Teamwork earned Jumpers trip to nationals (01/27/04)

PORTLAND — Jay County has a strong tradition of cheerleading at the high school and junior high levels. Now the excellence has spread to even younger ages.

The newest local cheerleading groups are the Gym City Jumpers, who are based at Portland’s Gym City Gymnastics. And by all accounts they already have a good idea of what is important.

“I like working as a team,” said Megan Price, a member of the pee-wee squad. “We can get stuff done better and we can work better (in a group).”

About half of the cheerleaders are also involved in gymnastics programs at Gym City, and said the team aspect was one of the fun things about their involvement in cheerleading.

The team attitude has brought phenomenal results for both the pee-wee (ages 6 to 9) and youth (ages 8 to 11) squads as they have taken part in five competitions during the past three months.

The pee-wee squad has been victorious every time they have hit the mat. The youth squad has come away with three first-place finishes and two second-place results.

Perhaps most impressively, both earned bids to the America’s Best Super Nationals in St. Louis April 3 through 5. They did it with victories at the America’s Best competition in Indianapolis in November, which was their first of the season.

Most of the girls agreed that when it comes time for competition they get nervous and it’s “freaky.”

“You get butterflies in your stomach,” said Cydney Huey, a pee-wee squad member.

But, there is another side to that nervousness, added the youth squad’s Erin Hunt.

“I started (competing) because when we go to the competitions you get nervous,” she said. “But then once you do it you just want to do it again.”

The teams do it again, and again, and again plenty of times between competitions. Both practice two days a week for two hours each day with added practice time when competitions near.

They do so to try to perfect each facet of their 2-minute, 30-second routine.

Kelly Henry, one of the four cheerleading coaches, said working with girls with different levels of experience has been one of the biggest challenges. And, while most other competitive groups had everything in place, the Jumpers had just two months to put together music, flips, jumps and every other part of a competitive routine.

“That was what was really challenging with this age group,” said Henry. “I think their gymnastics ability has helped tremendously.”

Henry and fellow coaches Kristi Antrim, Tonya McCoy and Sheri McCoy were all gymnasts at Jay County High School. Henry, Antrim and Sheri McCoy were also JCHS cheerleaders.

Henry said she believes the eventual goal of becoming a Patriot cheerleader is what draws some of her team members, especially at the youth level.

“I like it because it gets you ready for junior high and high school,” agreed Hunt.

Other members had a variety of reasons for joining the squads. Many had seen competitions previously.

“I used to watch competitions on TV and when I heard about this I was so excited to sign up,” said Samantha Schwartz of the pee-wee squad.

The girls mentioned a variety of things that they like to do best during cheerleading.

Some like the flips and the tumbling. Others enjoy building the pyramids the most.

All 25 of them — 10 pee-wee and 15 youth — will be showing off the skills which earned them a national berth during halftime of the JCHS boys basketball game Friday against Anderson Highland.

They expressed the same nervousness about performing at the game as they said they did at the competitions. But there was another emotion as well.

“We’re excited,” said Kristen Ainsworth of the youth squad. “Everybody gets to see us, like the cheerleading coaches from the high school.”

Some of the pee-wee squad members had a different audience in mind. Several of them — including Trent Bailey fan Nicole Hamilton — said they couldn’t wait to perform in front of the Patriot boys basketball players.

After Friday they will return to the gym to prepare for April in St. Louis, where they hope to repeat the kind of success they’ve had thus far.

“(We want to) take first place,” said Hamilton. “But we always want to try our best.”

And while the thrill of competition is important, it seems the enjoyment is what keeps them coming back.

“It’s fun,” said Schwartz. “And if you like to do it, it’s a good sport.”

Editor’s note: The squads are accepting donations to help with the cost of the trip to St. Louis. Anyone interested in donating can call Laura Schlosser at (260) 726-3929 or (260) 726-3991, Julie Barber at (260) 726-4033, Patty McCoy at (260) 726-8612 or Kelly Henry at (260) 726-3669.[[In-content Ad]]