ADA CHEER

It’s been a busy year for the Ada High cheer team which is a group that always seems to be on the go. Twenty-four girls strong, the year started out with tryouts last spring followed by summer camps.

“We had two summer camps last year,” explained cheer coach Karry Griese. “We went to the Extreme Cheer Camp in Tulsa where we learned a lot and met the two people who would ultimately be choreographing our competitive and Game Day programs. We also had an NCA home camp which is one of the steps needed to be able to compete in the NCA Nationals. We will do a virtual “regional” in December and hopefully be invited to the nationals in Dallas in January.”

The summer camps also saw a number of squad members make All-American including Anna Beth Muse, Alyssa Saint, Campbell Cole, Channing Ballard and Lilli Keefer.

This year’s squad is anchored by four seniors all of whom Griese has been coaching since junior high school.

“All four of these girls are great leaders for our squad. Alyssa Delgardo is a true athlete that’s really driven to succeed and a no-nonsense performer. Paige Maloy is one who has really stepped it up this year and the girls look to her for direction. Kennedi Cutler is another of our seniors. She’s another that’s really taken her senior year responsibilities seriously and Natalie Jussely who is Paige’s sister is a gentle leader that is kind and leads by her example of hard work. Our goal is always to do better in each competition than last year. In our competitive competition last year, we moved to Class 5A and finished sixth at state which was a really big feat for us and this year in our Game Day competition we finished fourth at regionals and sixth at state.”

Following what they hope will be a trip to nationals, the squad will get a short break before it’s time again for tryouts in the spring.