Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Contributed Photo The Shawano Community High School cheer squad won two firsts and a second place Feb . 14 at the Green Bay Cheer Classic at Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. Pictured are, from left, front row, Kale McHugh and Brandon Bolin; back row, Joe Willkomm, Taylo Hodkiewicz, Elseana Panzer, Reno Buelow, Brandi Fisken, Allison Raddant, Samantha Heinz, McCasalin Gorman, Mariah Ruehle, Hannah Zuiches, Isabella Stueck, Kmberly Moesch, Bailey Moorman and Sydney Utke.
Contributed Photo The Shawano Community High School cheer team beefed up several of its routines in preparation for the Green Bay Cheer Classic at Green Bay’s Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena. The new bits paid off. The Hawks cheerleaders took home two firsts and one second place.
Like the old enigma about a tree falling silently in an empty forest, the question has a bit of a Zen quality to it.
Who cheers for the cheerleaders?
Where is the sound of one hand clapping when the girls and guys on the sidelines do something extraordinary?
It’s neither a brain-teaser nor a riddle at Shawano Community High School, where the cheerleading team achieved something worthy of more than a smattering of polite golf applause. The cheerleaders took home two first-places and one second-place award at the statewide Green Bay Cheer Classic competition Feb. 14, joining the Hawks’ swimmers, wrestlers and basketball players who came up big when it counted — and under a lot of pressure, to boot.
“It’s a very big deal for us,” Shawano cheerleading coach Mary Kast said. “We tweaked our routines a bit in preparation for the competition; we added more difficulty to some of the routines to try and maximize our scoring.”
Kast, a former dancer and Shawano graduate, revamped the routines by reconfiguring the jump sequences, adding more spins, more transitions and more flexibility skills.
As she points out, the additional twists to the routines are moot if the kids can’t pull them off.
“They have a two-and-a-half minute routine to perform, to hit all their skills,” she said. “If they miss it, or even one part of it, there are no do-overs. And this is center stage at Brown County Arena.”
With separate judges on hand to grade each individual phase of a bit, such as pyramid stunting, co-ed stunting, tumbling, jumps and motion, there is nowhere to hide if even a small part of the bit goes awry. But the 13 girls and three boys on Shawano’s team responded like champs, nailing the new tosses, flips and catches flawlessly en route to the award-winning performances.
Shawano was one of 53 cheer teams vying for top honors.
“We’re super excited, they did such a nice job,” Kast said. “The kids work so hard, and they don’t always get a chance to showcase everything they can do.”
It is easy to appreciate Kast’s enthusiasm. The hours she puts in training the cheerleaders are her own, and the winning performances at Green Bay were the satisfying culmination of a season’s worth of dedication and toil.
They will get another chance to strut their stuff Saturday at the Waupaca Cheer Regional, where the top three in the various categories advance to the sectional and then state finals.
“I think they have a good chance to advance,” Kast said. “I have a lot of confidence in them. They have a lot of discipline and drive.”