CHS repeats as state cheer champs

WASILLA — An outstanding performance by Colony High School varsity cheerleaders at South High School in Anchorage Oct. 22 was good enough to earn the school its seventh consecutive state title. The No. 1 cheer team in the state competed with many other middle school, high school and competition cheer teams.

This is the second year Calvin Culverwell has coached the CHS varsity team. He took over the program from Christy Johnston. Culverwell said the team has been practicing for state for the past month and a half.

“These girls aren’t just competitive cheerleaders, but football as well,” he said.

Hebert said he decided to coach the team when he saw how much motivation and determination the team had — and his sister Brandy Neffindof was a senior on the team, too.

“They know what they want and are willing to work for it,” Culverwell said.

Being the coach of team with 14 state titles — seven of those being consecutive state championships — couldn’t be more of an honor, he said.

“These last two years couldn’t have gone better,” he said. “They took the challenge to work for it. Through grades, injuries and anything getting in their way, they plowed through.”

Senior co-captains Shani Powell and Melanie Schuerch said the team did a great job staying positive.

“Everyone realized that what we were working for was a lot greater than they expected,” Schuerch said. Both captains said they are very proud to be members of such a strong team.

“We can’t take all the credit from our incredible team, we were just like the big sisters of the team,” Schuerch said, “This is a family, a big family. Not just during practice, but during school, in the hallways, outside of school — always being a big support for one another.”

This team isn’t perfect, there’s always room for improvement. “We did a lot of improvement through out the season, but we put what we had into that two minutes and 30 seconds and rocked it,” Powell said.

Although more than half of the team will graduate this year, the captains and coach say the think the winning tradition will continue.

“I hope they can accept the challenge to be a CHS cheerleader, with keeping up the grades, the hard work that comes along with it and the upbeat, positive attitude,” Schuerch said.

Powell said if the team hadn’t won, members also have the skills to handle defeat like champions, too.

“While we were out on the mat, the way the crowd reacted and the flow of energy in the gymnasium, we knew we had this,” she said. “On the other side, if they did lose, they knew in (their) hearts they put what they had out there and that’s all they could do.”

As six-time defending champs, Schuerch said the other teams were primed and pumped to dethrone Colony.

“Knowing we’ve been state champs for numerous years, you just know there are people out there waiting for us to fall or mess up,” she said. “Proving them wrong and getting mad gets this team pumped up; not scared, but ready to rock the mat.”

The co-captains closed with a shout out to their super fans who made the drive Saturday to cheer the cheer team.

“Thank you all so much for coming out of your way to cheer us on,” Schuerch said.

“We defiantly did not expect our football players or fellow classmates to come watch us,” Powell said.

Kayla Kushin is a senior at Colony High School.