Senior Kacyn Beard defines the word cheer in cheerleader according to her coach Kelzi Lopez.

“I’ve never had someone more passionate about cheer than Kacyn,” said Lopez. “Her strength is her spirit. She’s a great role model for her younger teammates, does anything I ask of her and always puts the team first.”

A four-year member of the varsity cheer squad, Kacyn comes by her passion naturally.

“My mom, who is my role model, was a cheerleader at Hugo when she was in school and got me started cheering when I was about three at a little youth league. Later I got into competitive gymnastics and tumbling. I love the energy around cheer and being able to be a part of athletics by cheering our teams on. When our boys went to state in basketball, I helped make goodie bags for them.”

Kacyn has also had to overcome her share of adversity to continue in cheer.

“During the football season in my sophomore year I suffered a shoulder injury during a stunt. For over a year we tried to deal with it through physical therapy and treatment but it didn’t get much better and during that time I was real weak and not able to stunt or tumble. So finally last summer we decided to have surgery to fix it and it’s been a long rehab but I’m back to being able to do most things.”

Being a senior means being a leader and Kacyn knows from experience the example she wants to set.

“I like to be an encourager and not an enforcer. I like to be nice and positive because I’ve had some captains who were rude about it and I know that when I was a freshman and had a bad day, I needed someone to boost me up and that’s what I want to do for our girls.”

In addition to cheer, Kacyn is also a shooting guard on the basketball team and a defender in soccer as well as being in student council, National Honor Society and Leo’s Club. She cites her little sister, Kieran Slyer, as a big motivator for her who pushes her and looks up to her.

Kacyn is hoping to go to college and cheer and has talked to UCO and Southwestern State and while in school study kinesiology and possibly become an athletic trainer.