Cheer squad goes to Florida

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jack Sanders
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Members of Alaska's own Denali All-Star Cheerleading team are preparing to participate in the Cheerleading World Championships in Orlando, Fla., this April.

"It's an invitation-only event, so it's pretty exclusive," said Leon Reynoles, Denali director of cheerleading. "You have to basically prove yourself at a competition.

There are select competitions throughout the course of the season, and if you prove yourself there, then you get the opportunity to compete against everyone else that has done the same."

The team earned their way to the world competition by placing second in a Las Vegas contest.

"We came in second place ... and Arizona State got first place, so they're going to be there too," said Denali member Jaylen Layne. "We have a rivalry now," he said. "At first they were cool, but now they want to take our first-place spot. So we have some rivalry now."

Unlike their new Arizona State rivals, the Denali cheerleaders don't have many opportunities to examine their competition.

"Our sport demands that in order to be the best you have to compete against the best throughout the course of a year," Reynoles said.

"We sometimes take five, six or seven teams at a time (to competitions).

We've had airline bills of more than $100,000 for one trip. Financially, just getting out is very challenging for us.

"So, sometimes we don't get to see the level of competition that other teams around the nation are seeing weekly.

They're just jumping in a car and driving to the next event, no big deal."

Not seeing the competition is a double-edged sword for the Denali crew.

"A lot of people don't know us," Reynoles said.

"They don't see us through the course of a year so they're just guessing; 'We know there's that team up there and every year we don't know what to expect.' We're the unknown factor."

Being the unknown factor benefited the Denali team at Las Vegas completion, where they went in unranked and placed second.

"Those guys are competing against each other all the time and we kind of pop in and ...we beat them," Reynoles said.

Aside from the financial issues, there are other responsibilities that require the team's attention first.

"This is an older team," Reynoles said. "It's 14 and older, but we have a lot of people in their 20s that are competing; they have lives, they have jobs and traveling many times a year is challenging."

"I've been in cheerleading about two years," said Brian Belcher, team member and Air National Guard staff sergeant. "I figured it would be something fun to do, something different," he said.

"It hasn't had much effect (on my Guard career). I'm still able to make it for my weekend a month and my unit is great about helping me make up extra days that I miss or extra training that I may not be able to make it to."

The competitions may be hard work, but Reynoles said it's beneficial for the team members.

"These guys just get sun for a little while," Reynoles said. "For them it's like, 'We're going to go compete against the very best competition there is, the finest teams out there.' Then they get to go to a pool and tan a little bit. Some fry themselves and then we come home. It's always a good trip."

The team practices their routine every day, before they can relax.

"We have cheer practices Thursdays and Sundays and we have tumbling Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays," Layne said.

"Right before competitions we take our Tuesday tumbling and we switch that to cheer so we have cheer three times a week.

"There are no pompoms or anything; this is actual completive cheerleading. It's a little bit different more difficult in the routine."

"There's so much involved in it, there are a things they have to remember," Reynoles said. "It becomes just muscle memory after time, but you know every stunt, everybody's position; every step is choreographed, for two minutes and 30 seconds."

Reynoles said cheerleading, like gymnastics, works on a scoring system in which points are given based on routine difficulty and perfection in performance.

Just like a gymnast can have points deducted for a bobble on a beam, cheerleaders may have points removed for flaws.

"You're doing all these complicated maneuvers - if you don't land just right, you're going to take deductions," Reynoles said.

"It's not only about the landing, but how hard the skill you're doing in the first place was.

"If you just did one flip and you stuck it, and somebody went and did a double flip and they took one little step, they might still win, because the difficulty was so much higher.

It's all relative to how hard the skills are."

Team members know how difficult cheerleading can be in general, much less the competitions.

"Everyone has a different teaching style, so every time you move you have to learn their ways of doing it, and it's just hard," said Laura Bowers, Denali team member and Air Force dependent. "Just meeting new people and getting situated with that group (is difficult).

"When you're with a team you have certain ways of working with everyone, so when you move it is hard to figure that out."

The competition will start the last weekend of April, and the team will be practicing until their day to go in front of the judges, Reynoles said.

"We're still accepting donations and anything that people would like to do to help us out," Reynoles said.

"Cheerleading is great exercise," Belcher said. "If time and duty and mission allows, go for it."