Spirit Squad prepares for upcoming season

The State Fair Community College Spirit Squad is already hard at work preparing for the upcoming sports season with 21 newcomers and three returning student-athletes.

Spirit Squad Head Coach Dana Page and Assistant Coach Taylor Johnson already have seen several strengths developing for the squad.

"The strength of our newcomers is their ability to stunt," said Page. "We have several girls who come from a competition squad. We have strong bases and talented flyers. Since we have so many girls on the squad this season, we should be able to do advanced stunts that will impress fans."

The squad has been practicing every Tuesday since the beginning of June in preparation for camp. The focus of these practices are mainly conditioning and stunt work as well as cheers.

The squad will attend the Universal Cheer Association Camp in late July at University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg. The coaching staff hopes the cheerleaders will benefit from their camp experience.

"We want to learn new stunts to entertain the SFCC fans this season," said Page. "Mostly, camp is a chance to bond as a team, get to know each other and to work together. We want them to focus on their stunt groups and build from there."

Madison Wood of Knob Noster is the squad captain. Members are Delayna Battles of Tipton; Caitlin Brandt of Cole Camp; Danielle Cardwell, Cari Farris, Destiny Haslag, and McKenna Rackers of New Bloomfield; Emilee Cline of Richmond; Abby Goolsby of Concordia; Aubri Graham of Higginsville; Ellyen Hayden of Wentzville; Alexis Hyde of Lincoln; Alyson McKenna of Norborne; Savannah Miller of Otterville; Amber Phipps of Evergreen, Colorado; Danielle Read, Emely Sandoval and LA Jayda Wheeler of Sedalia; Haley Reynolds and Megan Studer of Versailles; Sydni Smith of Jefferson City; Tiarra Snapp of Smithton; Lacey Taylor and Alexis Winfrey of Sweet Springs.

"The process throughout the summer has been fun," said Johnson. "Since we have so many newcomers, we added activities to jumpstart the team bonding process."

"We are excited about the upcoming season," said Page. "This is the biggest cheer squad we've ever had. These girls learn quickly and are very versatile. I am looking forward to seeing them develop individually and as a team and watching them perform for the fans this year."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics