Team 2021 swept the OK Gold in Competitive Cheer at the Conference Finals held at Cedar Springs High School on Wednesday, March 10th.

The Varsity squad, who has been working hard to overcome setbacks early in the season, entered the competition tied for first place in the OK Gold with Thornapple Kellogg High School.

The Lady Red Hawks have spent countless hours perfecting their rounds and were prepared to leave it all on the mat in order to secure the top spot in the OK Gold for their first year in the conference. Not only did these athletes leave all competitors in the dust with a final score of 762.22 (58.58 points higher than second place Thornapple Kellog), but they earned their best round scores of the season and crushed their best final score of the season, to date, by 15.6 points! Job well done, ladies!

The JV Lady Red Hawks also performed strongly at the Conference meet and earned the top spot by scoring a final score of 558.2. “I am so proud of this 2021 JV Cheer team,” commented Coach Katy Hradsky. “I feel like we are just getting started. This group of girls really worked well together and made the season enjoyable as well as successful. I hope to see these faces in June for sideline tryouts.”

The Varsity team will advance to Districts, which will be held at DeWitt High School on Saturday, March 20. If the team finishes in the top three at the event, they will advance to Regional competition at Kenowa Hills on Tuesday, March 23. Coach Anne Olsweski is confident in Team 2021. “We have a chance of coming out of Regionals, but it’s going to be tough and we are going to have to bring our A game. I have no doubt that these girls have it in them. NO DOUBT

AT ALL. These girls have handled this season with style and grace that many of us will never know in a lifetime.”

The Cedar Springs Varsity Competitive Cheer team advanced to regionals by earning third place at district 11 finals at St. John’s High School on Friday, February 21.

Coach Anne Olszewski is proud of her team. “I just want to take the time and thank all of the parents and people in the stands that supported the team on our travel to St. John’s High School for districts,” she said. “We knew it would be a tough competition; only the top four teams advance to regionals. We were sitting very well after round 1 (score: 234.1) and 2 (score: 226.42). Honestly, at that point it was anyone’s win between the top three teams.”

Then something happened that could have meant the end of their season. 

“In round three, we threw one of our most exciting rounds,” continued Olszewski. “However, we had a fall. Typically, a fall in round 3 in post season, takes you right out of tournament play. I can tell you that there were 19 girls and coaches that were sick to our stomachs because there was a real fear we would not advance to regionals. However, we had a big enough lead that we finished 3^rd (combined round three score of 761.32) and get the opportunity to redeem ourselves this Saturday, February 29 at Portage Northern in regional play. These girls can do anything they put their minds to, honestly. And if we were going to have a fall, it’s better at districts than regionals. We earned another week of competition and for that I am super grateful. We just need to dial it in this week and then just show everyone what Red Hawk stunting is all about!”

The Lady Red Hawks will compete in regional finals on Saturday, February 29 at Portage Northern High School, where the top four teams advance to State Finals on March 7 at the Delta Plex. Good luck Lady Red Hawks! 

JV takes first at Reeths Puffer

The Cedar Springs High School Competitive Cheer team wrapped up 2019 with two competitions last week. On December 18th the Lady Red Hawks competed in the Jenison Invitational. The Varsity team secured first place in the Division 2/3 Bracket with a combined round three score of 706.06 and placed. The JV team were leading the JV Division after round two but were forced to sit out round three when one of their teammates became very sick. On December 21st, the team competed in the Reeths-Puffer Rockets Invitational. The JV team had performed very well in all three rounds and took 1st place in the JV Division with a combined round three score of 623.80. The Varsity team were leading the invitational after round two but fell short after a few crucial errors in round three. The Lady Red Hawks took second place with a combined round three score of 736.26.

Reflecting on the past two weeks, Coach Anne Olszewski commented, “We have competed three times before Christmas break, which is difficult to do because of the short amount of time we have to complete all three rounds, clean and perfect the stunts, and memorize quick changes.  Our rounds are difficult, and they are working diligently and progressing steadily. I am overall pleased.  Right now, we are battling mental errors due to the material still being new – and we are changing the rounds based on scores. We learn more every competition, not only about the sport but also about ourselves. These young women are some of the most talented and intelligent young women I have ever worked with.  They had an awesome experience from last year’s run to state finals and know that the only way we will get back to the big mat at is to work hard at every practice.  The girls who are new to the varsity level are figuring out that competing at the elite level requires serious commitment.  It’s exciting to watch them excel.”

JV Coach Katy Hradsky is very proud of the hard work of her team. “This week something happened to our JV team. I’m not sure it was the holiday spirit, the fact break was almost here, or the fact that we had spent the last 2 weeks and last 2 competitions scratching due to injuries and illness. The girls started pushing through mental blocks that had previously kept them from learning new skills, and they worked really hard to clean and repair all 3 rounds with a lesser number of teammates. All this hard work was evident on Saturday at Reeths Puffer. They scored 20 points higher in Round 1 and 30 points higher in Round 2 than they did on Wednesday and completely nailed their first ever full out of Round 3. I was so totally pleased with their performances on Saturday that I wasn’t really keeping watch of the scores. I was just pleased that they were running off the mat confident and happy with their performances and was in complete shock when they announced that we had won first place. I am so proud. It was a well-deserved win for a team that worked so hard and had a complete turnaround in just 2 days.”

The Lady Red Hawks will kick-off 2020 with their first OK White Conference meet in Lowell on January 8. Good luck ladies! 

Thirteen teams arrived at Mt Pleasant High School ready to compete for the District 11 Competitive Cheer Title last Saturday, February 16. The top four teams would continue their post-season run by securing a spot on the mat at the Division 2, Region 3 Tournament at Kenowa Hills on February 23. 

The Lady Red Hawks had strong performances throughout the competition and earned some of their highest scores of the season. The Red Hawk fans cheered as they heard scores for Rounds one (232.2) and Two (229.6). Round 3 began with only a 3-point difference between Cedar Springs and the 2^nd place team from DeWitt. The Lady Red Hawks took the mat, hit every stunt and jump and earned an extremely high score of 319.6, but still fell short of claiming the District Title by only .14 points. 

Coach Anne Olszewski is proud of this team. “We had some of our best scores at districts and fell barely short of defending our title, but we are heading to Regionals. The top four teams will advance to State Finals on March 2^nd. That is our goal—to get to State Finals. It has been 9 years since Cedar Springs has been to State. We are ready!” 

In addition to advancing to Regional Competition next Saturday, the team also celebrates several of their athletes who were named to the OK White All Conference Competitive Cheer team: Gabby Endres, Elayna Male, Emily Pierson, Paige Pierson and Sophia Dault, and two receiving honorable mention: Harlow Hovarter and Olivia Endres. Congratulations ladies!

Come and support this group of hard-working ladies at the Regionals Competition this Saturday, February 23^rd at Kenowa Hills High School at 10 a.m. Good luck Lady Red Hawks!

The Cedar Springs Varsity Cheer team won both conference and districts this season.

Cedar Springs High School Varsity Cheer has finished first in Conference and Districts this year and they are preparing to take on regional competition this Saturday, Feb 24 at 10:00 a.m. at Thornapple-Kellogg High School. 

“I am very excited about post season play this year!” said Coach Anne Olszewski. “This is the most talented team I have coached at this level to date. They are passionate, skilled and hard working.” 

These Red Hawk Girls have continued to improve all season. This past Saturday at the District meet they earned their highest score yet—772.08—almost an 85-point improvement from their lowest score in the beginning of season.  

These girls have clear goals of what they need to accomplish to get to State Finals at the Delta Plex on March 3rd. When asked about regionals Coach Olszewski responded, “We have to finish in the top four at regionals against some tough teams. But, they are not tougher than we are! These  Red Hawks are focused and ready. I hope everyone can make it to TK and support these 18 young women on the mat! We are Red Hawks, We are from Cedar Springs and We are proud to represent!”

The JV Competitive Cheer team with their first place trophy.

On Saturday, February 4, Cedar Springs JV and Varsity Competitive Cheer teams traveled to Southgate, Michigan, for the 2017 Southgate invitational.

Five JV teams competed at the JV level.

In round 1, Cedar Springs JV earned a score of 203.40. They gained an additional 175.6 in round 2, bringing their subtotal to 379.00. In round 3 they earned an additional 275.70  points, giving them a total score of 654.70, their highest scores of the season and another first place finish.

Nine teams competed at the Varsity level. At the end of round 1, Cedar Springs Varsity received a score of 224.20. Round 2 brought an additional 217.96 and a subtotal score of 442.16. After a couple of unfortunate errors, they earned an additional 295.8 at the end of round 3 and a final score of  721.96 and a 7th place finish.

On Wednesday, February 8, the JV and Varsity traveled to Northview for their final conference meet of the season. See results in next week’s Post.

On Friday, February 10, they will be traveling to Caledonia for the SCOTastic Competitive Cheer meet. This will be the last regular season competition before heading to districts on February 18 at Kenowa Hills.

Cedar Springs Varsity Cheer team takes first place at the second OK White Conference meet.

Cedar Springs JV Cheer team earned their highest score of the season.

On Wednesday, January 25, Cedar Springs High School hosted the second OK White Conference meet of the season.
Since Cedar Springs JV is the only JV team in the OK White Conference, they have one goal set for each conference meet—to beat their own high score. On Wednesday they did just that. At the end of round 1, Cedar Springs JV received a score 193.7; round 2 brought them a score of 165.8 and a subtotal score of 359.5; at the completion of round 3 they earned an additional 260.4 and a total score of 619.9, their highest scores of the season.
There are four teams competing at the Varsity level for OK White Conference Champs.
After round 1, Cedar Springs Varsity took the lead with a score of 226.7 and less than a one-point lead. Round 2 gained an additional 222.3, a subtotal score of 449 and almost a 14-point lead. At the completion of round 3 they earned a score of 303 and a final score of 752, securing their first place finish with a 20-point lead.
Saturday, January 28, the JV and Varsity teams traveled to East Kentwood High School for the LMCCOA Scholarship Invitational.
Nine teams competed at the JV level.
In round 1 they earned a score of 169.5. In round 2, they gained an additional 156.98, bringing their subtotal to 326.48. They gained an additional 245.9 points in round 3, giving them a final score of 572.38 and a fifth place finish.
Thirteen teams competed in the D2 Varsity division. Round 1 earned Cedar Springs a score of 224.7. They gained an additional 221.64 in round 2, bringing them a subtotal score of 446.34. The completion of round 3 gained them an additional 288.2 points, a total score of 734.54 and a fourth place finish.
On Saturday, February 4, Cedar Springs JV and Varsity will travel to Southgate on the east side of the state to compete at the Southgate Anderson Invitational.

The Cedar Springs Varsity Competitive Cheer team at West Catholic High School.

The Cedar Springs JV Competitive Cheer team at Comstock Park.

On Monday, January 16, the Cedar Springs Competitive Cheer teams traveled to Comstock Park for another Comstock Park Invitational.

Two teams competed at the JV level. With an unexpected absence from the team, coach Katy Hradsky had to quickly change and rework all three rounds.

In round 1, Cedar Springs JV took the mat and earned a score of 188.6. After round 2 they scored an additional 157.2, bringing their subtotal to 345.8. Round 3 gained them an additional 229.2, giving them a final score of 575 and a second place finish.

Four teams competed at the Varsity level.

After round 1 was complete, Cedar Springs Varsity received a score of 221.2. Round 2 gained them an additional 216.58, brining their subtotal to 437.78. Round 3 gained them 285.2, giving them a final score of 722.98 and another first place finish.

On, Friday, January 20, Cedar Springs JV & Varsity traveled to West Catholic High School for the WCHS Competitive Cheer Invitational. There were 16 high school teams competing, three at the JV level, and four D2 teams competing with our Varsity girls.

Cedar Springs JV took the lead in round 1 with a score of 184.90. Round 2 gained them another 158.72. After a 10-point deduction, they had a subtotal score of 333.62 and a 30 point lead going into round 3. The completion of round 3 gained an additional 234.2 points and secured their first place finish with a final score of 567.82 Cedar Springs Varsity ended round 1 with a score of 217.6 and third place at the start of competition, with only a three-point difference between 1st and 3rd place.

Round 2 gained them 213.86 points and brought them to a subtotal score of 431.46, which moved them to second place with more than a 20-point lead.

The completion of round 3 gained an additional 274.6 and a final score of 706.06 and a second place finish.

Wednesday Cedar Springs will host the next Conference meet. Conference meets are what helps move the girls beyond the regular season and on to districts, regionals, and state competition.

On Saturday January 28, Cedar Springs JV and Varsity will travel to East Kentwood High School for the LMCOAA Competition.

Come out and support these ladies and show your Red Hawk pride, as they work hard to represent their coaches and school.

Varsity: The Cedar Springs Varsity Cheer team finished 3rd out of 15 teams at Mona Shores.

This weeks competitions brought the Cedar Springs High School Varsity & JV teams to Mona Shores High School. It was a long night for the girls, due to there being 33 teams at this competition.

Starting in round one, Cedar Springs Varsity scored a 218.5 with a 4-point penalty bringing their score to a 214.5 and placing them in 4th place at the end of round one.

JV: The Cedar Springs JV team finished first out of six teams at Mona Shores.

Cedar Springs JV scored a 195.7 placing them in 1st place at the end of round one.

Continuing on to round two Cedar Springs Varsity scored a 218.7 making their subtotal for round two a 433.28 bringing them up to second place at the end of round two.

Cedar Springs JV scored a 163.6 bringing the subtotal to a 359.3 and holding their first place standing.

Lastly, in round three Cedar Springs Varsity scored a 280.1, bringing their overall total for all three rounds 713.38. This gave them a third place finish out of 15 Division 2 teams, with less than a one-point difference for second place.

Cedar Springs JV finished round three with a 248.7, bringing their overall total to 608 and securing a first place finish out of six JV teams.

Great job to all the girls.

The next High School competition will be Saturday January 7 at Comstock Park High School.

The Cedar Springs Red Hawks middle school cheer team took first place at a conference meet at the middle school last week.

With the second conference meet of the middle school season being canceled due to weather, last Thursday, Dec. 15, brought seven teams to Cedar Springs Middle School for their next conference meet.

Illness hit a teammate the night before competition and brought a quick change to the routines and had the girls relearning them only hours before competition.

The girls finished round two with a score of 114.26 putting them in first place with a 14.66 lead.

That brought them to round three where the girls and coaches get to show their unique routines and tumbling skills. They finished round three with a score of 255.8, bringing their total score to 370.6 with a 57.06 lead and another first place finish.

“The team had to come together and rework the round after school when a teammate fell ill. I am so happy with their performance in round three! We improved our round three score by 37 points from our last competition.

The girls put their nerves aside and executed the round, I could not ask for anything more from them!” said coach Abby Olszewski.

The next middle school competition will be January 15 at Thornapple Kellogg.

The Cedar Springs high school JV & Varsity teams will compete Wednesday at Mona Shores and Saturday, January 7 at Comstock Park.

Come out and support a great group of girls and show your Red Hawk pride!

(L to R) Brittani Tozer, Heather Howard, and Amber Dunham are part of the Davenport University Cheer Team, which won national championships in both Competitive cheer and Stunt this spring.

Three Cedar Springs High School graduates performed a rare feat—they captured two national championships, in different events, in the same season. Brittani Tozer, Heather Howard, and Amber Dunham, accomplished this in Competitive Cheer and Stunt, as part of the Davenport University Cheer team.

The team won their third national competitive cheer title in a row, after competing on April 9 and 10, in Daytona Beach, Florida. On April 9, 26 teams participated in the preliminaries, with Davenport finishing in the top spot. Half the teams moved on to the finals on April 10, with Davenport performing last. They had a near perfect performance to win the NCA/NDA Division III All Girls Competitive Cheer National Championship.

In May, the team won their first national title in Stunt, in which they have only competed two years. The dates were May 1-3, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The top four schools in each division were invited to participate. The divisions were I and II, and Davenport was rated 2 in Division II. Their challenge was to defeat Oklahoma Central University, who had won this championship three years in a row. The tournament was double-elimination. Davenport defeated Oklahoma Central in the semi-final, and then again in the final.

Cedar Springs Varsity Cheer took first-place at their own invitational last weekend.

Cedar Springs Cheer hosted an invitational this past Saturday, which included the Middle School, Junior Varsity and Varsity teams. This is the first event of the season where all four teams were able to compete at the same time and location.

Cedar Springs Middle School White team took second-place at last weekend’s invitational.

Due to inclement weather, schools had to back out last minute, which cut down the Middle Schools competition to three teams. Cedar Springs White took second-place after Round 2 with a score of 95.04. They secured a second-place ranking after gaining an additional 226.4 points after Round 3 and overall score of 321.44. “The girls were excited to cheer in front of their home town and I am proud to be a part of the Cedar Springs Cheer tradition,” said Head Coach Cassandra Chartier.

Cedar Springs Middle School Red team took first-place at their own invitational.

Cedar Springs Red earned a high score of 129.40 to take the lead of first-place after Round 2. With an additional score of 270 points and an overall score of 399.4, Cedar Springs Red remains undefeated, with another first-place Victory. “This crazy Michigan weather left us with one day to practice a new round, and these girls performed absolutely amazing with the time they had to work with. I pushed them pretty hard and I had confidence they would rise to the challenge,” said Head Coach Amy Arnold.

Cedar Springs JV Cheer took first-place at the Cedar Springs invitational.

Again, with the last minute school cancellations, the Junior Varsity team, coached by Katy Baird, also had three teams to compete against. Coach Baird is returning to Cedar Springs and bringing with her nine years of coaching experience. She has been part of Cedar Springs Cheer for four years prior to her return. Round 1 of competition brought a score of 170.7, taking the lead of first-place. Round 2 gained an additional score of 152.06 and bringing their subtotal score to 322.76, which kept them in the lead. Securing another Championship and remaining undefeated, the JV team earned an additional score of 202 points, giving them an overall score of 524.76. “Due to the nasty weather this week, our team missed two practices after learning a new routine. There were a lot of challenges but these girls stuck with it and did very well. I am very proud of them,” said Head Coach Katy Baird.

The Varsity Team, coached by Anne Olszewski, had five teams competing against each other. Coach Olszewski has 31 years of coaching experience, the last 10 years has been here at Cedar Springs; seven years with our Competitive and nine years with our Sideline. She has coached or been involved at every level of the Cedar Springs Cheer Program and still serves as League Director to Northern Rocket Cheer. Round 1 earned a score of 218 points taking the lead. Round 2 kept the lead with an additional 179.48 points bringing their sub total to 397.48. Round 3 gained an additional 258.6 and secured the Championship with a score of 258.6 and an overall score of 656.08.

“Part of my job as coach is to pick out the wrong but to also find the good, recognize the good and how to improve the good.  Each week we are making small improvements, contributing to the overall success, we are making the good into great. We are really kicking butt and they rise to the challenge with everything that I throw at them. The Varsity team has 2 twisting full layouts on the team and we have not had this since 2007. I am extremely proud of my team and honored to work with them every day,” said Head Coach Anne Olszewski.

Cedar Springs Cheer is building a tradition where the collective efforts of the athletes, coaches, parents and community make championships possible. Please keep supporting Cedar Springs Cheer, “faith over fear, this is our year!”