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June 2012 Purdue spirit squad newsletter.
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June 2012
Cheer hosts
tryouts and
selects new
teams
this year’s program.
“I was blown away by the numbers and talent we had at this year’s tryout,” said Coach Solberg. “At last year’s tryout we had about 40 females, so to get 61 talented females to tryout to become a Boilermaker is awesome. “
For the co‐ed team, 13 male and 13 female spots were available. For the all‐girl team, 24 spots were available. Just like last year, additional judges were hired to bring perspective and different ideas to the tryouts. This year, coach Solberg brought in:
• Mark Coleman – Mark has been the choreographer and music guy for the nationals teams the last two years. Mark also has helped us at camp and comes up three to four times throughout the year to help with nationals practices.
• Nicole Latham – Nicole came in a few times last year to help with the inaugural all‐girl team. Nicole is a two time college national champion at Hawaii Pacific University on its small co‐ed squad and a three time group stunt national champion. Nicole coached at Fishers High School from 2006 to 2011 and was a cheerleader at ICE All‐Stars.
April 20 marked the beginning of cheerleading tryouts to select members of the 2012‐13 season. Once again, those who wanted to tryout as first year members had to come to one of our college prep clinics, which were held in February and April. The clinics brought a lot of talent and made this year’s tryouts very competitive. A total of 61 females and 18 males tried out for a spot to be a part of
• Shardae Flournoy – Shardae currently works at the Purdue football office in the recruiting department. Shardae cheered at the University of Louisville and is a three time national champion. Shardae coached at an all‐star gym in the Atlanta area for a few years before taking the job here at Purdue. A native of Atlanta, Shardae cheered at Georgia All‐Stars before cheering at Louisville.
June 2012
• Phil Myer – Phil was a volunteer assistant last year and will serve in the same role for this upcoming season. Phil is a graduate of Bradley University where he cheered for three years. Phil cheered for two seasons here at Purdue and is currently going for his PhD. in microbiology.
Getting a diverse group of judges is exactly what coach Solberg wanted.
“Every year I try to bring in different people to help with our tryouts,” exclaimed Solberg. “I was super happy with Mark, Nicole, Phil and Shardae. Each brought a different perspective and had different things they were looking for. I especially try to bring in somebody who has never worked with us before, and this year that person was Shardae. She was the judge who was just looking at skill. Without a doubt, these four with myself selected the best who should call themselves a Purdue cheerleader.”
Tryouts started on Friday, April 20 with a set of agility tests. These tests were created and selected by coach Solberg and Ryan Crow, the spirit squad’s strength and conditioning coach. This is something new and from knowledge, the first time a cheerleading tryout had this.
“I’ve never heard of a cheerleading tryout incorporating agility tests,” said Solberg. “I wanted to see if there was a correlation between pure athleticism and those we would end up selecting. Also, if we (the judges) were debating between people, we could use their agility tests to simply choose the better athlete.”
“The new tryout format this year included the implementation of agility tests,” said Phil Myer. “It was
definitely interesting to note the baseline athleticism of the prospective athletes. It will be exciting to see their progress through the upcoming year!”
The agility tests were demanding and the types of things a lot of these athletes haven’t done in awhile, but overall people actually enjoyed them because it brought out the competiveness out of everybody.
After the completion of their agility tests, an open gym was held in Mackey Arena. Originally tryouts were going to be held at Cardinal Court, but with Mackey being available, to add to the atmosphere of tryouts, we took the opportunity to have tryouts at Mackey.
Saturday morning started with a standing back tuck test. Each person had to throw 10 standing tucks in a row to 10 straight 8‐counts. After the tucks, we went on to fight song and cadences. At the conclusion of fight songs and cadences, everybody was able to show their series tumbling pass, and an optional standing and series tumbling sequence, if they had one. After tumbling, we broke for lunch.
After lunch, guys and all females trying out for the co‐ed team reported for an hour and 15 minutes of stunting. Once co‐ed finished stunting, we had all‐girl stunt for another hour and 15 minutes. For girls trying out for both squads, it meant double duty!
At the conclusion of stunting, coach Solberg and the judges got together and debated about the teams. The goal was to select both teams after Saturday, but it just wasn’t possible. On Sunday, each team had an hour and a half practice, with some asked to return for a final evaluation.
The Sunday practices went very well and the buzz around the gym was great! Everybody worked very hard and many of the returners said they really liked this new format, compared with having a final performance on Sunday.
The judges once again got together after Sunday and were able to select the 2012‐13 Purdue co‐ed, all‐girl and practice squads! Again, the judges were extremely happy with the tryout and those selected for the program.
June 2012
“The 2012‐13 Purdue University cheerleading tryouts were extremely successful,” exclaimed Mark Coleman. “It’s encouraging that, for the third year in a row, we continue to see more and more talented cheerleaders trying out to be a part of this program. It’s gratifying that Steve’s recruiting efforts are paying off, and it’s exciting to see where we are headed in the next couple of years!”
The teams will now have three summer weekend practices before they head to UCA college cheer camp in August.
To see the rosters of the new teams, please go to: www.boilerspirit.com
Purdue pete
documentary
tells history
At the beginning of basketball season, I was contacted by a student named Ellie Cameron‐Krepp. Ellie is from Australia and was moving back after her graduation. Growing up in Australia, she never experienced the American sports culture. A part of Purdue athletics that she became interested in was Purdue Pete.
As a senior in the School of Communication, Ellie had to create a final video project and decided to create a short documentary about Purdue Pete and his history. After presenting me with her ideas and script, I approved her to shoot footage of Pete and interview a couple of the guys.
Ellie e‐mailed me her final project and I was blown away by it! She did an excellent job of showing the honor and prestige that comes with being Purdue Pete. Here is a link to the YouTube page which shows the video. When you have 10 minutes, I would strongly suggest checking it out! Also, please feel free to share this link to all of your family, friends and supporters of Purdue athletics and Purdue Pete!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcsaZOhE14g&hd=1
cheer has first
practice
weekend of
summer
On May 12, most of the 2012‐13 Purdue cheerleaders came to campus and reported for our first practice weekend of the season! Excitement was very high as many of these athletes were meeting their teammates for the first time since tryouts.
Saturday started with a uniform fitting for the co‐ed team. This year, the co‐ed team will be getting new white uniforms from Varsity and the designs look very sharp! These uniforms should look really good on the field, court and competition floor.
After the uniform fitting, everybody else reported and the first hour of practice started with individual introductions and for everyone to get to know each other. It was this atmosphere that coach Solberg wanted throughout the weekend.
After a motivational video was played and the rookies learned the dynamic stretching and tumbling warm‐up routine, both teams went right into stunting! It was an opportunity for the co‐ed team to stunt with new people and for the all‐girl team to start figuring out stunt groups. Overall both teams did very well and enforcing technique was a huge emphasis.
“During finals week I had meetings with veterans from each team,” said Solberg. “At these meetings we discussed team goals, priorities and my goals for this upcoming season. I told both teams that my two main goals for this season are to create a stronger family atmosphere within the whole program and the emphasis on the ‘little things’ in everything we do. I feel going forward, for this program to grow and become as successful as we want it to be, these two things must happen.”
June 2012
Throughout the two days, both teams accomplished a lot! Both teams were able to throw pyramids, basket tosses and started to work on some game day stunting material. Also, each day featured a lot of the fight songs and cadences, as the rookies had to get caught up on the motions so they’re ready for camp and for our first volleyball and football game, which will be here before we know it!
However, a very important part of the weekend was the team building activities both teams did. Simple things like having a team break out at the beginning, playing the “machine game” with the squad mixed up, and having both teams at the IAF Saturday evening to watch both co‐ed and all‐girl finals from UCA college nationals last year was a great way to start the program bonding and developing that level of trust we all need to be successful for this season and beyond.
Providing assistance over the weekend was Nicole Latham, who was able to come in on Saturday and help out with the all‐girl team practice. Coach Solberg’s former assistant at Sun Prairie, and now current head coach there, Justin Cunningham, was able to make the trip down to West Lafayette and help out both days. Both Nicole and Justin left the weekend impressed with both squads.
“The first practice weekend was really an eye opener on how talented Purdue cheer has become,” said Nicole. “All the athletes were excited to work hard and get to know each other. I love seeing how excited the new people get at their first official Purdue practice. I am so excited to see the amazing things that our program is going to accomplish!”
“I was extremely pleased to see that some of the returners have worked on perfecting their technique on stunting,” said Justin. “I also was impressed with the overall talent level of the incoming class on both the co‐ed and all‐girl teams. Overall, I was very impressed on how coach Solberg was able to infuse the Boilermaker culture to the new members, as well as reinforce what it means to be a Purdue cheerleader. The 2012‐13 season is off to a great start!”
(Your 2012‐13 Purdue cheerleaders)
2012-13 Captains
selected
During the May practice weekend, both the co‐ed and all‐girl squads selected their captains for the 2012‐13 season. Each team selected two captains, with the co‐ed team selecting one male and one female.
To be selected as captain, each candidate had to contact coach Solberg with their desire to run, prepare a three‐to‐five minute speech they would give at the end of the Saturday, May 12 practice, and then voting would be done by returners on each team only. Rookies stayed to listen to each speech, but did not vote.
After a lot of great speeches and candidates, each team voted, and the captains for 2012‐13 are Kyle Pratt and Lizz Gerrity for the co‐ed team, and Jordan Potosky and Kelsey Kerkhove for the all‐girl team!
“There were a lot of great candidates and speeches given,” said coach Solberg. “That was evident in the voting. Nobody was a run‐away winner. The votes were close, meaning there were a lot of good choices for captain. However, these four did get the most votes, which speaks volume about these people and how much their teammates respect them as leaders. I’m really looking forward to working with Kyle, Lizz, Jordan and Kelsey next year, and hopefully I am able to mentor them and help them grow into great leaders for this program.”
June 2012
Kyle Pratt is a fourth‐year senior and four‐year member of the Purdue cheerleading program. Kyle is from Dyer, Indiana, and is the son of Terry and Laura Pratt. In high school, Kyle was a member of his high school’s cross‐country and track teams, while also cheering for Kentucky Elite all‐stars. Kyle has competed twice for Purdue, in 2011 and 2012, at UCA college nationals. A graduate of Lake Central High School, Kyle is majoring in pre‐physical therapy.
Lizz Gerrity is a fourth‐year senior and four‐year member of the Purdue co‐ed cheerleading squad. Lizz is from Lockport, Illinois, and is the daughter of James and Jane Gerrity. A graduate of Lockport High School, Lizz was on Lockport’s varsity cheerleading squad and won three Illinois cheerleading state championships. Lizz also competed with Purdue at the 2011 UCA college national championships. Lizz is majoring in economics and management.
Jordan Potosky is a third‐year member of the Purdue cheerleading program. Jordan is from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is the daughter of Phil and Annette Potosky. Jordan was a member of Bishop Dwenger’s varsity squad and also cheered all‐stars at Total Cheer Academy. In 2011, Jordan was the alternate on the Purdue nationals team and competed for Purdue in 2012 at UCA college nationals. A graduate of Bishop Dwenger High School, Jordan is currently majoring in hearing, speech and language sciences.
Kelsey Kerkhove is a third‐year member of the Purdue cheerleading program. Kelsey is from Loveland, Ohio, and is the daughter of John and Susan Kerkhove. Kelsey was a four‐year member of her high school’s varsity cheerleading squad. A graduate of Loveland High School, Kelsey is currently majoring in speech language and hearing sciences.