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Monday, September 1, 2008
Something to Cheer About
Western Arkansas, AR
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By: Angie Baker, Director of Operations, Team Cheer USA and Team Dance USA
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After a sleepless night and a couple of phone calls, she found herself volunteering to coach the junior high cheerleaders for the 2007-08 school year. These girls were her son’s age and she had known many of them since kindergarten, so it was a perfect place for her to start.
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For awhile, the sidelines at Eureka Springs High School athletic events were silent. The silence was from the cheerleading program being shut down by the school board in December of 2006.
The decision to officially disband the cheerleaders came about due to a long series of unfortunate events that led to coaching and participant resignations as well as fighting among remaining team members to the point where the program remained closed at the high school level until now.
Enter Monika Troillett.
Troillett has a son who plays sports for the Highlanders and she was watching the cheerleading program fall apart before her eyes. After the situation with the high school cheerleaders, no one was willing to step up to be the junior high sponsor, which was developing problems all its own. Troillett couldn’t imagine her son playing sports and not having cheerleaders on the sidelines.
That just wouldn’t be the full high school experience.
With a background in cheerleading starting in the fifth grade and moving through to being a summer camp instructor, Troillett wanted the girls in her community to have the same opportunities that she had. After a sleepless night and a couple of phone calls, she found herself volunteering to coach the junior high cheerleaders for the 2007-08 school year. These girls were her son’s age and she had known many of them since kindergarten, so it was a perfect place for her to start. She had to make her intentions known at a school board meeting and received approval from them. She had 12 girls on the team who remained with the team throughout the year, so it was a successful start toward rebuilding.
One of the girls on the junior high team had an older sister, Brooke, who had previously cheered at the high school. Because they missed cheerleading so much, Brooke and her best friend, Bailey, starting coming to a lot of the practices with the junior high to help, support and encourage the younger girls.
This interest and attitude, as well as the urging of several parents at the high school level, led to Troillett being interested in possibly resurrecting cheer at the high school level. With the successful year with the junior high under her belt, she thought she might have a chance so she approached the school board with a proposal. The administration was apprehensive about starting cheer again, but they eventually did approve Troillett as the coach of both teams and there will be something to cheer about once again at Eureka Springs during the 2008-2009 school year.
Because of their past and what has happened, they appreciate and embrace this new opportunity. They know what is at stake for them and they know that cheer can be taken away, so they have to prove themselves trustworthy and ready to cheer.
Troillett recognizes that none of this would be successful without a commitment from parents who help her every day, an administration that supports her and the girls themselves that are dedicated to the sport. Nicole, Katie, Morgan, Jordan, Haillie, Stephanie, Brittany, Shelby, Audrey, Haley, Randalyn, Samantha, Annika, Shelby, Bailey, Carington, Jamie, Merika, Brooke and Kynza are the reasons Troillett does what she does. She loves these girls and wants to guide them and share in the wonderful experiences they will encounter as they increase their skills. “I truly believe they have just begun to tap their talents as cheerleaders and I look forward to watching them grow in their love of cheerleading,” says Troillett.
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