get to be at any of the tournament games. Throughout the season, only juniors and seniors travel with the team, and even they attend just a handful of Horizon League games.

And the NCAA only allows 12 cheerleaders to travel to the tournament games. In Butler's case, that left room for two sophomores, and spirit coordinator Jamie Troyer selected Hunt and Emily Fisher of Linton to fill those spots.

"Basically the past two weeks I haven't been to class, I've just been traveling," said Hunt. "That's why this week has been so crazy. I've been trying to get back on schedule ..."

While the national semifinal and championship games will be played just a few miles from Butler's Indianapolis campus, the Bulldogs logged plenty flight time on their first two trips. As part of the West Regional bracket of the tournament, the team played its first two games in San Jose, Calif., followed by two more in Salt Lake City.

Hunt and the rest of the cheerleading squad traveled on charter flights with the team to both destinations, leaving on Tuesday for the Thursday games. The extra time provided the squad a chance to do some sight-seeing.

In Utah, the cheerleaders spent a day touring the state's capital. And they also visited Park City, the site of the ski jumping, bobsled, skeleton, luge and skiing events for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

The San Jose trip included a day at the beach, and a visit to San Francisco.

"We didn't get to go beside it, but we had pictures with it in the distance," said Hunt of seeing the Golden Gate Bridge.

"It was pretty cool. I've always wanted to go there, so that was really a neat opportunity."

Seeing the landmark was great, but Hunt said her favorite memory of the tournament so far came on the court in Salt Lake City. The Bulldogs led No. 2 seed Kansas State for all but 30 seconds in the West Regional championship game, winning 63-56 to secure their trip back home.

"We were all just so nervous," said Hunt. "That was probably the most exciting, just to see the team so excited, getting to go back to Indy to play in the Final Four."

The decision to make Hunt part of the traveling squad was probably a good one for the Bulldogs, because having her on the sidelines in her sophomore year seems to bring a bit of good luck with it. In 2006, when she was a sophomore at JCHS, she cheered through another tournament run as the Patriot boys basketball team reached the Class 3A state championship game.

In an twist of fate, Hunt is now cheering on two of the players - Hahn and Stigall - who helped deny Jay County the state title. Hahn scored 14 points in the final five minutes of the third quarter in that game and finished with 29 to give the state championship to New Castle.

"That was hard at first. Coming here, I was like, 'I don't know if I can cheer for Zach Hahn because he beat us,'" said Hunt, laughing. "He's been doing really well coming off the bench and hitting 3-pointers, so I've converted. I'm a Zach Hahn fan now I guess."

Hunt's cheerleading squads in middle school and high school had great success at the Indiana State Fair competition. Her East Jay squad won the championship in 2002, and the JCHS varsity was the runner-up in her junior season.

And, in addition to cheerleading, she was a standout gymnast and track athlete at Jay County.

The international business major, who hopes to work in the sports industry, led the Patriots to the 2008 gymnastics sectional title in her senior season, posting a career-best score of 35.4 in the all-around competition. She finished third on the uneven bars with an 8.8, fifth on the floor exercise with a 9.35 and sixth on the vault at 8.65.

She followed up that effort by winning the sectional championship in the 100-meter hurdles two months later.

Hunt said she wanted to stay active in college, so she was considering continuing her career in either cheerleading or track. She also wanted to go to a small school, and was interested in a cheerleading program that was involved on campus.

So when she got the opportunity to try-out for the Butler squad, she jumped at it. And when she made it, she was sure she wanted to be a Bulldog.

But even then, she didn't envision experiencing what she has over the course of the last few weeks.

"I never pictured myself as a Division I cheerleader at all," said Hunt. "So then when the opportunity came, it was just awesome. And now to be cheering on college basketball's biggest stage is pretty exciting. I never pictured myself in this position, but I'm definitely thankful and blessed for the opportunity.

"Nerve-wracking," she added of what its like to be on television regularly. "It's fun. It goes along with being a cheerleader. You have to be confident in front of the camera. You can't shy away from it, but I'm more of a shy-type of person. At first it was hard. But now I just get excited at every game cheering for the Bulldogs, so that makes it fun."

The week leading up to Butler's first Final Four appearance has been a busy one for the team and cheerleaders alike.

Because Indianapolis is the host city this year, there has been no travel for the Bulldogs. Instead of another week of site-seeing, Hunt has been attending classes and meeting with professors trying to catch up on two weeks worth of missed work and reschedule missed quizzes and tests.

On top of that, the cheerleaders attended Indianapolis mayor Greg Ballard's downtown rally Wednesday. And Friday, when cheerleaders were excused from classes, the squad made several appearances around Indianapolis.

"Campus has pretty much been crazy this week," said Hunt. "There are so many different pep rallies going on. And everyone is excited for the games.

"And it's been really hard to concentrate in classes, that's for sure. All I can think about is: Final Four."

"It's been a very crazy week, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, that's for sure."

On Saturday morning the squad will do a television shoot with CBS, followed by a visit to the NCAA pep rally downtown. And then it will be off to Lucas Oil Stadium to cheer on Butler against the Spartans.

A victory would mean a berth in the national championship game Monday at 9 p.m. against either Duke or West Virginia.

"I don't really want to talk about it too much," said Hunt of the possibility. "I don't want to jinx the team or anything. But it would definitely be (exciting).

"I'm never going to forget this whole experience."[[In-content Ad]]