Ben Murphy
Sports Scene
The Bay City Central competitive cheer team continued their season of vast improvement on Saturday, February 18 by taking fourth place at the Davison district, qualifying them for regionals for the first time in school history.
“We are very excited,” head coach Megan Tourda-Nelsen said. “We are having a wonderful season. We have broken and reset the school record in [several] competitions, elevating our scores from last season by an average of 50 points.”
The Wolves opened the first round of districts with a score of 201.71, and followed up on that with a 210.4754. In the opening round, the Wolves secured their regional berth with a 284.1, the third highest of any team at the district.
The Central cheer team is in just its fifth year of varsity competition. Tourda-Nelsen has been the head coach for all but the first year.
“The first season, under a different coach, the team placed last at districts,” she said. “Since then, we’ve slowly climbed the ranks and our goal is to [make a good post-season run.] “
Though competitive cheer is still catching on in the area, programs in Grand Rapids, Rochester, and Grandville have dominated the sport. Tourda-Nelsen feels her team is close to reaching those levels.
“We have a spectacular group of young women, freshmen through seniors, who have worked diligently on their individual skills and team coordination in order to become more competitive,” she said. “They practice six days per week, anywhere from two to four hours and compete mostly on Saturdays. I have four seniors who have provided exceptional leadership throughout the season and continue to push the younger girls to excel.”