D2 Preview: Downriver Powers Set Tone
March 1, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Gibraltar Carlson and Allen Park have combined to win the last 11 Division 2 competitive cheer championships and also earn five of the runner-up places during that time.
The Downriver League rivals will be favorites again at Saturday’s Division 2 Finals at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex. But a number of competitors have been pushing to break into the top spots – and another will compete at this level for the first time this weekend.
Below are glances at all eight teams competing Saturday. Division 2 begins at 10 a.m. and will be broadcast live on MHSAA.tv and viewable on a subscription basis. Click here for the Finals draws and other important information.
ALLEN PARK
League finish: First in Downriver League
Coach: Julie Goodwin, 14th season
Championship history: Division 2 champion 2017 and 2010, three runner-up finishes.
Top score: 794.46 at the Regional.
Team composition: 26 total (seven seniors, three juniors, 11 sophomores, five freshmen)
Outlook: Allen Park has finished first or second the last three seasons, coming in runner-up a year ago. The Jaguars finished ahead of rival Gibraltar Carlson in the league and at Regional, by nine tenths of a point at the latter, and they’ve posted the top scores in Division 2 in Round 2 (233.1), Round 3 (322.7) and total. In fact, the top total score above and Allen Park’s average of 784.4 are the highest in the state, regardless of division. Seniors Lyric Spears and Rylie Davis made the all-state first team last season, while senior Angela Sammut made the second and senior Sydney Bain and junior Jessika Palmarchuk earned honorable mentions.
CEDAR SPRINGS
League finish: First in Ottawa-Kent Conference White
Coach: Anne Olszewski, fifth season
Championship history: Seeking first MHSAA Finals top-two finish.
Top score: 778.5 at the District.
Team composition: 19 total (four seniors, eight juniors, three sophomores, four freshmen)
Outlook: Cedar Springs is returning to the Finals for the first time since 2011 after posting two of its top three total scores during the postseason. The Red Hawks’ average total score of 748.8 ranks sixth in Division 2. Seniors Gabby Endres, Elayna Male and Emily Pierson all earned all-Regional honors last season.
DEARBORN DIVINE CHILD
League finish: First in Detroit Catholic League
Coach: Shelley Popiel, second season
Championship history: Four runner-up finishes (most recent 2014).
Top score: 781.36 at the Regional.
Team composition: 25 total (six seniors, 10 juniors, five sophomores, four freshmen)
Outlook: Divine Child finished seventh last season and looks like a strong possibility to take a few steps up with the third-highest average total score in Division 2 at 766.8. The Round 1 (236.3) and Round 3 (319.2) top scores also rank among the top four in the division. Senior Lauren Elliott and juniors Emily LaFeve and Natalie Santostasi all earned all-Regional honors last season.
DEWITT
League finish: Tied for first in Capital Area Activities Conference Red
Coach: Candace Heskitt, 11th season
Championship history: Division 2 runner-up 2015 and 2007.
Top score: 778.64 at the District.
Team composition: 25 total (three seniors, seven juniors, eight sophomores, five freshmen)
Outlook: The Panthers returned to the Finals last season and finished sixth, and enter this weekend coming off an eighth straight league championship and first District and Regional titles since finishing Finals runner-up in 2015. DeWitt surges in Round 3, with its top score of 319.6 ranking third in Division 2. Sophomores Aubrey McKinley and Gabby Cooney both earned all-Regional recognition in 2018.
GIBRALTAR CARLSON
League finish: Second in Downriver League
Coach: Ann Hajec, first season
Championship history: 10 MHSAA titles (most recent 2018), five runner-up finishes.
Top score: 793.56
Team composition: 25 total (three seniors, eight juniors, seven sophomores, seven freshmen)
Outlook: Carlson has won a combined seven Division 2 titles under a combined three coaches this decade, and will attempt to make it eight with four leaders as 2011-13 all-stater Hajec brings her first team to the Delta Plex. The Marauders have continued to thrive with the top Round 1 (239.2) score in the division and second-highest in Round 2 (233), Round 3 (321.4) and total. Senior Summer Bojarski and sophomore Maguire Lindisch made the all-state first team last season, while senior Kennedy Stewart, junior Sarah Klim and sophomore Alex Stewart made the second team and juniors Rylee Demers and Elliah Shank earned honorable mentions.
GRAND RAPIDS KENOWA HILLS
League finish: Second in O-K Black
Coach: Bethany Schutter, first season
Championship history: Seeking first MHSAA Finals top-two finish.
Top score: 770.54 at the District.
Team composition: 24 total (seven seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores, four freshmen)
Outlook: Kenowa Hills moved up from fifth in 2017 to third last season, its second third place in three years. It’s riding some momentum into this weekend with two wins and its top two scores over the last four events. Seniors Taylor Buskard and Braeanna Mull made the all-state second team last season, and junior Kaylee Lenartz earned honorable mention.
MUSKEGON MONA SHORES
League finish: First in O-K Black
Coach: Amanda Heethuis, 12th season
Championship history: Seeking first MHSAA Finals top-two finish.
Top score: 781.32
Team composition: 28 total (six seniors, five juniors, eight sophomores, nine freshmen)
Outlook: Mona Shores has finished third and fourth, respectively, at the last two Finals, and should be the mix again with its average score of 765.4 ranking fourth in Division 2 along with its top scores in Round 1 (tied – 235.4) and Round 2 (230.2). Junior Logan Potts earned all-state honorable mention last season.
WALLED LAKE WESTERN
League finish: First in Lakes Valley Conference
Co-coaches: Amber Stocks and Michelle Frey, ninth seasons
Championship history: Seeking first MHSAA Finals top-two finish.
Top score: 784.72 at the Regional.
Team composition: 24 total (five seniors, seven juniors, eight sophomores, four freshmen)
Outlook: Western will be competing at the MHSAA Finals for the first time after posting its top two total scores of the season at the District and Regional. The Warriors could make a splash – their average total score this season (757.5) ranks fifth in Division 2, while the Regional score was the third-highest this winter and their top scores for all three rounds also rank among the top five. Senior Madison Homer and junior Makayla Sheppy earned all-District second-team honors last season in Division 1.
PHOTO: Allen Park competes during the regular season; the Jaguars are among favorites again in Division 2. (Photo courtesy of the Allen Park competitive cheer program.)
'Small but Mighty' Gobles Aims for Finals
By
Pam Shebest
Special for MHSAA.com
December 17, 2019
GOBLES — With just seven girls on her team, “we’re small but we’re mighty,” Gobles competitive cheer coach Nicole Durr said discussing her Tigers’ prospects this winter.
Lack of numbers have not hurt them too much in the past, with the team qualifying for Regional competition the last five years in a row.
However, this is the smallest roster in Durr’s four years as Gobles head coach.
“We had 12 my first year with a big senior group,” she said. “Ten the next year and nine last year.”
No matter the numbers, the goal is still the same: Compete at the MHSAA Competitive Cheer Finals, this season March 6-7 at the Grand Rapids Delta Plex.
Gobles began competition at the Paw Paw CCCAM Scholarship Meet on Saturday, taking first in Division 4 and finishing fourth overall among 22 teams. The team began preparing the second week in November, and conference competition begins in January.
“Cheerleading is a very mental sport,” Durr said. “It’s a very long season, so it takes a mentally strong team.
“It takes good chemistry because it’s a lot different sport than other sports. There’s a lot of trust involved, especially in our stunting round.”
Winning formula
Trust is what Brielynn Lisowski has in her teammates.
Lisowski, one of three seniors on the team with Lauren Krieger and Annika Brunner, is the flyer.
“It is scary,” Lisowski said. “It’s a lot of work, but when I do my job, it’s not too hard. I do trust them, for sure.”
The other four girls are sophomores – Maecy Bills, Alexis Diamond, Ella Miller and Jocelynn Wassenaar – and three competed on the varsity team last year.
With such a small team, Durr said the girls automatically begin competition by losing 10 points.
“In Round 2, our mandate for our division is six (girls),” she said. “However, there also is a multiplier depending on the difficulty of the skills you’re doing.
“Our best bet is to put five girls on, take a 10-point penalty, but our score is going to be high enough that if we did six girls with lower skills, we wouldn’t score as high as we will with five.”
Two of those five are the other two seniors, both bases, who have worked together the last three years – a bonus, both say.
“It’s hard but I feel that’s what I’ve been doing since middle school …,” Brunner said. “Lauren and I, we have the dynamic down pretty good.
“We’re used to each other and we know how each other works.”
Krieger has been cheering since second grade and said it is important that the two bases have chemistry.
“Being with each other for so many years, especially not only in cheer but also being friends, we more or less understand how each other works,” she said. “So if a stunt isn’t going up, we know that we aren’t just going to drop it; we’re going to fight to keep it up there.
“Working with each other so long, we know each other’s quirks. If we see a certain facial expression, then we know what to expect.”
Success and wisdom
Durr brings a wealth of experience to the team. She began her coaching career 29 years ago and has served during the entirety of the MHSAA’s sponsorship of the sport, which began in 1994 and continues to provide one of the few “team” competition formats in cheer/spirit in the nation.
Durr began coaching after her first year of college and led the Otsego team for 16 years, before also coaching at Allegan and Plainwell and then landing at Gobles.
“It takes a lot of work (to cheer),” she said. “I think now, more people are starting to understand that cheerleading is a sport and it’s not just girls running around trying to be cute.
“They actually come in and they work really hard and they deal with injury and they deal with everything any other athlete deals with. It’s a lot of work, and these girls do a really good job.”
There are also pressures that come with the sport.
“I feel like there’s a lot of pressure mentally that there isn’t in other sports because we have to memorize rounds,” Brunner said.
“In other sports, you build up your points. In cheer, you start at 100 and go down from there. For me, my biggest fear is to mess up.”
The girls can tell if they are “messing up” by how animated their coach is during the routine.
“For me, I had a coach that was always very animated and I kinda fed off that,” Durr said.
“I think the girls know sometimes if it’s not going well and I’m just kind of standing back there, they’re like ‘Oh gosh, this can’t be good.’”
Athletes are well-versed in what’s expected on the way to joining the high school team. Durr’s program benefits from a good feeder system in the middle school. Coach Tiffany Burnell is an Otsego grad who cheered for Durr.
“She knows how I like things,” Durr said. “She’s been with me since she was a sixth grader.”
In addition, the high school’s volunteer assistant coach, Jessi Andrina, is a nurse practitioner at DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids and structures some of the conditioning.
“We did Alma College’s workout last year for conditioning,” Krieger said. “Jess has us do a lot of circuit workouts while we’re doing jump drills or tumbling, which really helps build our strength.”
The athletes do an hour of conditioning before working on their routines.
Most also have participated in sideline cheer during the football season. But as they get older, a lot have jobs and cannot commit to two seasons, Durr said.
“In a perfect world, I would have 25 girls on my sideline team and 25 girls on my competitive cheer team,” Durr said.
“I think we need a bigger school,” she added, laughing.
Pam Shebest served as a sportswriter at the Kalamazoo Gazette from 1985-2009 after 11 years part-time with the Gazette while teaching French and English at White Pigeon High School. She can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Calhoun, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Gobles’ seven-member competitive cheer team participated in its first meet this season Saturday at Paw Paw. (Middle) Clockwise from top left: Seniors Annika Brunner and Lauren Krieger, coach Nicole Durr and senior Brielyn Lisowski. (Below) Gobles is aiming to take the next tournament step and reach the MHSAA Finals. (Photos by Pam Shebest.)