Coshocton cheer coach launches competition team

Taylor Smith is going into her fifth year as a cheer coach for Coshocton High School. When she first started, she set goals to get the kids more involved in the broader cheer world, give back with community service and try to give them as many opportunities as she could to continue the sport after high school. One way she's working on that final goal is by organizing a competition team.

"Our athletes have very limited resources to excel in the way that bigger towns do," Smith said. "We have very limited tumbling resources, and we aren’t allowed to stunt at all per our MVL rules. Therefore, when our athletes go to college, they are behind the curve of others and can almost never go to college to cheer. We are hopeful that with adding our competition team, we can expose our cheerleaders to a new world of cheerleading."

Smith said there are tons of different cheer divisions.

"There’s the overarching divisions of traditional and game day," she said. "Traditional routines are what we competed last year at our one and only competition. These routines are made up of a dance, cheer and chant. Game-day routines are made up of cheer, chants and a band dance. This division is more of a crowd leading division and something you would see on the sideline of a football game. Then within those two divisions, they are broken down to stunt/tumble, nonstunt, nontumble and nonstunt/nontumble. This season we are going to compete in traditional nonstunt/nontumble."

The cheerleaders will do a lot of learning and growing.

"We are continuously growing from the discipline of learning and competing these routines, but also in watching what other cheerleaders are doing and learning from their teams and coaches," Smith said. "We also learn and grow from the Spirit Rally event that we host in August as well. Schools come from around Ohio to showcase whatever kind of routine they want. It gives our athletes an opportunity to make a routine that’s fun for them and not choreographed to a scoresheet."

Last year Coshocton competed a routine at three levels.

"We had a varsity routine, JV routine and junior high routine," Smith said. "This year we are going to compete a high school routine and a junior high routine. There are 16 on the high school team and 14 on the junior high team. With cheerleading there is power in numbers. The goal is to create a cohesive picture with dynamic-level changes and clear-cut imagery, which is easier to accomplish when you have the amount of athletes to fill up the mat."

Competition cheerleaders also are part of a sideline cheer team.

"Each one cheers at least one sideline season — football or basketball," Smith said. "When we hold tryouts, we have the athletes mark what seasons they are interested in, and we took the top 16 scores of those interested in competition to be on our team."

Competition dates are still being narrowed down, but Smith said they have 17 options to choose from within this part of the state.

"If we so choose, there are competitions at the end of the season that would qualify us to compete in a state-level competition, but we are taking this season one step at a time as it is so new," Smith said.

When Smith cheered for Coshocton, they were part of the East Central Ohio League and competed yearly in a league competition.

"I don’t think I ever placed higher than last, but even though we knew we weren’t the strongest team in the league, some of my best cheerleading memories come from that competition," Smith said. "After we moved to the Muskingum Valley League, we lost our cheer competition, so I found a way to bring it back. I hope that some of the best memories for my athletes also can come from the hard work and dedication of being a competition cheerleader."

Sideline practices will start in June, competition choreography will happen in August and competitions will start picking up in October.

A fundraiser will help get uniforms for the new teams.

"Cheerleading uniforms aren’t cheap, especially the competition style," Smith said. "They can run for $300-plus a uniform. To help, we have collected donations from 44 individuals and businesses ranging from $15 items to $500-plus items. We are overwhelmed and blessed with the amount of support. Then we are creating a calendar for May and associating prizes with each day of the month."

Smith is thankful for the community's support.

"We are very fortunate to have a community that cares so much about our kids and is willing to invest in them," she said "We had so many businesses donate that most days of our fundraiser will have two or more prizes to be won. We are forever grateful for the support of our athletes to make their wishes come true."