Valley athletes help all-star cheerleading team win national title

WASILLA — Two years ago, longtime Valley cheerleading coach Leon Reynolds helped champion an effort to broaden Southcentral Alaska’s talent pool in the sport of all-star cheerleading.

He saw talent in Anchorage. He’s seen the talent he’s coached in the Valley for years. Reynolds wanted to bring the groups together and form an all-star team capable of competing at the highest level. In just the second year of operation, the group he helped found, Alaska Athletics, has produced one of the best all-star cheerleading teams in the country.

Alaska Athletics’ Black Ice team recently won the grand champion title and finished with the highest overall score during the Pac West Nationals in Portland, Ore. With the honors, Black Ice was awarded an invitation to the Cheer World Championships in Orlando, Fla., in late April.

The best part for Black Ice?

The trip to worlds is paid for. After being named grand champion and finishing with the highest overall score, the team was awarded $25,000 to cover all travel costs for the upcoming trip to the world championships in Florida.

“They’re paying $25,000 to make sure this team represents at the world championships,” Reynolds said recently. “It’s really pretty cool. They want to make sure we’re there.”

The 20-member team features nine Valley athletes on the Black Ice roster competing in all-star cheerleading, which is a hybrid of gymnastics, acrobatics and cheerleading. Reynolds said the performance-based sport requires year-round training. Reynolds said the unique and difficult thing about all-star cheerleading is the team can practice all year, but the entire meet comes down to one opportunity. He said that’s what separates their sport from traditional team sports such as football or basketball.

“You have a bad play in football, you can line it back up,” Reynolds said. “In cheer, you get one shot. You train year-round. Kids absolutely kill themselves training all year. In basketball, everyone misses a layup now and again. Cheer, you get one shot.”

While the sport can be unforgiving at times, Black Ice used a monster effort on the second day of the Pac West National Championships in Portland to vault themselves to the top.

“After the first day, we were in fourth place. We were a little ways behind,” Reynolds said. “Even minor mistakes mean a lot.”

But on Day 2, Reynolds said his team put a great routine together, and with the second-day scores, Black Ice went straight to the top.

During his long career coaching, Reynolds has had an opportunity to work with a number of terrific athletes. But as it’s assembled, Reynolds said Black Ice is in a class of its own in the state.

“I would classify it as the most talented cheer team to be assembled in the state of Alaska,” Reynolds said. “It’s a very exceptionally talented group.”

Last season, Alaska Athletics took a team to Florida and it placed 15th.

“It was a great year. We were trying to get established. It was a big breakout,” Reynolds said.

This year, the goals are set even higher. But Black Ice will be competing against about 100 of the best teams in the country.

“Our goal is to get out of that middle range. This team truly has the ability to be in the top 5 if they put together a routine like they did on Day 2 of the Pac West Nationals,” Reynolds said.

The Black Ice team includes nine athletes from the Valley: Gracie Aga, Grey Chalder, Jenny Lamb, Lisl Mayer, Presley Petersen, Kylee Sanderson, Sara Schindler, Zack Thiele and Lexi Vincent.