Published: April 19, 2009 01:50 am      

FSU cheer squad takes second at nationals

FAIRMONT — In the same year that Fairmont State University fielded a cheerleading team as a sport rather than as a club, the group had a chance to “Bring It On” when the group took second place in a national competition last week in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Only the team from Hawaii Pacific University scored higher among the 10 teams that competed in the All-Girl Division II section of the National Cheerleading Association’s Collegiate Cheer Championships. The Fairmont State team competed April 9 and 10.

The experience was a new one for the cheerleaders, who had a more technical and difficult routine this year after becoming a competitive sport instead of cheering on the sidelines for the football and basketball teams.

“It was way different,” said Johnna Drelick, of Weirton, a junior on the squad as well as a nursing major. “We’re used to seeing the same teams and now we didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know what the other teams were going to be like and how advanced their levels would be. We were kind of thrown into it.”

After a two-day competition in which the teams performed a 45-second cheer and a 2-minute and 15-second routine the first day and just the routine the second day, Fairmont State came in just behind Hawaii Pacific with a score of 8.807 to Hawaii Pacific’s 8.896. The closeness of the scores made the second-place finish a bit bittersweet in a dramatic moment as the announcer listed the top six teams in reverse order.

“There was definitely some disappointment, although this is the first year at that conference,” Drelick said. “Although we were very lucky.”

The team’s score was docked because of an obvious error when one part of a pyramid did not get set up.

“Without our one mistake, we would have advanced to first place,” Drelick said. “So there is some disappointment.”

But not on the part of Fairmont State’s athletic director, Rusty Elliott, who pushed for the creation of the cheerleading team as a sport because the school’s budget had the funds to field an additional women’s team.

“I’m very pleased,” Elliott said. “We’ve got a great bunch of girls. We’ve got some girls who are very passionate about cheerleading.”

The school wanted to start an additional sport for women and Elliott had the idea that cheerleading would be a good fit for Fairmont State.

“When you start a sport, you have to be competitive at it and have a history,” he said. “We have been successful at cheerleading at Fairmont and we have had success with our spirit team in national competitions. Those were some of the things we looked at.”

The fact that area high schools would act as a feeder to the sport by providing cheerleaders also was a consideration, Elliott said.

Title IX, the law enacted in 1972 to make sure women have sports opportunities in school, also was a factor.

“Now we can count these athletes as female athletes and that does help us with Title IX numbers,” Elliott said.

The move also freed up the cheerleading team from having to attend games in addition to practicing for competitions, Drelick said.

“It’s a lot better because with school and everything, it’s hard to do games and have practice,” she said. “Plus, it’s less traveling for games. We can focus on one thing.”

Cheerleaders now can try out for either the spirit squad or the team, and some prefer the spirit squad, said team coach Kristi Kiefer.

“There are some that don’t want to compete,” she said. “They want to cheer and support the teams. And you have some athletes that this is what they want to do. They want to compete.”

Previously, the Fairmont State spirit squad has competed in Orlando, Fla., at the Universal Cheerleaders Association National Championships, with the cheerleaders often finding themselves either the winners or among the top three teams in their category.

The routine the squad executed this year at the championships, held during Easter weekend, was much harder than previous ones, Kiefer said.

“Our routine was so difficult and so clean compared to the others,” she added.

Twenty women competed although 24 are on the team. Deciding who competes “is like putting together pieces of a puzzle,” Kiefer said.

That’s because the squad has to consist of equal numbers of the duties that make up a cheerleading team: the fliers who are tossed into the air and perform stunts; the base members who stay on the ground; the assists who throw the fliers; and the back spots. Five of each competed.

“Injuries also play into that,” Kiefer said.

To qualify for the competition, the team sent a video into the NCA and Fairmont State was selected, Kiefer said. Teams also can qualify by attending a camp.

Ten teams competed in the All-Girl Division II category on the first day and the top six then competed on the second day. Fairmont State came in second on the first day and therefore got to perform next to last on the second day, Kiefer said.

“Our tumbling skills are very strong,” Kiefer said. “And we throw elite basket tosses. They do full twists and I think those two elements really helped to separate us from the majority of teams we saw. We also had a very intricate pyramid sequence.”

The routine can be viewed at www.nca.varsity.com.

There were no seniors on this year’s team, so all the members can try out again next year.

“Next year we’ll know what to expect and what to go for and who our competitors will be and what level they’ll be at,” Drelick said.

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.