The 2012 NCA College Nationals and the team’s future
The cheerleading team made its best appearance last semester at the NCA Nationals as they came in second place, two-tenths of a second after Central Arkansas.
Head coach Darryl Lyons said that second place was an improvement from the first year he coached the team, when they
The Georgia State cheerleading team claimed second place at last semester’s NCA Nationals.
placed tenth.
“The program is slowly growing and getting better,” Lyons said.
Due to the men’s basketball team’s successful season, the cheerleading team started practicing in March, so they lacked preparation for the 2012 Nationals.
This year is a different story, as they will start preparing for the 2013 Nationals in January.
“We’re going to start a little earlier this year in preparing to make it easier on everyone,” Lyons said.
Team captain Jordan St. Claire feels the team is ready for the next championship.
“It’s looking like we have a good chance to win it. We have more fulls and better stunts so we’ll be able to do better stunt sequences,” St. Claire said. “We almost had to water down the routine last year and we still got second so I’m feeling first this year.”
Is it a sport?
“Cheerleading as a sideline activity is not a sport because we’re there to support the other sports, but when we’re there to compete on the NCA Tournament in Daytona, that’s a sport,” Coach Lyons said. “It makes sense that competitive cheerleading is definitely a sport because you’re being judged and you’re going head to head with other teams.”
“I’ve played football, basketball, baseball and swam in highs school. It’s by far the hardest think out of them all because you have to tumble, stunt and run to your spot in only two and a half minutes,” said Team Captain Jordan St. Claire.
The team’s growth
Cheerleading is an exhausting activity that requires a lot of physical and mental strength. Yet, head coach Darryl Lyons said cheering for a losing football team is also a tough challenge for them.
“You just have to put on a smile and pretend that there are 100,000 people there,” Lyons said. “We have to dig in deep inside and pull that out and hope we can use that as our motivation.”
Football isn’t the only sport that made it tough for the cheerleading squad to stay excited during a game. According to Lyons, last year’s women’s basketball team and the men’s basketball team two years ago were a challenge.
Ironically, the growth of the football program at Georgia State has led to an increase on the number of cheerleaders on the team.
“When I started we didn’t have football yet and it wasn’t as exciting. With football and the growth of the university we got a lot more recruits and people became more interested,” senior athlete Brianna Evans said.
Lyons said that this year for cheer, there were about 50 people trying out and about other 30 trying out for dance.
“When I first came, it was just one team of mostly girls with one or two guys. Now you can see it’s like eight or nine guys and they’re two separate teams, which is a pretty big jump,” Evans said.
With the growth of the team, the try-out process became more selective. Now, the athletes trying out have to master skills such as tumbling, which weren’t required in previous years.
Financially, the team has also been benefitted, as Georgia State Athletics can provide more money to the program.
Lyons believes the future is bright not only for the team, but for Georgia State athletics overall.
“When we go to the Division 1A, there will be more money opportunities,” Lyons said. “Five to ten years down the road, where we can go to a Bowl game and get that money, that will flourish the entire Athletic Department.”
The hardest part about being a cheerleader
“Devotion – it takes a lot of time and effort. You have to learn to be able to balance school, come to the events that we do and especially games. Time is the biggest concern that everyone has,” said Team Captain Lindsay Wild.
What does it take to cheer for Georgia State?
- Be able to do stunts
- Have tumbling skills
- Ability to be an ambassador of the university
- Be friendly
- Have confidence
- Women need to be appropriate size (for co-ed)
