By Tom Kendra
LocalSportsJournal.com
MOUNT PLEASANT – To say this season was a dream come true for the North Muskegon competitive cheer team would be an understatement.
“Never in a million years did I think we could make it here,” said second-year North Muskegon coach Melody Zziwambazza, while being interviewed after Friday’s Division 4 state finals at Central Michigan University’s McGuirk Arena. “It was all because these girls are so close-knit and they showed up every day to work. We are incredibly proud.”
Hudson won its fifth consecutive state championship with 746.30 points, while North Muskegon placed eighth at 665.04.
But none of the eight Division 4 finalists had as big of a turnaround this winter as the Norse.
Consider:
North Muskegon improved their West Michigan Conference Rivers Division finish from seventh to fourth, then went from 10th at districts a year ago to fourth this season.
That fourth place at districts qualified the team for regionals, where the Norse posted their best performance of the season to take fourth and qualify for the state finals for the first time in 20 years.
“I was here when we started the program back up my freshman year and we went through some hard times,” said NM senior Olivia Midora, one of eight seniors on the team’s 15-girl varsity roster. “To see it come all the way back to state in just a few years was great.”
North Muskegon was one of the state’s original competitive cheer powers when the sport first became an MHSAA sport in the mid-1990s. The Norse won the Class D title in 1997 and took second in 1994 and 1995.
The Norse started strong on Friday, sitting in sixth place after an impressive first round.
NM then dropped to seventh after the second round and struggled in the third round, eventually finishing eighth.
“That happens sometimes in a big arena for a team that hasn’t performed in front of this kind of crowd – there was definitely nerves and jitters,” said Zziwambazza, who had two daughters on the team, Sophia, a senior, and Naomi, a sophomore.
“But what made me most proud is that even when they bobbled, they stayed in there and got right back up and finished strong.”
The Norse were led by their eight seniors – Maya Corbin, Katie Crawford, Layla Hurst, Keira Staley, Dori Szekeres, Miriam Wilke-Jones, Zziwambazza and Midora.
Other team members were juniors Ella Caradonna and Maizylin Hasty, sophomores Gabrielle Benedict, Sophia Corbin, Charlotte Winter and Naomi Zziwambazza and freshman Maura McRae.
Assistant coaches were Alexa Wolffis and Markaya McBean.
North Muskegon was supported by arguably the loudest of the eight school fan bases on Friday afternoon, coming up with clever walk-out cheers for each round.
“Cheer has been an overlooked sport for a long time, so it was really cool to have all of that support,” said Midora.
Many of those NM fans left Mount Pleasant and headed directly to Hesperia, to watch the school’s undefeated boys basketball team compete for a Division 4 district championship.
Hudson won its sixth cheer title in the past seven years, followed by Pewamo-Westphalia (736.42) and Michigan Center (733.94).
The Tigers rallied for this victory, after a slow start put them in fourth place after the opening round.
“I told them after the first round that they were in fourth place and their jaws dropped,” said Hudson coach Kelly Bailey, who is in her 28th year. “But they like to perform in the more athletic rounds, two and three, so I really wasn’t worried. Anxious? Yes. Worried? Not really.”
