Give me a “K!” Give me an “A!” Give me an “E!” Give me an “L!” Give me an “I!” Give me an “E!” What does that spell? KAELIE! KAELIE! KAELIE! (You can’t see me, but I was totally jumping up and down and pounding my fists as I was typing. Really.) Why such an intro to today’s blog post? Because we are featuring junior Communication Studies major Kaelie Sweet and her work as a USA Cheer instructor and judge!
Kaelie (left) at a USA cheer event
For those of you new to the blog, “Student Shout-Outs” are designed to showcase all of the interesting activities and work our students are involved in and their accomplishments, both inside and outside of the classroom. Kaelie works throughout the year as a cheer judge and over the summer as a cheer instructor for United Spirit Association (USA) Cheer. According to Kaelie, “USA is a spirit company that puts on numerous training camps throughout the summer for all ‘sideline’ programs, like cheerleading, songleading, dance, drill teams, drum majors, mascots, and pep flaggers. We not only teach the fundamentals of cheerleading (stunting and tumbling), but we also teach teams how to be unified and to become leaders in their schools and surrounding communities. We also teach coaches and advisors how to run a flourishing program and encourage team unity and success.”
That's Kaelie at the top, in a partner stunt!
Kaelie works as an instructor over the summer and as a judge during the school year. I asked Judge Kaelie to tell us more: “During the year, I am a competition judge. There are panel judges who analyze and score the entire routine, but my job description is a little different. I am technically a ‘safety judge,’ which looks for completely different things in each routine. I am well versed in all of the rules and regulations of cheerleading, which comes from the big company called USASF who makes and updates the rules each year. I had to attend special trainings to be this type of judge and I actually think it’s the toughest out of all of them! Anyways, when a routine is going, I look for things like ‘illegal stunts,’ if anyone is wearing jewelry, division limitations, and improper use of signs or props, to name a few. There are many different divisions like novice, intermediate, or advanced, and within those divisions, there are categories based on your teams size. For example, my high school team was in the ‘Medium Advanced Show-Cheer Division,’ meaning that because we had 16 girls, we were medium. You can imagine how many divisions there are and how many different rules and regulations there are for each division. Basically, I always have to be watching and aware of EVERYTHING that is going on on the mat.”
Judge Kaelie just finished giving a team a trophy
Some of you may have noticed that Kaelie missed a few Friday classes. But Kaelie wasn’t recovering from a late Thursday night (of studying, of course!), she was busy during Nationals season. Kaelie travelled to Anaheim to judge All-Star/Collegiate Nationals (“club” teams and college teams), Junior Nationals (younger than high school), and High School Nationals (her favorite!). She also travelled around the country earlier in the year to judge regional competitions.
Kaelie has a long line of cheerleaders in her family, starting with her grandma. “She actually cheered with the infamous Larry Herkimer, the inventor of the ‘herkie’ jump, that looks like the position you would do to jump over a hurtle.” (Ah, the herkie jump… that is how I get out of bed every morning!) Her mom is a director for USA and is world-renowned cheer coach. Kaelie hopes to continue her work with the company after graduation.
Kaelie and her mom... wow, too bad there is no family resemblance!
Congratulations to Kaelie on all of her work with USA Cheer! She balances a full load of school work with her work and travel throughout the year as an instructor and judge. I have always had a secret fascination with cheer (that I know a few of our students share) so it was fun learning more about it! I also think profiling something fun like cheer is appropriate at this time of the year, as I have been clapping so much for students as they come in to see me about graduation, that I consider myself to be a bit of cheerleader these days (minus the athletic jumps).
Congratulations Kaelie!
Hi Kaelie – Ok – this is about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen! I love that movie Bring it On – I know it’s unrealistic but I still love it.
What a great job you have! I admit, I watch very little TV, but if the cheerleading competition is on ESPN, I will totally watch it! Although I’m sad to hear that the Herky was not named after my graduate school mascot, Herky the Hawkeye…Keep up the great work!