Westfield, Southeastern, Fishers & Noblesville squads compete at tournament
By KIRK GREEN
For The Reporter
FORTVILLE – As many are aware, cheerleading has grown into a stand-alone sport. It’s much more than just cheering on Friday nights: It has grown into a year-round sport that takes a great deal of training and dedication.
This Saturday morning was like many other weekends in the fall, with cheer squads getting up early to compete against each other. Westfield, Hamilton Southeastern, Fishers and Noblesville traveled to Mount Vernon to perform their stunts, dances, and tumbling, putting it all into a tightly choregraphed 2.5-minute session.
Kaley Pascle, the Westfield coach, said that she thought her 11-girl squad has a great amount of potential this year. She said the Shamrocks have been improving and look for them to continue to do so every week going forward.
Coach Crystal Scott’s Noblesville squad has been back-to-back state champions in its division, but said they are a little bit younger than previous years. She also said “the squad did exactly what we wanted them to do on their first competition of the season.” Scott was very pleased with what she saw and hopes to build on the team’s currents skills and improving its score each time the team performs.
Fishers has also won some state championships in the past and even a National Championship in Orlando, Fla. The staff includes assistant coaches like Brooke Hupp Wheeler and Taylor Giunta, who were part of those championships, and have returned to give back to the Tigers program.
Coach Austin Bazilio said that the coaches are looking for the Fishers co-ed squad to give everything they can. He added that the senior leadership is really pushing the underclassman to have that experience in competing that many were unable to due to the COVID-19 shutdown. That is lighting a passion and drive unlike he has witnessed in the past. Bazilio also is looking for the team’s performance to only go up from Saturday’s starting point.
Next Saturday, most of these teams will be participating at a competition held at Pendleton Heights.