The Nicholas County Cheerleaders prepare to host and compete in the KAPOS Competition

KAPOS is a huge competition in the cheer world. Every year it moves locations, usually between Harrison County and Bourbon County. With our new addition to the school, the gym, we will be hosting this competition on January 22^nd. It is going to take so many people to help run this thing. Schools all around our region will be bringing their cheerleading squads to participate in the competition,

The squad this year is very different from the past years. Jessica and Jordan Letcher ( JJ) have combined the middles school and high school squads to make a team of 30 Nicholas County cheerleaders. The age gap doesn’t really affect the team. The only things, is that some of the girls have never cheered in their life and they are going from nothing, to being on Varsity. I am so proud of the girls this year though, many have stepped up and shown their leadership skills and the rest have learned so quickly on all of the cheerleading basics. In our division this year at the KAPOS, we will be competing in the super-large division, and will be be up against Bourbon and Braken.

I asked Jessica Letcher a few questions about the squad this year and what she sees coming out of this year.

• What’s the most difficult part of trying to coach a team with such a different age range?
• Coaching a team with a huge age range really isn’t that difficult. The hardest part for me is that I am used to girls going through Jordan for about three years before they get to me, so they are shaped into strong cheerleaders by that point. It has been a challenge for me to experience that “first year” cheerleader and literally teaching all skills to those individuals. Even though it has been a challenge, it has been very rewarding to see those young girls develop into great cheerleaders! The biggest challenge this year is the amount of cheerleaders we have! I love having thirty girls, but it becomes very difficult to work thirty individuals into one routine on one floor! It is also challenging to work around the schedules, injuries, illnesses, etc. Overall, I do feel that the merge into one team will be very beneficial and rewarding!
• Why did you decide to try and move to a different division this year, instead of staying medium?
• After the assistant coaches of both the middle school and high school teams decided to resign after last year, Jordan and I decided we wanted to coach together. However, she did not want to let middle school go, and I did not want to let high school go. After brainstorming, we decided we would just help each other. Then through more brainstorming, we envisioned how powerful and talented we would be if we merged the two squads together! High school had always been strong in the area of mounts and middle school had amazing gymnastics – both are huge parts of a competition score sheet! Therefore, we decided that together, we would be an extremely talented squad – one that Nicholas County had never seen before! Our goal was not to move to a different division. We compete in different divisions every year, as it just depends on the amount of cheerleaders you have each year. Since we had thirty to make the team, we have to compete in the super-large division. The super-large division is for teams who have 22-30 cheerleaders. Nicholas County has NEVER had a cheerleading team this large, so we are extremely excited to be a part of it!
• What’s your overall feeling about the whole competition?
• I am super excited about hosting the competition! We have never been able to host a competition at our school because of the size of our facilities. It means a great deal to me and to the girls to be able to have it in our own gym. We are so proud of this facility and are eager to show it off! It is also very exciting and more relaxing to compete in your own school, so I am hoping this will be to our advantage for KAPOS.
• How did it come about that we were able to get the KAPOS competition at our school, and what does this mean for the future for our school?
• I requested over a year ago to host the competition. It was between Nicholas and Montgomery County this year. We had to submit letters from our principal, athletic director and from Jordan and me requesting to host the event. It came down to a vote by all coaches in Region 10, and Nicholas won the vote! It is voted on each year.

Overall this competition is huge for our school to be hosting. I expect to see everyone and their brothers at the High School on Sunday, 22^nd at 2:00 PM!! Bring your loud voices for our squad only J