We have Spirit

WSU’s Spirit Squad wins national titles and shows what dedication means.

Allison Hess, Marketing & Communications

Above the Line

What does perfection look like? For two minutes and 15 seconds, Weber State’s cheer team came as close as possible at the 2021 NCA National Cheer and Dance Competition in Daytona Beach, Florida.

The overall score — 98.507 — earned the team its fourth- straight national title in the Advanced Large Coed division. That’s not all, that score was best in the country — of all 100 teams, in any division — giving the Wildcats their first Grand National Championship.

And WSU’s dance team, which along with the cheer team makes up the Spirit Squad, reclaimed the national Hip Hop title. To cap off a weekend of wins in Daytona Beach, Elsa Hassett and Kollin Cockrell earned the national Partner Stunt title, while Anu Keene and CJ Weinberg placed second and Katherine Abela and Michael Androsov placed fifth.

But for program advisor and cheer coach Summer Willis, there’s no such thing as perfection.

“From the outside you might not see all the little things that happen on the mat, but overcoming adversity is what we work so hard on,” Willis said. “We do rep upon rep upon rep to be prepared for that one little thing that goes wrong. I think we’re teaching and we’re working on adjusting. True champions make a routine appear perfect and never give up.”

Adjusting as a team required 416 beats of choreographed and synchronized tumbling stunts, basket tosses and pyramids, culminating with a two-part-elite stunt sequence, never before performed at nationals.

“No one knew what we were coming to do,” said Hassett, a senior studying communication. “No one knew the sequence we had, and we went out there and literally did the best routine of our lives. Our stunts were perfect; our tumbling was amazing; our pyramid was just to die for. We ended the routine and people were crying. It was so cool.”

What they accomplished on the national stage was a goal they set from the beginning of the year. Willis said it was inspiring to watch the team pull together and do the work to make the dream a reality, and it turned out to be easy compared to the mental and emotional intensity of the previous year.

The Spirit Squad had to miss a whole season of cheering and performing at university events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their 2020 nationals competition was canceled practically as they packed to attend. They had to wear masks to practice, and to stop practice whenever members came in contact with someone who had COVID.

Nationals gave them something to focus on. “Above the Line,” with a commitment to teambuilding and leadership, became their mantra and their motivation.

Team captain Cockrell said practice was intense: three days a week of team workouts and then three or more days of individual lifting and conditioning. He and Haskett dedicated 160 hours on their own to the partner stunt routine.

The reward was cohesion and control, and it helped overcome a world of turmoil outside the gym. And for Cockrell, it’s not the first time the Spirit Squad saved him. In 2015, he was a three-time National Champion in Olympic weightlifting. After eight years of work, a back injury abruptly ended his dream of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. “I was at my lowest of
lows,” Cockrell said.

He decided to visit his sister in Utah and work out at a local gym. A Wildcat team member immediately recognized Cockrell’s potential and recruited him to turn his physicality from an individual sport to one where the team literally stands on his back — or bounces on an upturned palm. While he learned a new sport, he also refocused on academics, earning a degree in health promotion.

“My whole plan is to introduce cheerleading to guys, and show it’s not a girlie thing,” Cockrell said. “To show guys this is what partner stunting is. This is the strength it takes: the power, the speed, the muscles, the concentration. It’s very, very difficult. My plan is to introduce it to the world.”

He’s made a significant start on that effort. After the team victory, and winning the national partners title with Haskett, Cockrell spent the summer hosting 30 cheer camps in 18 states around the country with Gabi Butler, one of Weber State’s new recruits and a health promotion major. Butler, who was featured on the Netflix docuseries Cheer, has more than 1.7 million Instagram followers. After graduating from Navarro Junior College in Texas, she found her new home at Weber State.

“Elsa’s athleticism, and Gabi’s work ethic are phenomenal,” Cockrell said. “It’s amazing to have been on this journey with both of them.”

The experience and depth of the 2021–22 team will add excitement and energy at every game. The level of perfection is actually a little intimidating for Cameron Canada, a first-generation, first-year student. He’s moving to Ogden to leave behind a turbulent childhood in California. For him, the cheer squad is his best path to earn a degree in English and pursue his lifelong dream of teaching and mentoring.

“I have a huge drive to affect and impact others’ lives, not necessarily change the world, but make the world around me a better place,” Canada said.

The Wildcats’ Grand National title brought national attention and attracted recruits from around the country, but Willis said the cheer and dance team members who will represent the school for the 2021–22 season
are the ones who visited or attended camps before the championship and truly understand the Weber way. They fell in love with the culture and community and want to make a meaningful difference.

“For me cheerleading is just another dose of life lessons,” Willis reflected. “It’s about knowing your why, giving your best each and every day and working together to lift each other up.”

And that’s as close to perfection as you can get.

USA National Cheer Team

Taking home titles isn’t the only way Wildcats represent WSU nationally.

For the 2021–22 year, nine Wildcats made the USA National Coed Premier Team, composed of the most talented female and male cheerleaders in America. They compete at the International Cheer Union World Cheerleading Championships.

Weber State’s Ed Moroney was the first Wildcat to make the team in 2017, but each year the number has grown. Wildcats now comprise 25 percent of the national team.

Just like everything else, COVID-19 disrupted events and competitions in 2020, but finally, in July 2021, the team got together to plan and practice a new routine for world competition.

“It is so cool to look next to you on the mat and you see four of your Weber teammates and then you look on the other side and you see another four,” said Elsa Hassett. “It is so awesome. It’s such a huge accomplishment for Weber State to hvae produced so many elite athletes.”

Eventually the USA National team may get a shot at the Olympics. After many years of consideration, in August 2021, the International Olympic Committee announced that cheerleading has received full Olympic recognition. Kollin Cockrell is excited about the possibility of the Olympic experience he missed as a weightlifter.

“If I can accomplish being an Olympian, I will have completed the goal I set for myself when I started working out back in middle school,” Cockrell said. “That would be tremendous.”

Performing on a world stage is just another way Spirit Squad members jump at the chance to elevate Weber State.