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Panthers cheerleaders take top awards from state

By Sue Sitter - | Dec 11, 2021

Submitted Photo The Rugby Panthers Football Cheerleading Squad poses for a photo after competing in the fall state cheer competition in Fargo Nov. 13.

The Rugby Panthers Football Cheerleading Squad came home from the North Dakota Cheer Coach Association Fall State Cheer Competition in Fargo with top awards for individual and team events Saturday, Nov. 13.

Coach Ashley Seykora beamed with pride recently in the Rugby High School library as she and three team members talked about their competition, held at Fargo North High School.

Team flyer Taylor Mayer took first place in the class B jump-off. The team placed second in the cheer/dance routine category and third in the stunt group category. Team members Taya Ramaden and Taylor Mayer won senior awards in the competition. The team scholar award went to the Panthers as well.

Seykora said while she’s proud of the team’s accomplishments, she’s most proud of the girls themselves, especially the seniors on the team.

“This is a really good group of girls here,” Seykora said. “They had really good results and they’re super nice. We had hoped for first and we were actually a little disappointed, but when you’re a competitor, that’s what you hope for. Anything less is disappointing.”

“There were about seven class B schools there competing in the different events,” Seykora added. “There was lots of class A schools. So, it was a long day of cheerleading but it was a lot of fun.”

“We liked it,” Seykora added. “It was one day where the competition gets to be about them. The other days of the year, they’re here to support their sports. So, they get to celebrate themselves.”

Mayer said winning first place in the event “was very exciting. I’ve been cheering since ninth grade. I cheer in both football and basketball. I think I started cheering because of gymnastics.”

Mayer’s role on the team is the flyer, or cheerleader who does aerial stunts after being tossed into the air or jumping.

Seykora said coaches put lots of work into cheerleading, too, as they’re trained to assess the squad’s readiness to perform more complicated stunts. Seykora and fellow coach Alyson Schepp determine each cheerleader’s readiness to move to higher levels.

“With stunting, there are a lot of progressions,” Seykora explained. “A lot of people don’t realize per athlete, there have been more cheerleading deaths than in any other sport in the nation. So, sometimes, I feel people don’t understand how dangerous and serious what they do is and how hard it is.”

Seykora described the progressions. “You start out (lifting another stunter) at the thigh level, then you can go to the chest level, then you can go above your head. But there are rules that as a coach I have to know that they have to be able to do,” she said.

“There are two things that are very, very dangerous. One is to stand on one leg with the bases holding the flyer over their heads. Imagine standing on one leg just on the ground, how tough that is,” Seykora said. “And another is to throw her into the air when you’re releasing into a basket formation. And there are different rules from high school to college. In college, she can flip in the air; in high school, she can’t.”

“These girls are doing the most advanced level for high school because they’re very good,” Seykora added.

“People who don’t know the basics of cheerleading – people in the crowd – don’t know that when Taylor’s on one leg, that’s so much more dangerous than when she’s on two, or when they throw her, how dangerous that is,” Seykora added.

Mayer said the part of cheerleading she likes best “is the building friendships with teammates. It’s just a really cool sport and I get to meet new people.”

Ramaden said the team made sure to get parents and Panther fans in the spirit before the competition.

“We had a community night before we competed, so we taught all the parents (and Panther fans) the words,” Ramaden said. “So, when we got to the competition, we couldn’t hear them, but you could hear them in the video we took. You could hear them all going crazy.”

Seykora said parents proved to be the most supportive Panthers cheerleading fans. “On our way to see us off Brad Wangler was up out of his sun roof doing cheers,” she said. Wangler is the father of eighth grader Paisley Wangler.

“We had some cheer dads, so that was fun,” Seykora said.

The team spent the night before the competition “kind of bonding,” Seykora added. “We could’ve left earlier in the day and not done all that but it’s the one weekend a year it’s about cheerleading.”

“For me, day before is more fun than the day of competition. It’s really a good bonding time. I feel like I got so much closer with the younger girls, even,” Larson said.

Seykora noted Ramaden had just finished “her fifth season lettering in football cheerleading. I think the four seniors we have, these guys and Katelyn Duchscher, they’ve heard me say this 92 times but they’re just so kind. They were never pushy seniors. They were always helpful to the younger ones.”

“We have no juniors on our squad. We have very good leadership here,” Seykora added.

“This is such a nice group of girls. I would love to have more girls just like these girls standing before you. I think their average GPA is about 3.95 or 4.0. They’re good kids. I can always rely on them to do well in school. They’re just great.”

Ramaden, Mayer and Larson all said they planned to participate on the basketball cheerleading squad.

Larson offered advice to other Rugby High and Middle School students: “Try out. It’s fun.”