Cheering
A2 Friday, January 22, 2016, Bangor Daily News
Cheering Continued from Page A1 Hermon will be among 16 schools slated to compete in Saturday morning’s Class B North championship meet at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, and whether the Hawks will return to the Cross Insurance Center for states on Feb. 6 as the reigning regional champion is uncertain. Old Town edged the Hawks for first place at both the Big East Conference and Penobscot Valley Conference championships, with Ellsworth a close third in both meets. “Right now, Class B is
Correcting the record
The Bangor Daily News strives to be accurate and fair. To report an error, call 990-8175 or 800-432-7964.
• A story with the headline “Winter WigOut Weekend to hit Bangor” on Page C1 of Thursday’s paper contained an error. No reservation is required for the Winter WigOut Dance Party on Saturday night.
Lottery Daily numbers: Day drawing 284 — 2561 Evening drawing 096 — 7736 Hot Lotto: 1 19 22 28 35 Hot Ball: 9 Est. jackpot: $1.4 million Powerball: 4 39 44 47 69 Powerball: 24 Power play: 5 Est. jackpot: $50 million
Get Creative Reprints of BDN photos. store.bangordailynews.com
neck and neck,” said Reed, who also acknowledged Medomak Valley of Waldoboro as a state-title threat from Class B South. “It’s going to be very close.” That the meet should be that competitive reflects increasing depth in the sport statewide at the varsity level. “Something that shows that is that if you finish in the top three at states you can go to New Englands, and [Class A] Lewiston has won New Englands a few times,” she said. “Our top teams are competitive.” That statewide improvement also has roots in the growth of youth cheering programs designed to develop the next standouts in the sport, just as similar efforts have existed for generations to help produce the next high school basketball or baseball phenoms. Hermon’s high school and middle-school teams draw from recreation department programs in Carmel, Hermon and Levant, as well as a travel cheering squad Reed developed for competitions several years ago. The Hermon area is not alone in establishing such a feeder system. “If you go to the Cross Center on the first Saturday in March, you’ll see it packed with youth cheering teams from kindergarten up through junior high,” Reed said. “It really has come a long way, and we’re providing more opportunities for children at younger ages.” Reed’s path to becoming a cheering coach was in part heredity — her mom was the head cheering coach for a decade at Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Reed not only cheered under her mother’s tutelage, but she began her own coaching career while still in high school. “Our youth program back then was run so we had adult advisers, but I and another girl coached the middle-school team, so I’ve just always kind of done it,” she said. Reed went on to attend
Micky Bedell | BdN
Micky Bedell | BdN
Hermon High School cheerleaders Sophi Williams (left) and Mercedes Davis act as high flyers during a run-through of the squad’s routine on Wednesday night in Hermon. Liberty University where she met her future husband in a first-year English class and competed on the school’s cheering squad. She also worked at a gymnastics school where she coached youth cheering teams. The Reeds were married the summer after they graduated from Liberty and moved to Mark Reed’s home state, where Kristie Reed got a job in the Brewer school system and volunteered to help coach the Witches’ cheering squad before becoming head coach a year later. After nine years at Brewer, she is in her eighth season at Hermon. One key attribute for a successful team, Reed said, is athleticism, something she likely gleaned from her own athletic career when she played softball in addition to cheering in both high school and college. “A large group of my kids do other sports as well,” said Reed. “I used to argue ‘cheering is a sport, cheering is a sport,’ but at the end of the day, my feeling is you can believe what you want, but it takes athletes to do this, and they’re very competitive.” That need for athleticism is even more pronounced as cheering routines have become more sophisticated over time with their fastpaced blend of dance, tumbling and stunts. “It’s one of those sports
that changes every year,” she said. “We have rule changes every year. The stunts we’re doing today were illegal back when I started coaching 17 years ago.” The evolution of competitive cheering, which was accelerated by increased governance of the sport at
Hermon High School cheerleading coach Kristie Reed watches her team during a brief warm-up on Wednesday night in Hermon.
the national level, has stressed safety. “They’ve created rules that are better,” said Reed. “They’ve really done a good job of pushing perfection before progression. They’ve started to say, ‘This move is not legal because too many kids are getting hurt here,’ but only in the last five
years have those things been documented. “I think it’s gotten a lot safer, and in doing that they’ve also gotten a lot smarter in allowing us be more creative in our stunting,” she said. Reed and assistant coach Christina Paradis are fielding one of Hermon’s younger high school squads of recent vintage this winter, with just two seniors on the 17-person roster along with four juniors, six sophomores and five freshmen. Thirteen Hawks are on the mat for their routine, where an overt show of athleticism must have a complementary but more subtle flow of communication in order to produce the best result. “You think they are just going out there and doing things, but there are conversations going on all the time,” Reed said. “They’re always talking to each other to get each other through a routine. That’s the part you never see or hear.”
Cheering Continued from Page A1 Hermon will be among 16 schools slated to compete in Saturday morning’s Class B North championship meet at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, and whether the Hawks will return to the Cross Insurance Center for states on Feb. 6 as the reigning regional champion is uncertain. Old Town edged the Hawks for first place at both the Big East Conference and Penobscot Valley Conference championships, with Ellsworth a close third in both meets. “Right now, Class B is
Correcting the record
The Bangor Daily News strives to be accurate and fair. To report an error, call 990-8175 or 800-432-7964.
• A story with the headline “Winter WigOut Weekend to hit Bangor” on Page C1 of Thursday’s paper contained an error. No reservation is required for the Winter WigOut Dance Party on Saturday night.
Lottery Daily numbers: Day drawing 284 — 2561 Evening drawing 096 — 7736 Hot Lotto: 1 19 22 28 35 Hot Ball: 9 Est. jackpot: $1.4 million Powerball: 4 39 44 47 69 Powerball: 24 Power play: 5 Est. jackpot: $50 million
Get Creative Reprints of BDN photos. store.bangordailynews.com
neck and neck,” said Reed, who also acknowledged Medomak Valley of Waldoboro as a state-title threat from Class B South. “It’s going to be very close.” That the meet should be that competitive reflects increasing depth in the sport statewide at the varsity level. “Something that shows that is that if you finish in the top three at states you can go to New Englands, and [Class A] Lewiston has won New Englands a few times,” she said. “Our top teams are competitive.” That statewide improvement also has roots in the growth of youth cheering programs designed to develop the next standouts in the sport, just as similar efforts have existed for generations to help produce the next high school basketball or baseball phenoms. Hermon’s high school and middle-school teams draw from recreation department programs in Carmel, Hermon and Levant, as well as a travel cheering squad Reed developed for competitions several years ago. The Hermon area is not alone in establishing such a feeder system. “If you go to the Cross Center on the first Saturday in March, you’ll see it packed with youth cheering teams from kindergarten up through junior high,” Reed said. “It really has come a long way, and we’re providing more opportunities for children at younger ages.” Reed’s path to becoming a cheering coach was in part heredity — her mom was the head cheering coach for a decade at Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. Reed not only cheered under her mother’s tutelage, but she began her own coaching career while still in high school. “Our youth program back then was run so we had adult advisers, but I and another girl coached the middle-school team, so I’ve just always kind of done it,” she said. Reed went on to attend
Micky Bedell | BdN
Micky Bedell | BdN
Hermon High School cheerleaders Sophi Williams (left) and Mercedes Davis act as high flyers during a run-through of the squad’s routine on Wednesday night in Hermon. Liberty University where she met her future husband in a first-year English class and competed on the school’s cheering squad. She also worked at a gymnastics school where she coached youth cheering teams. The Reeds were married the summer after they graduated from Liberty and moved to Mark Reed’s home state, where Kristie Reed got a job in the Brewer school system and volunteered to help coach the Witches’ cheering squad before becoming head coach a year later. After nine years at Brewer, she is in her eighth season at Hermon. One key attribute for a successful team, Reed said, is athleticism, something she likely gleaned from her own athletic career when she played softball in addition to cheering in both high school and college. “A large group of my kids do other sports as well,” said Reed. “I used to argue ‘cheering is a sport, cheering is a sport,’ but at the end of the day, my feeling is you can believe what you want, but it takes athletes to do this, and they’re very competitive.” That need for athleticism is even more pronounced as cheering routines have become more sophisticated over time with their fastpaced blend of dance, tumbling and stunts. “It’s one of those sports
that changes every year,” she said. “We have rule changes every year. The stunts we’re doing today were illegal back when I started coaching 17 years ago.” The evolution of competitive cheering, which was accelerated by increased governance of the sport at
Hermon High School cheerleading coach Kristie Reed watches her team during a brief warm-up on Wednesday night in Hermon.
the national level, has stressed safety. “They’ve created rules that are better,” said Reed. “They’ve really done a good job of pushing perfection before progression. They’ve started to say, ‘This move is not legal because too many kids are getting hurt here,’ but only in the last five
years have those things been documented. “I think it’s gotten a lot safer, and in doing that they’ve also gotten a lot smarter in allowing us be more creative in our stunting,” she said. Reed and assistant coach Christina Paradis are fielding one of Hermon’s younger high school squads of recent vintage this winter, with just two seniors on the 17-person roster along with four juniors, six sophomores and five freshmen. Thirteen Hawks are on the mat for their routine, where an overt show of athleticism must have a complementary but more subtle flow of communication in order to produce the best result. “You think they are just going out there and doing things, but there are conversations going on all the time,” Reed said. “They’re always talking to each other to get each other through a routine. That’s the part you never see or hear.”
