A new era for dance and cheer

Last year, the Portland State spirit squad made a significant transition, as the team split into two sections—dance and cheer. Now in their second season since the change, the dance and cheer teams are practicing and performing independently but thriving together.

The transition has been a success but certainly had its challenges. The cheer squad was almost non-existent, fielding under five cheerleaders, after the teams split going into fall 2010. Since then, coach Kenny Tow has taken over the team and recruited the 18 cheerleaders that fans see on the sidelines this year.

After a successful fall season with the football team, the squad is now on the sidelines at every men’s and women’s basketball home game. The cheer squad’s main job at games is stunting and getting the crowd involved.

“The season has been good, and the great thing about cheering at Portland State this year is we are cheering for a bunch of winning teams,” Dow said. “It’s an exciting time to be a cheer squad member at Portland State.”

Tow said that there are three returners who have become leaders on the squad: junior Nicole Richards, graduate student Illona Mallenkovich and senior Taryn Leebelt. These competitors, along with Tow, are helping to lead the younger cheerleaders to become more involved with the program.

“Last year we didn’t even really have a team at all, there were only a couple of cheerleaders,” Leebelt said. “So this year there’s been a lot of improvement. It’s a new team which is always challenging, but I thought our coach really brought us together and pushed us hard to really care about the program, to care about [Portland State] sports.”

Now that basketball season has started, members of the team say its nice to be indoors and out of the unpredictable Oregon weather. However, performing on the hardwood court inside the Stott Center presents another set of issuesthat the team must consider.For instance, Tow said thatit’s against regulation to perform many of the stunts without mats.

“Basketball games are a lot shorter which is nice, but it’s a different vibe between the two, and we’re not allowed to do as many stunts for basketball because of the surface,” Leebelt said.

For the dance squad, the opposite is true, as the firm court surface is preferable for the team’s routines.

“I think some of the challenges for football is you’re in the elements and you’re on turf, so it’s harder to perform a lot more technical dances, and it ends up being more pom-dancing,” dance coach Stephanie Sheron said. “Then in basketball we can do a lot more leaps and turns and higher degree of dance difficulties.”

Just as the cheer squad made many improvements, Sheron said the dance team has made huge strides this year, especially when it comes to adding variety with their routines.

“Last year at this point we had about 10 routines, and now we have 25 routines,” Sheron said. “Last season, we had to repeat routines, during football and into basketball even, but this year I don’t believe we’re going to have to do that.”

The dance team’s main leaders are co-captains juniors Ashley Rickard and Chelsea Holland. Rickard originally began as a cheerleader prior to the teams’ split, and Holland joined the team last year.

“I went to Portland State a year before the dance team started, and you’re not really connected, and then when you start on the team…and you feel so much more a part of the school,” Holland said. “Performing on the field for football and the court for basketball, it’s just a lot of fun. The girls on the team, we have become a family.”

Although dance and cheer do not practice together they both are under the same spirit squad umbrella. Both Holland and Leebelt acknowledged the improvements of the spirit squad in recent seasons and emphasized that it’s a great way to get involved at Portland State. Also, with Viking sports on the rise, the cheerleaders and their coaches all agree it’s the perfect time to be supporting athletics.

For more information, including tryout schedules, click on the Inside Athletics tab at goviks.com.