Decatur sports adds cheer team

Decatur's cheer leading team made their debut at Monday's junior high game against Gentry. Pictured from left are Lindsey Busby, Celine Prelle, Haley Burden and Lanna Fowler.
Decatur's cheer leading team made their debut at Monday's junior high game against Gentry. Pictured from left are Lindsey Busby, Celine Prelle, Haley Burden and Lanna Fowler.

— Football isn’t the only sport making a big comeback in Decatur this fall. The school will have a cheer leading team this season for the first time since 2008.

Cheer leading coach Amy Steele held tryouts before school let out last spring. Only one student tried out for the senior high team, but there were enough girls to form a junior high team comprised of nine girls, she said.

The team cheered at their first game on Monday night. They will cheer on junior high football players and will also perform for senior high home games, Steele said.

The team has been practicing together twice a week throughout the summer and has held enough fundraisers - a combination of bake sales and car washes - to buy all new uniforms.

The girls seem to be enjoying practice and have been very consistently attending their work outs, Steele said. She hopes they stick with cheer leading as they move up in school so there can once again be a varsity cheer leading team at Decatur.

“If school doesn’t get to complicated, or life, I think I have a few that will stick with it,” she said.

For Steele, coaching is purely about the love of the sport. Steele said she always knew she wanted to be a teacher and her second goal was to be a cheer leading coach.

Steele began cheering in high school at a smaller school than Decatur. Herteam worked its way to the national level, where they placed fourth, she said.

Although some people don’t consider cheer leading a sport, Steel said, they may be surprised to learn that statistics show cheer leaders sustain the most injuries of all high school athletes.

Steele said she takes cheer leading very seriously and has taken all the training classes she can. She also requires her students to attend all practices and pass tests before they can perform at games.

Steele said she would like to see Decatur have a consistent cheer leading team from year to year, both at the junior and senior high levels. She would also like to see some boys join the team so they could do more tumbling.

Sports, Pages 11 on 09/01/2010