The Bowling Green cheerleading squad is set to go where no cheerleading squad has gone before.
At least no squad from BG.
That’s because tomorrow at 3:04 p.m., the team will start their two minute, fourteen second routine at the National Cheerleading Association championships, making them the first set of cheerleaders in Bowling Green history to take part in a meet of this magnitude.
“We’re really, really excited,” BG cheerleading captain Mandy Dragon said. “We’re ready to do something different with the Bowling Green cheerleading program.”
For Dragon, this is something that has been on her mind as well as the mind of other cheerleaders at BG.
“I’ve been here for four years and we’ve talked about going but we’ve never went,” she said. “So to be going is really exciting.”
But getting there was a battle in itself.
While many top programs get to practice for this event for an entire year, the Falcons have had just three months to prepare their routine, which includes a variety of pyramids, tumbles and mounts.
BG did not find out until January that they would get funded to make the trip to Daytona, Fla. for the meet. Since then, it has been quite a bit of business mixed with a little bit of fun for BG.
“The tone is serious and lighthearted at the same time,” cheerleading coach Valerie Faley said. “We’re getting the opportunity to compete with some of the best teams in the nation.”
Those teams include mostly bigger schools. North Carolina State, Georgia Tech and Michigan are just a few of the schools taking part in the 16-team competition.
It took a trip to one of those big schools — Michigan — for BG to realize they had what it took to compete with some of the best schools in the nation. It was an NCA camp in Ann Arbor that the Falcons’ talent was noticed.
“They asked us why we weren’t competing,” Dragon said. “We had four guys and four girls at the time and they told us we were good enough to compete.”
The team going to Daytona will comprise of eight women and nine men. Along with Dragon, Kassie Kowalczyk, Marissa Kittel, Lauren Gearhart, Erin Collins, Kylee Essinger, Rachel Mead and Bridget Standifer round out the eight women.
The men participating are Gordon Rankin, Nick Young, Phil Sanderson, Dominic Elmore, Alex Dix, Gino Georgetti, Tyler Simpson, Jordon Snyder and John Thompson.
For the 16 cheerleaders involved, winning is a goal, but just competing is what is important for BG.
The top 10 teams will advance to the finals on Friday, while the six remaining teams will compete for an 11th spot in the finals.
The Falcons are hoping to be in the finals, but are realistic about what might happen in their first year at the competition.
“We would like to go down and hit our routine,” Faley said. “That would be the best way to start our appearance at nationals.”
