Standing ovations, cheer, dance and hip-hop abound at state competition

A total of 17 Grand Island Senior High School students walked onto the floor of the Heartland Events Center Saturday evening for the last performance of the day at the Nebraska High School Cheer and Dance Championships.

As the announcer introduced them as "the team from Grand Island, Neb.," the students - a 50-50 mix of GISH cheerleaders and Special Olympics students - stood in front of the crowd as Nebraska's first, and only, unified cheerleading team.

It's a picturesque moment with the crowd of a few hundred people rising out of their seats to cheer and clap for the team as it steps out from behind a black curtain near the side of the arena, onto the events center floor.

Equipped with yellow pom-poms, GISH senior and Special Olympian Lindsey Perez yelled "ready" to signal her team to begin its routine. The cheerleaders yelled for "Islanders," and the crowd, to get on their feet and yell "Go G.I." and "Purple and Gold," which it did in unison, echoing across the Heartland Events Center.

Nate Parks, vice president of program with Special Olympics Nebraska, said the idea for the unified cheerleading team was formed after Darin Boysen, executive director of the Nebraska Coaches Association, reached out to Special Olympics Nebraska to gauge its interest in partnering with it for a unified event.

"We sat down with Darin, talked about the opportunity and we both decided it was a great opportunity for our organizations," Parks said. "We decided to put in place a unified event at this unified event at this year's championship. It was something Grand Island (Senior) High School embraced, so we decided to utilize them for an exhibition to kind of spread the movement and hope for future participation."

GISH cheerleading coach Alicia Lechner said the unified cheerleading team practiced together a total of five times and performed at a GISH halftime show to prepare for Saturday's performance.

"They (GISH cheerleaders) also had to learn the cheer ahead of time so they could help them (Special Olympics students) learn the cheer," Lechner said. "Basically, everything we learned for the routine, they already know how to do. So it was easy to help them learn it."

In an interview prior to the unified cheerleading team's performance Saturday evening, Perez said, with a huge smile on her face, that she was "really excited" to be performing in front of hundreds of people at the Nebraska State High School Cheer and Dance Championships.

Junior Skylar Penrose, freshman Addie Evans and sophomore Skyler Nolan, all GISH cheerleaders, said it was "awesome" to see how excited the Special Olympics students, such as Perez, are when they get to show off the cheer routine they learned in front of hundreds of people. They added they learned leadership skills in being able to guide the Special Olympics students in preparing for the routine.

Since they are the only unified cheerleading team in the state, there was no competition and Lechner said this allowed the students on the team to not have any pressure on them and "just do a performance."

Lechner and Parks both said they hope Saturday's exhibition inspires other Nebraska high schools to pursue a unified cheerleading program.

Another team performing at the Nebraska High School Cheer and Dance Championships Saturday was the Grand Island Northwest High School dance team.

Ryan McCarty, co-coach of the Northwest dance team, said the team of 11 students performed its jazz routine earlier in the competition and was performing its hip-hop routine Saturday afternoon. He added each competing team is allowed to compete in two categories and that his team chose to compete in jazz and hip-hop as they are the two categories that best fit the dancers.

Northwest junior Heidi Cooper, who serves as captain of the dance team, said there was a lot of preparation leading up to Saturday's competition. She said the team has been working on its hip-hop routine since March 2017.

"We have been working on it for so long that a lot of it, for the past month, was pushing ourselves and mentally preparing to go out," Cooper said.

Freshman Carter Levander said the dance team performed its hip-hop routine at Northwest football and basketball games and at its dance camp.

Co-coach Kathryn McCarty said the team flew a choreographer from Los Angeles to Grand Island to help them prepare for Saturday's competition.

Cooper said the team was lucky to have this choreographer guide them through their hip-hop routine for "two long days."

"It is really awesome just to get someone else in here working with us," she said. "I know it will probably help us work a lot harder. They keep us on our toes."

The McCartys said they are "100 percent" impressed with how far the team has come.

"This morning, to look at our progression, we actually had them watch the very first time they learned both of these routines last year," Ryan McCarty said. "Then we had them watch a video of last night's practice to see how far they have come. It was a good eye-opener to really show them."

Now that the 2018 Nebraska High School Cheer and Dance Championships have come to a close, Ryan McCarty said the team has about a month-and-a-half break before it conducts auditions in April. In May, it starts a new routine to prepare for summer dance camps.