Freshman Luka Ogden won the Sweet Home High School cheerleaders Pink Pom award, the equivalent of Most Valuable Player, during the team’s awards banquet Thursday evening, March 5.
The team award were decided by vote of the team members.
The Pink Pom goes to the cheerleader who does whatever needs to be done, said Coach Amber Rosa. She may or may not be the most talented, but she works hard to become the most talented if not.
“She (Ogden) is giving as much to that game (on the sidelines) as she is giving to the competition mat,” Rosa said, and she approaches both with the same level of responsibility.
“I really am especially proud of this group of kids,” Rosa said of the 2019-20 team. “They’re just especially kind, especially sweet.”
She and her coaching staff have been building the program for a decade, she said, and it’s teams like this, the way these girls are, that are the reason the coaches do it.
Rookie of the Year went to sophomore Emily Pace, a member of the competition team who was new to cheer and approached it like an athlete, doing everything she could to become good at it, Rosa said. She also, along with sophomore Serene Limerick, won Most Improved.
The Workhorse Award went to sisters Kelly Ogden, a junior, and Luka Ogden. Rosa said these are the kinds of cheerleaders who are constantly working their hardest and while others are taking a break and getting water, they’re still working hard.
Most Inspirational went to sophomore Tayler Clair.
Kelly Ogden won the Tough-As-Nails Award, which is given to the girl who pushes through the bumps and bruises, falls and thrown elbows.
While competitive cheerleaders receive most of the awards, Rosa said, the Spirit and Sideline Award is meant to recognize someone who fulfills the most basic cheerleading purpose, cheering on the sideline. That award went to senior Pippi Somatis, who did not compete this year to focus on competitive horse sports.
Rosa gave two Coaches Awards, one to sophomore TarahMae Meadors and one to senior Kenzie Wolfe.
With Meadors, Rosa said she was “so overwhelmingly impressed. Meadors faced “crazy challenges” this year, including surgery. After she was cleared by her doctor, she was back in practice.
Wolfe has selflessly dedicated hundreds, thousands of hours to coaching and preparing junior high students and building the junior high program, Rosa said.
She got up and went to junior high practices for no reason “except to be a good person,” said junior high coach Kayla Rosa, who added that Wolfe is the kind of person she wants teaching her daughter, and the junior high program wouldn’t be what it was without her.
The coaches also recognized Wolfe’s mother, Valerie Wolfe, who spent seven years leading fundraisers and constantly volunteering while her two daughters were in the program.
“This program will feel a void without Valerie Wolfe,” said Amber Rosa, presenting her with a “Most Valuable Volunteer” award.
The Huskies ended their cheerleading season with a third-place finish at state – after taking things up competitively another notch.
“Everyone else was better this year,” Rosa said. A lot of them were throwing back tucks, and it was the toughest competition Sweet Home has faced yet.
“We needed every single 10th of a point we could” in tumbling, but “we knew we’d have to make up for it in stunting. The kids killed it. These kids pulled so much more out of themselves than expected.”
Rosa said Newport wasn’t better than the Huskies this year, but Sweet Home dropped one stunt during the state competition on Feb. 15. That cost a point and allowed the Cubs to go ahead.
“Gladstone was amazing this year,” Rosa said of the 4A champion. “We knew they were going to be the team to beat.”
During the season, Sweet Home won in the varsity competition and placed second in the crowd-leading division at South Albany.
The Huskies finished second at Newburg and again at Springfield. They placed in second in crowd leading at Springfield.
At pre-state in Salem, Sweet Home finished first and was the grand champion, finishing first among all divisions. The crowd-leading team finished first, and the band-dance team finished second.
At the Oregon Cheerleading Coaches Association championships on Feb. 22, the crowd-leading team placed first, and the band-dance team finished sixth.
The junior high team, grades six through eight, finished third at the OCCA championships.
The youth program, grades three through five, finished first at the OCCA championships.
The varsity team will “feel the loss” of its seniors, Rosa said, and with only three juniors this year, the program will be young in 2020-21. Kelly Ogden will be the only four-year letterman next year.
Despite that, they’ll be “much more experienced than we looked going forward this year,” Rosa said. “I think we have a lot more under our feet going into (next) year.”
Earning their first letters this year were seniors Valerie Richards and Kayla Griffin; juniors Brenna Boyd and Hailey Lane; sophomores Emma McCubbins, TarahMae Meadors, Serene Limerick, Tearanie Kauffman, Emily Terhune, Mollie McKillop and Emily Pace; and freshmen Noel Burford, Kylie Hayes, Sammy Rhines, Suzie Griffin, Alyssa Redfern, Becky Groff, Luka Ogden and Kiera Tyree.
Lettering for the second time were junior Kierstan Cockrell and sophomores Megan Glover, Ava Royer and Tayler Clair
Junior Kelly Ogden and senior Mariah Harrington earned their third letters.
Four-year lettermen were seniors Pippi Somatis, Hailey Miller, Courtnie Woodard and Kenzie Wolfe.