Cheer squad opens competition season with 3rd at S. Albany

The Sweet Home High School competitive cheerleading squad returns numerous players while remaining young.

After sitting out last season with an injury, Jessi Thomas is the team’s sole senior. Juniors are Nicole Grady, Rylee Vasfaret and Hailey Wolfe.

Sophomores include Shelby Goodwin, Hailey Miller, McKenzie Wolfe and Courtney Woodard.

They are joined by sophomore Mariah Harrington and freshmen Charisma Hardee and Kelly Ogden.

Junior Aliya Boss and sophomore Taylor Goodwin are alternates.

The team is leaner this year, with two stunt groups instead of three, said Coach Lea Knight.

“When we learned our routine with our choreographer, she said we have got potential stunting-wise. We’ve been working on the confidence part of it.”

The team is still young, with new freshmen and numerous sophomores, she said. “They are doing great as far as stunting this year.”

The team’s theme is “Sugar and Spice,” sweet and “spicy hot,” Knight said, so the songs in the routine are about sugar and heat.

She said the competition is heating up, with 4A teams more numerous and tougher. The Huskies faced seven teams during their first outing Saturday at South Albany.

“We are more just set on doing what Sweet Home does” – strong in formations, spacing, dancing and cheer, Knight said.

Going into the season, the cheerleaders had to cancel their first competition appearance, Lake Oswego on Jan. 6, with several girls out with the flu during Christmas break, Knight said. At the time, “we were cleaning up little things in the routine.”

Last week, flier Nicole Grady went out with an injury, and the team had to redesign its routine on the fly Friday evening before traveling to South Albany on Saturday. The girls brought home a third-place trophy, behind Henley in second and Newport in first.

Knight said the coaching staff was actively preparing the girls for the possibility they may not place.

Unable to put up their stunts, Grady’s group went through the motions during the routine, and the team couldn’t do its full pyramid.

The girls were “really good,” Knight said. “They perform great under pressure. It was the same at all-state (during the fall). It’s a different feeling going out and performing than in practice.”

At worst, they had a little bobble in their pyramid, but it didn’t appear to have cost the team many points, Knight said. “They did a pretty good job just performing what they had yesterday.”

Around the state, “from what I’ve seen, Henley and Newport are doing an amazing job this year,” Knight said. The team isn’t focused on the opponents though. “I think we’re just going to focu on competing to the best of our ability. I would just like to go out and throw a routine we can be proud of. If we get first place, that would be awesome.”

The team next travels to Newberg on Jan. 20 and to Sheldon on Jan. 27. Pre-state is scheduled for Feb. 2 in Salem at the state fairgrounds, and state is Feb. 10 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

Knight is filling in as head coach this year while Amber Rosa takes a year off for family reasons, Knight said. Knight graduated in 2009 and cheered three years. After going out for cheer late as a sophomore, she joined the competition team her junior and senior year with Coach Crystal Kimball.

Knight assisted Rosa the past two years.

She is a stay-at-home mom and is married to Adam Knight. They have three sons, ages 1, 5 and 7.

Rosa continues to help this year as she can, and Dar Hummer continues to assist.

The junior program is coached by Kayla Rosa, assisted by Samantha McMahand, and the team finished second at South Albany on Saturday.

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