Cardinal Spotlight

Dedicated cheerleaders lend insight about squad

In larger families, it isn’t uncommon that the older sibling tends to influence many of the behaviors of their younger siblings. The older child takes the risk of trying something new so the younger one can decide if it is something they want to do when they get older.

For cheerleader Monica Thode, that role has been reversed in her family.

Thode is a 5-foot-5, 120 pound sophomore who was born in Phoenix, Ariz. in 1992, but moved to Post Falls with her family when she was younger. She considers Post Falls her true home town.

She started cheerleading when she was a sophomore at Post Falls high school only after becoming inspired by her younger sister Sarah. Sarah is two years younger than Thode and began her cheerleading career around fifth grade.

“She inspired me to just try out and see if I liked it, and I ended up loving it,” Thode said.

When family members play and compete in the same sport, it’s only natural for sibling rivalry to occur.

“I would definitely say she is better than me just because she does have more experience, but we both excel in different ways,” Thode said. “We compliment each other.”

Thode said that she has more of the “cheerleading image” because she leads the crowds and cheers at sporting events on campus.

On the other hand, she said her sister has more of a competitive side and cheers in a manner glorified by the “Bring It On” movie franchise. She said her sister participates in cheer clubs, trains to compete daily and is “very hardcore” at what she does.

“I’ve done competitive cheerleading and I love it,” Thode said. “I was part of that world but not anymore. I’m just for college cheer now.”

Thode said she will be finished taking classes at NIC after next fall and plans to participate in commencement in Spring 2013. She has been completing her degree in general studies, but has considered going into Psychology for Child Development or Child Psychology.

“I really like all the processes involved with Psychology, like all the theories and just figuring out how the mind works,” Thode said. “It intrigues me.”

She said her GPA is around 3.3 and she has considered staying in the area to attend the satellite branch of Lewis-Clark State College (LCSC).

Last year, Thode was part of the NIC Cheer team that took first place at nationals. The team only has Thode and two other returners, Jaclyn Hitchcock and Cassie Motley, from that team and they have been working toward another win at national competition. The team has 12 freshmen.

Competition has changed from the previous year’s format. Instead of having a routine based on stunting and chanting, this year the team only gets to use the 2:30 for stunting with music.

Thode’s role changed as the team’s routine evolved. She started off as a base, a person who holds up another cheerleader, and then became the cheerleader she was once holding, also known as a top girl.

“She is doing fabulous, better than I thought she was going to,” said assistant coach Leslie Pulley. “She was a last resort originally and now she is a top girl. She is a perfection artist and that is why she is a good top girl.”

Thode said that going from base to top is a “huge change of pace.” She said that she trusts everyone who hoists her up into the air, but has acknowledged that falling sometimes happens.

“The fear kind of deludes away after a while, after falling a couple hundred times,” she said. “You won’t meet a flyer who says they have never fallen.”

Preparation for Nationals has the team making 5:30 a.m. practices at Flip Factory in Hayden. She said that some of the days can become challenging and overwhelming.

“Frustration comes from trying to do the skills the coaches expect from you, which I guess is true for any sport,” she said. “You just have to push through that and that’s the hardest for me.”

Where some people might consider that early to become frustrated, Thode said she was OK with it since she works as a barista at Bear Necessities coffee stand in Post Falls near state line.

“I love making coffee,” she said. “I wake up in the morning to do it.”

Beyond NIC and work, Thode said some of her favorite things to do is hang out with high school friends at the beach in summer, socialize with her cheer friends during winter and spring, and spend time with her boyfriend when she can since he goes to the Moscow University of Idaho campus.

All the time, she said she plans to keep practicing her cheerleading skills. She has a passion and when asked what she does for fun outside of cheerleading responds first with “more cheerleading outside of cheerleading.”

It brings proof that sometimes a younger sibling might show an older sibling something interesting and new.

Asking a coworker what they do outside of work might yield a strange answer. So when one of William Dean’s mechanic buddies asks him that question they get one answer: cheerlead.

NIC Cheer’s William Michael Dean is a 6-foot, 260-pound stunting base. He is 23 years old and was born on July 31, 1988, in Spokane.

Dean has a 3.0 GPA and has been studying to earn his Mechanical Drafting certificate, a two-year program at NIC. He has been a mechanic in the area for more than four years, but said his love for machines started early in life.

“I’ve been mechanically inclined since I was a little kid,” he said. “So, I just figured I go into something mechanically related.”

He said his daily routine at work would involve taking in a client’s car, diagnosing the issue and fixing the problem. He said he loves his job because of the problem solving-aspect behind it.

This was one of the same reasons he said he became a cheerleader. Inspiration to become one came from the challenge that lied within it.

“[I enjoyed] how hard and fun it was all in the same package,” Dean said. “I’ve never done anything so hard in my life and it’s extremely competitive, even though most people don’t think of it that way.”

Dean started his cheerleading career at the college level in 2007. With only five years under his belt, assistant coach Leslie Pulley said that she can recognize the talent he brings to the team.

“It’s his first year on the team and he has taken a strong leadership position,” Pulley said. “He is older so that kind of helps and he is versatile.”

More weight can mean more muscle, so Dean has become a pivotal member of the NIC Cheer squad by helping spot the lighter girls during routines. The squad has been practicing weekly in anticipation of this year’s National competition. NIC took first last year and Dean said the team is on the right track to make another run for first.

“We only have one routine that we get drilled, and drilled and drilled into our heads so that we can do it in our sleep with our eyes closed,” he said.

Although practices can be filled with what he called “cheer drama,” he said the squad remains very close because it is a small group. Since everyone has almost the same schedule, they find themselves hanging out with one another on a regular basis.

“After practice, all of us will go out and get something to eat or hang out,” he said. “That’s mostly where the fun times happen, outside practice where we can be ourselves.”

He said some of the best things about being a cheerleader are being around the girls, getting to know them, and being their friend. He said the best part for him is knowing that he can be someone the girls can turn to if they need to talk.

Dean said cheerleading can have its cons also. Beyond arguing and missing steps in the routine, he recalls a day that the squad had to endure an intense conditioning drill.

“We had to push the wrestling mat up and down the court for conditioning,” he said. “Not fun, not fun at all. It probably weighed around 500 to 600 pounds.”

With guidance from assistant coaches Tammy Androes and Leslie Pulley, Dean has begun to look at the future beyond NIC. Pulley is a graduate from Morehead State University in Kentucky and has talked to him about the potential of transferring there. Morehead has taken home more than 20 national championships at the Division I level. If not Morehead, he said he might consider Hawaii University instead.

“They are two of the best cheer schools in the nation,” he said. “I can get a full ride there.”

When outside of NIC and work, Dean has been known to volunteer his time at Flip Factory in Hayden. He coaches stunting and tumbling to ages seven and up. He remains dedicated to the sport and helps those around him understand the mechanics behind it.