August 15, 20l8
Page 17
Cheer Dogs take aim at
By Richard Dumas
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Fresh off the prograrn’s ’
best-ever finish in 2017, the
Mary Persons varsity com-
petition cheerleading squad
is poised for even bigger
success in 2018.
With 13 returners back
from a squad that finished
fifth in AAAA a year ago,
fifth—year MP competition
coach Kyle Ward said he
expects even more out of his
team this year.
“We have more talent this
year, so our expectations
are even higher,” Ward said
“That’s the only challenging
part to being successful is the
next year, your expectations
have to go up. They can’t go
down. And so me as a coach,
our expectation is to do bet-
ter. And I think we have that
in us. Now the challenging
part, which all coaches in all
sports face this same exact
challenge, is keeping your
kids healthy. Charlemagne? Ward Said ‘ZQn-a , , . .
score sheet in’orderto ’
is just like football, if I lose “
one or two key players it
changes the entire dynamic
of everything.”
Ward said despite placing
fifth at state last November,
his team didn’t execute
its program flawlessly. He
speculated that if MP had
performed as well at state
as it did in winning the
program’s second region
championship a week prior,
then MP could have finished
as high as runner—up to first-
.place Chapel Hill.
“We only had one team
that hit, which ended up
being the state champi-
ons,” Ward said. “And the
rest of the teams, includ-
ing us, didn’t hit. We had-
a mistake. Ifwe wouldn’t
have had that mistake, we
could’ve been second place
I believe. I don’t believe we
would’ve won first. And we
beat Chapel Hill in a regular
season competition. They
were good then, but they
had some mistakes at the
regular season competition.
But watching them, I knew
they were good and if they
hit they were gonna do well.
Some Other teams that were
really good, if they would’ve
hit they probably would’ve
come out first. But that’s how
cheerleading is. That’s how
' any sport is. Ifyou show
up one night and another
team doesn’t, that’s kind of
how the results fall. I was
extremely pleased with that.
Our team was pleased. Being
fifth felt good, but it would’ve
felt better if we had hit our
routine, if you had been able
to fire on all cylinders and do
really well and still come out
fifth. But then you’re gonna
live this whole next year
with, ‘What if we would have
hit?’ That ‘what if’ factor
keeps coaches up at night
thinking.”
Ward said his cheerlead—
ers’ skill—levels, particularly
tumbling, are so high this
year that he’s been able to
increase the difficulty of
MP’s program to allow the
Cheer Dogs to compete for
maximum scores, increasing
MP’s chances of reaching the
top spot at state.
“This year we have that
out'your score, you have to
have all the elements that
Georgia High School says
you must have on it to be at
an advanced level. And we’ve
never been able to do that in
the tumbling category. We’ve
been really close in the stunt
category to being able to do
that, but even in the stunt
we’ve always been one or two
points behind of us being
able to max out that score
sheet. This year based on the
routine that we have, which
we’re still early on and we’re.
still practicing, but we’ve
maxed it out. We’ve maxed
out standing tumbling.
We’ve maxed out the entire
points sCale.”
With the highest possible
score being 110, Ward said
MP almost reached 96 in its
season—best region champi—
onship performance. He said
by season’s end in 2017, the
Cheer Dogs were virtually
. flawless in their performance
but their starting score wasn’t
high enough for MP to score
much higher. With a higher
starting score this time
around‘Ward has his eyes
set squarely on loftier goals.
“Some coaches don’t like
to talk about state champi—
SUNNY prvm:
Mark l2:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
ons, state champions, state
champions,” Ward said “And
I understand the premise.
Especially in football, you’ve
got to go game to game to
game. But for me, if I can
get those girls to buy into
that vision that we are good
enough, let’s just continue
to work hard and continue
to do whatever it takes to
get to that next level to be
considered one of those great
teams. Not just, ‘Man, they’re
good when they hit’ I wanna
be, ‘Man, they’re great.’ You
want to be able to hit a rou-
tine and not leave it in the
judges’ hands. You wanna
be able to max out the score
sheet to where you know you
maxed out. So they can’t take
those points from you And
then hit a routine where they
can’t be as subjective. When
you leave it up in the air,
you don’t know what you’re
going to get from some of
these judges. That’s just how
it works. So we’re gonna
a work hard I’ve tried to
in my girls the mindset of we ‘
have the chance to be state
champions.”
With 18 quality cheerlead-
ers, Ward said he’s expecting
to put 16 on the mat at state
this year, including four full
stunt groups. Ward said last
year was the first season
that he’s been able to have
four stunt groups, settling
for three in his first three
seasons.
“Right now we have four
groups and we’re going
strong,” Ward said “Putting
two groups together is never
a problem. Putting that third
group together, sometimes
when you start working on ~
stunts these first two groups
have got it really good, that
third group sometimes
struggles and that fourth
group you’re working with
all year. Luckily last year
before the first competition
I had all four groups doing
the skills that they needed
That’s the hard part with
state is we dropped a skill
that we hadn’t dropped all
year. It’s kind of like practic-
ing or performing a football
game in your Mary Persons
stadium all year, and then
you’ve got to go play state at
the Mercedes—Benz Stadium.
It’s just the environment is so
much different that it’s hard
to get that focus in. We don’t
have a first quarter, second
quarter or a halftime to get it
together. You have two-and—
a—half minutes.”
Among MP’s 13 return-
ers are three experienced
seniors: Taniyah Dewberry,
Nakayla Jackson and Macy
Morris, each of whom are
beginning at least their third
season on varsity.
Ward said Dewberry, an
expert backspot, is perhaps
the strongest female athlete
he has ever coached Ward
said Dewberry has worked
hard to improve her tum—
bling but her greatest talent is
as a base.
The versatile Jackson is
skilled both as a base and
as a flyer and is one of the
team’s most consistent per-
formers.
“She’s a really good leader
I believe,” Ward said “She’s
outspoken, and people
followher. She hasreally .'
‘ good standing tumbling,
really Consistent standing
tumbling, and I think she’s
a really good asset to have.
She’s probably the shortest
girl on our entire team. She’s
extremely short, and she’s
done some basing and flying.
And once again, she’s going
to do the majority basing
this year, but at one point in
the routine we have to have
fivestuntsintheainandin
order to put five stunts in the
air you have to have only two
bases. And she’ll be flying in
one of those.”
Morris, the lone fourth-
year senior, is one of the
team’s most talented per-
formers, having overcome
an ACL tear that prevented
her from competing a year
ago.
“She is extremely skilled,
one of our best tumblers
on the team, one of our
best jumpers,” Ward said of
Morris. “As far as talent is
concerned she’s probably
one of the best that we’ve had
here in our program. And so
it’s nice to have her this year,
especially since it’s her senior
year. She’s good enough
where she has the ambitions
of going on and trying out
at the University of Georgia
MARY PERSONS 2018-19
VARSITY COMPETITION
SQUAD: Pictured from left
to right on the front row:
Kayleigh Hill, Macy Morris,
NaKayla Jackson, Tani-
yah Dewberry and Jaida
Harvey. Pictured from left
to right on the middle row:
head coach Kyle Ward,
Abigayle Fox, Morgan Hill,
Kaylee Gordon, Abney
Langer, Kylee Everidge,
Calliway Selman, Ridley
White and Mia Winget.
Pictured from lett to right
on the back row: Camp-
bell Brown, Tenley Pelissier,
Madeleine Tucker, Molly
Cobb and Sydney Lewis.
(Photo/Richard Dumas)
state's elite
And I wouldn’t even recom-
mend someone going to try
out there if they don’t have
that type of skill level, and
she does.’ ’
Among the team’s five
newcomers is freshman
Abney Langer, who, like
Iackson, excels both on the
ground and in the air.
Ward said, “Abney is
extremely good As a coach
your heart gets happy when
you get a freshman that’s
good Just like when Macy
came aboard. When she was
a freshman, she could full,
she could do a lot of differ—
ent things. And you’re like,
‘Wow, okay good Let’s keep
them healthy and let’s keep
them around for four years.” ’
Ward said flyers on cheer-
leading squads are like foot~
ball quarterbacks because .
they often get blamed when
stunts go wrong. This year’s
primary flyers are a quartet
of returners: Kylee Everidge,
Morgan Hill, Kaylee Gordon
and Abigaer Fox. Ward said
Hill is probably his most
flexible flyer, a critical tech-
nique which can sometimes
mean the difference between
a good score and a great one.
“Morgan does a really
good job with her flexibility
and just selling the stunt,”
Ward said. “That’s something
the judges look for. There’s
just different areas that help
you go from that eight to
10 category. Eight’s not bad .
You’ll be happy with eight.
But 10 is what you’re looking
for. And you don’t expect
to get 10. Ten is perfect.
There’s not many times that
you see perfection, not true
perfection, because if they
were giving 105 away, then it
would be hard to differenti-
ate from the true times when
teams are really perfect.”
Leading the 14-member
varsity spirit squad in 2018
are co—head coaches Laura
Nelson and Rachel Scott.
The varsity spirit squad will
be anchored by five seniors,
Linda Carvajal, Sunny DeV-
ane, Kierra Hughley, Alivia
Stewart and Abby Watson.
Ward said spirit squad
members will be making a
concerted effort in 2018-19
to attend MP sports beyond
just football and basketball.
Ward said, “Varsity spirit
team members are going to
try hard to make themselves
present at some of the other
events to cheer them on and
just to show them that, ‘Hey
listen, we’re the program
that’s been entrusted to carry
on school spirit. We want
you guys to know that we
appreciate what you do just
like we do other teams.” ’
Another change in
2018-19 is the addition of
a GHSA~sanctioned spirit
squad statewide competition
on Feb. 23 at the Columbus
Civic Center. Ward 24 r
cheerleaders are
so MP’s varsity spirit ,d’ V ,
competition teams will likely
team up to compete in the
first—time event.
“They’ll do their team’s
fight song,” Ward said
“They’ll do a crowd involve—
ment cheer. There’s a combi-
nation of things that they’ll
be judged on, but I think it’s
just an avenue to help those
girls have something to
Compete against, to get better
for. Every state’s cheerlead-
ing looks a little bit differ—
ent. Football’s on a national
platform, so it kind of looks
the same. But even counties,
the cheerleading looks differ-
ent. And this is their way of
trying to help lead the cheer—
leading in the direction that
it’s been going the last several
years that it’s a collegiate feel,
a collegiate look”
MACY MORRIS
Varsity Cheerleader
WE ARE SO PROQ‘UD‘OF YOU!
it estsse
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