Trouble in paradise

T.S. Eliot called April the cruelest month, and for the Georgia College & State University cheerleaders this rang true.
The team placed sixth at the National Cheerleader Association Nationals, the most prestigious of such tournaments. The squad scored a 7.57 out of 10, while the top school Hawaii Pacific University scored a 9.38.
This is the lowest that the team has finished since 1996, and it comes as a shock to a team with high expectations and talent.
“It is very strange because when we did the routine at the last basketball game in front of our home crowd we did great, hit the stunts. When we performed at Peach Belt [Championship] we did great, hit all the stunts, and we had been hitting them quite consistently at practice lately,” said Head Coach Jerry Fly. “So it was surprising, just a bad day like any team can have.”
Fly identified exactly what went wrong during the Bobcats’ performance to warrant a sixth place finish.

“Missed stunts. We missed several stunts in the opening of the routine and several stunts in our elite stunt sequence, one of which ended up falling out of bounds, and that is a very severe penalty,” said Fly. “There was no idea in our minds that we would go down there and miss those particular stunts.”
The missed stunts came at the most inopportune moment, very early in the squad’s routine, and they struggled to regain their composure.
Also contributing to the sixth place finish was the team reaching its potential too early in the season and not being able to retain its quality performance.
“I guess we just peaked too early. We always say that we don’t want to peak around Peach Belt [Championships] but we tried to do well at Peach Belt to beat Columbus [State University]. I think we peaked a little early and fell apart at the end,” said Cheerleader Brad Crowe. “It wasn’t that we didn’t have the talent, and it wasn’t that we couldn’t do it; it was just that we didn’t get it done when we needed to.”
Rumors are circulating about a team meltdown resulting in an argument following the competition. Fly did not elaborate on the situation, but did verify a possible disagreement among the team members
“There is probably some truth to that. I think there were some attitude problems on this year’s team that festered through to some other people on the team. I don’t know the details on that as much as the team members themselves because the team members hang out with themselves, they don’t hang out with the coach,” Fly said. “So I feel that there is some truth to that, but I feel like the accurate answer would come from people on the team.”
Crowe declined to comment on the situation and cheerleader Josh Irvin downplayed the incident and said that it should not be an issue next season.
“There was an argument but it didn’t get out of hand,” said Irvin. “Those people that made the comments or started the argument are not going to be here next year.”
Even with the lowest finish at the NCA Nationals in eight years, Fly does not discredit his team’s finish. In Division II cheer competition, teams not only consist of Division II squads but also Division III squads.
“Finishing sixth is really pretty good when you think about finishing sixth out of all of the teams in the nation,” said Fly. “I’m proud of what we did, I am just dissatisfied because we should have done better.”
The team will look forward to next year and not dwell on the troubles of this season.
“The main thing we are trying to do is forget about this year. Next year is going to be totally different,” said Irvin. “We’re going to create the routine next year, and it will be a lot of fun.”
This was the last competition of the year. Current members of the squad are returning and Fly is actively recruiting new cheerleaders. The team will have plenty of talent from which to pick, and this should result in another solid squad.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 9 2004. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry