Cheerleaders, Sassy Cats prep for season

The Georgia College dance team, the Sassy Cats, and the cheerleading squad are practicing aggressively for their first performance of the year on Oct. 20, Bobcat Madness.

This event, which was formerly referred to as Midnight Madness, is a pep rally held to get students pumped up for the upcoming basketball season.

Katie LeVan

Graduate student Michael Clanahan (left) helps prepare his cheer squad for the upcoming season basing a stunt.

The Sassy Cats are an all hip-hop dance team who compete at two competitions during the season, the Peach Belt Conference and the Universal Dance Association Nationals, and perform at every home basketball game for both the men’s and women’s teams.

“The best part about being on Sassy Cats is being with good friends,” Wingo said. “It makes it fun and rewarding when we reach our goals.”

The team has two co-captains.

“I’m doing something that I love to do. I love performing in front of a crowd. It’s always a better vibe when people are at games supporting us,” Adriana Acuña, said senior athletic training major and co-captain of the team. “It’s fun being part of a team because you have your own family.”

Their biggest competition of the year is January’s UDA Nationals at Disney world. They perform in the open hip-hop division and are the only team from Georgia that performs in this particular competition.

“This year, we’re doing something different,” Wingo said.

Over the past few years, the Sassy Cats have been earning higher rankings at nationals.

“My freshmen year was the first time we made finals, we stayed at 14th place. My sophomore year we placed ninth and last year we tied for 10th place,” Acuña said. “We still consider ourselves ninth in the nation. Being ninth in the nation is a huge thing for us. We’re a student-driven organization with two captains running the team. It’s an accomplishment because we’re able to go represent Georgia College and the results are great to come back and say we are ninth in the nation.”

The team does not have a coach and are run by team captains Wingo and Acuña, with the help of team sponsor and advisor Doris Henderson.

“It’s usually the captains who organize everything, from outfits to music,” Acuña said. It’s a lot of responsibility for a captain when we don’t have a coach to help out.”

Besides the dance performed at nationals, which is choreographed by a hired choreographer, the team captains choreograph all other dances themselves.

“People ask us who choreographs the dances and we say we do. A lot of people are impressed. Our team is really good with picking up choreography,” Acuña said. “People love us. They love going to basketball games just because we dance. It’s upbeat and the energy gets the crowd excited.”

The cheerleading squad is also preparing for Bobcat Madness. The squad performs at all the women’s and men’s home basketball games, as well as the Peach Belt Conference, National Cheerleaders Association Nationals, exhibitions at high schools to recruit students and in the GC Nutcracker performance.

“The cheerleaders are always the Russian soldiers,” senior math major Kelly Walter said.

The cheerleaders are paid to perform in the Nutcracker to help raise money for nationals.

“The GC cheerleading team is a very dedicated and hardworking group of men and women that strive to be the best at what we’re doing,” Walter said. “Cheerleading to us is a sport because we work just as hard to get that national title.”

A lot of time and energy goes into performing at nationals, which takes place in April in Daytona Beach, Fla.

“College nationals is the most exhilarating experience, there is no other high like performing on the stage at college cheerleading nationals,” Walter said.

The cheerleaders return a week early from winter break to begin learning choreography for nationals.

“We’re having someone come in to help us with stunt sequences and pyramids,” Walter said. “It takes four days to learn a full two minute and 30 second routine.”

Although the cheerleaders begin preparing their routine for nationals during winter break, their overall preparations take place throughout the year.

“It’s year round, no break,” senior athletic training major team member of the cheerleaders Jacob Bloodworth said. “The stuff we are doing now is preparing us for nationals.”

“We’re a group of individuals who put in the time and effort to be better. We not only cheer for the school but we compete,” Bloodworth said. “Our goal is not only to win a championship for ourselves, but to cheer on the basketball team.”

Posted by Katie LeVan on Oct 6 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.