“She’s a fantastic leader and I couldn’t have asked for a better captain of our cheer team.”

That’s how first-year high school cheer coach Amber Collins describes Talihina senior Maggie Smith who is a whirling dervish of activity in and out of school.

“I was in pageants when I was little, and my mom met other moms there who had daughters in cheer and that’s how I got started in kindergarten,” Smith said. “My dad traveled a lot, so I cheered here and there with different organizations and even got into competitive cheer for a year but didn’t start cheering full time until seventh grade. I also play softball but only play slow pitch in the spring because cheer keeps me busy during the fast pitch season.”

Maggie says she enjoys stunting the most about cheer where she is a main base and has helped expand that part of the program at Hugo.

“We’ve now got two stunt groups and being able to learn all those skills and stunts has been so much fun. My role model was Hailey McClain who cheered here when I was young, and she went on to cheer at Arkansas. I learned a lot from her.”

In addition to cheer and softball, Maggie is also in the band where she has been a drum major for the past two years, is in speech and debate, FCCLA, and Project Rise which is a Choctaw awareness and college prep program. She also takes college courses, is in the National Society of High School Scholars and the Oklahoma Indian Honor Society as well as the National Honor Society and is active in her church.