FAM CHEER TEAM WINS SPIRIT OF SIX AWARD
In the end, the boys ended up cheering for the cheerleaders.
The Freeman Academy/Marion cheer team was honored Saturday night, March 19 with the highly coveted Spirit of Six Award for their support of the Bearcats basketball team at the State B Tournament in Aberdeen last week. The team was announced as the winner at halftime of the championship game between De Smet and Lower Brule, eliciting a thrilling celebration in the moments that followed and a gathering in the corner of Wachs Arena that included congratulations from, and photos with, the team.
“It’s incredible, incredible, incredible; I’m still in shock,” said Bearcats cheer coach Tasha Olson, grinning ear to ear not long after the winner was announced. “I am so proud of every one of them. They worked so hard and became one big family. I will never forget this, and I hope they never forget this.”
The FAM cheer team — Ally Bethke, Alyssa Fink, McKenna Odman, Alysiah Olson, Jessica Paschal, Autumn Rouse and stuntman Devin Vietor — won based on criteria that included abilities displayed, crowd control, sportsmanship, enthusiasm, behavior on and off the court, and dress. Olson said the judges are not known to the team and “in the shadows,” and are present at all organized cheer team events, including suppers.
Olson said the size and enthusiasm of the crowd is really quite minimal in the overall effort and at one point the cheer team was docked points for something, “but we were so far ahead it didn’t matter,” said the coach. “These girls stayed with the program the whole time; they were working hard and doing what they needed to do and making adjustments all the time. They smiled and took everything in.”
The Spirit of Six Award was introduced by the South Dakota Peace Officers Association in 1970 and honors six Rapid City cheerleaders who died in a plane crash while returning from the State A tournament in Sioux Falls in 1968. It is awarded at state basketball tournaments for all three classes.
“It’s literally a dream come true,” said Rouse, a junior at Freeman Academy. “I can’t even imagine us being here without the wonderful support from the basketball players, our crowd, family, parents, just everyone. I want to say thank you so much.”
“I’ve been doing this since third grade and cheer has always been a big part of my life,” said Freeman Academy senior Alyssa Fink. “It means so much. We have worked so hard in practice and our boys have worked so hard to get us here. It’s just a joy to cheer them on.”
Olson, a junior from Marion and the daughter of the head cheer coach, admitted she was a little worried about the team’s chances because she felt the Bearcats decorations in the hotel hallway weren’t quite up to par as some of the others, “but we did dress up for every event in dresses or rompers and we did not wear jeans or leggings any single day of this tournament.”
Paschal, a sophomore at Freeman Academy, had a hard time putting into words what the Spirit of Six Award means to her.
“It doesn’t even seem real,” she said. “This is so important to us and I can’t believe that we actually did it. It’s crazy.”
“It means a lot; it means a lot,” said Odman, fighting through the tears and emotion of the moment. “I can’t explain what it’s like being here with all my friends.”
Marion senior Bethke noted how hard the cheer team worked — she said there was full attendance at every 5 a.m. practice — and crowd engagement was really important to the girls.
“We kept our smiles on, we worked with our crowd really hard,” she said. “And we worked really hard to get here. I’m just so happy.”
Bearcats cheer coach Tasha Olson hands the Spirit of Six trophy to her daughter, Alysiah, after accepting it near center court at the Barnett Center Saturday night. Also pictured is Autumn Rouse.
