Scott Swanson
It’s been four years since Sweet Home’s cheer squad won its last state title and the Huskies are hungry.
That’s per Coach Amber Rosa, who said this year’s team is not only talented, but focused.
“This group of seniors has not won a state championship and they want one,” said Rosa, who is in her 10th season as head coach.
Sweet Home got off to a good start Saturday, Jan. 18, in their first real competition of the season, the Redhawk Rumble, hosted by South Albany but held this year at Crescent Valley due to fire damage in the Redhawks’ competition facilities.
The Huskies finished first in their (4A) division, which consisted of five teams, including Newport, which beat Sweet Home last year at the state championships.
Everybody in the competition looked “a little raw,” Rosa said, adding that Sweet Home showed talent, despite a few foibles.
“I’m not sure if we’re more talented than the last couple of years, but these kids just have a little more fight in them,” she said. “You can just tell they want it more.”
Leading this year’s squad are senior captains McKenzie Wolfe, Hailey Miller and Courtnie Woodard, along with a fourth senior, Mariah Harrington.
Returnees from last year’s competition squad also got extra experience at the USA Spirit Nationals held the week after the state championships in Anaheim, Calif. last year.
“We had a great experience,” Rosa said. “A lot of these kids got to be part of that. It was a different level of competition.”
The Huskies placed fourth in a division of 34 teams from all over the West and Hawaii.
Sisters Kelly Ogden, a junior, and her sister Luka, a freshman, both East Linn Christian Academy students, have been with the Sweet Home program for a long time and are “strong tumblers,” Rosa said, so they bring more experience to the floor, along with sophomore Ava Royer. All three went to nationals last year.
Luka Ogden placed 10th as an individual last fall at the OCCA All-State Competition.
The team’s routine this year is themed “Royalty,” professionally choreographed by Suzi Stavas of Portland.
Stavas typically choreographs the Huskies’ routines, but this year’s is “especially good,” Rosa said.
“All our songs are about royals, crowns, queens. “It’s exciting and creative – a super fun routine.”
This year the cheer squad will wear specific competition uniforms, for the first time.
The uniforms display a forest theme that Rosa said she’s believed “for a long time” would be a good one for all the Husky sports team.
“The kids and I liked the idea of using trees,” she said. “We wanted (the uniforms) to be unique to Sweet Home, to represent the town, the community.”
It’s gotten a lot of attention, which has been unexpected, Rosa said.
The uniforms got shared to TimberUnity’s social media, which got “over a thousand” likes and a multitude of comments.
“I didn’t know it was going to be such a huge thing,” Rosa said.
The uniforms aren’t cheap and the team has never before been able to afford unique outfits for competition, she said. “A lot of fundraising” went into thes, Rosa said.
One of the biggest contributors was the second annual Sweet Home Cheer Classic in December, which drew some 25 teams, she said.
“That was a huge, awesome fundraiser for the program.”
The Huskies’ cheer program includes two squads, the “Green” competition team and the “Gold” team, which include all the girls in the program and which performs at athletic events.
Other Green Team members are Brenna Boyd, Tayler Clair, Kierstan Cockrell, Rebbecca Groff, Molly McKillop, TaranMae Meadors, Emily Pace and Alyssa Redfern.
Rounding out the Gold Team are Noel Burford, Suzie Griffin, Kylie Hayes, Tearani Kauffman, Serene Limerick, Emma McCubbins, Sammie Rhines and Emily Terhune.
The Huskies’ season continues this Saturday at Newberg, followed by competitions at Springfield and Oregon Elite Pre-State at the state fairgrounds in Salem. The state competition is Feb. 15 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
The Huskies will then compete Feb. 23 at the OCCA Cheerleading Championships at the Salem Pavilion.
Rosa said she thinks the Huskies’ biggest competition this year will come from Gladstone, which didn’t compete at the South Albany event, and Newport.
Though the Huskies were a little uneven in their first competition, she said, “we put a ton of potential on the floor.
“Everybody could see that.”