Kentwood High’s cheer squads continued their success both at the state and national levels recently.
At the WIAA State Cheerleading Championships Jan. 23, Kentwood’s Green team took third in the non-tumbling division, while the Black squad won the medium varsity division and the top tier squad, Silver, won the state title in the small co-ed division.
Kim Kawachi, cheer coach at Kentwood, said that she believed “that makes 10 years straight with a state title” by Conquerors cheerleaders.
“I just really love the spirit program at Kentwood,” Kawachi said. “There’s not many programs that have two teams competing at state … and we have three.”
There are 65 members on the three teams, she said, which “gives the opportunity for a lot more people to participate.”
Earlier this month, the Conks spirit squads went to the UCA Nationals at Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
“It’s the biggest national competition for high school cheerleaders in the United States,” Kawachi said. “That was pretty much the endcap of our year.”
More than 15,000 cheerleaders competed at Nationals, Kawachi said, with the Silver squad taking fifth place in the small co-ed division which is “one of the toughest divisions there is” in the competition.
In addition, the Black team won its division.
Her cheerleaders get a bit of a break in April but they remain busy through the end of winter sports, which wraps up in early March with the Class 4A state basketball tournament. This year the Conks will be cheering for the girls basketball team at state.
Things will ramp up again in May when tryouts begin and Kawachi said she is proud of her cheerleaders not just for winning titles at competitions but doing all while posting good grades, training hard and serving the community.
During the summer, the girls practice twice a day for as much as six hours a day. In addition, the girls as do fund-raisers that help play for trips to competitions like the Nationals and for community service projects like a toy drive for Toys for Tots over the holidays or raising money for families of officers that were killed in the Puget Sound region in recent months.
“All the girls, not only do they compete, they all cheer for football, boys and girls basketball, wrestling … you name it, they cover the events at the school,” Kawachi said. “On top of that, they do community events. We did numerous things this year to raise money for our community.”
Kawachi attributes the program’s success to the support of the school’s athletic director, Jo Anne Daughtry, and their families.
“It’s a very intense program,” she said. “It’s a very positive thing for the community and the school. There’s a lot of parent support. If those kids didn’t have the parental support to back them, it just wouldn’t be possible.”
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