Crystal Smith remembers some of the fun times associated with cheering when she was at Savanna High School. And now that she is the head cheer coach for the Bulldogs, she wants to bring some of that excitement and passion back to a program as she remembers when she was a Bulldogs cheerleader.

“This is my first year here and we got a late start so we didn’t have tryouts until late July. But we did manage to get our squad from four up to nine this year. We had an NCA staff member come in for a day a few weeks ago and give us some help. We’ve pulled some ideas off the Internet and we’re reworking some of the routines that have been handed down. We’re having pep rallies again and marching the halls on game day mornings to get school sprit up. Our long- range goal is to get enough people to be able to get into competitive cheer again.”

Smith is assisted by Erin Bradish who was an NCA All American cheerleader in high school, cheered in college at Eastern State and Bacone College and coached a junior high cheer team.

“Crystal and I are friends though I don’t teach at the school. When she got the job, she asked if I would help her since I had a little more experience,” said Bradish. “As Crystal said, we did get the squad up to nine members this year plus a new mascot but only our four seniors have any cheer experience.”

One of those with experience is senior captain Maggie Cato who Smith says has been invaluable to her.

“Maggie took Erin and I under her wing and showed us how things were being done and covered a lot of the little things that we hadn’t thought about. The girls all respect and listen to her and she’s a great leader who we can rely on to get practice going if we’re not there at the start.”

Maggie discovered early in life her desire to get into cheerleading.

“My brother played little league football and so I went to his games, and I just loved to watch the cheerleaders and I was so in awe of them and decided I wanted to do that and got started in the eighth grade. As a senior leader this year, I’m not afraid to use my voice if need be and know I’m expected to step up, but at the same time I don’t want to take the coaches place,” said Cato who is president of the school FFA chapter where she shows cattle and does land judging. “It’s been so different this year but it’s a good different because we’re getting a chance to change some of the old routines and add some new ones and it’s so fun being able to travel to out-of-town games again.”