Small school, big hearts: Du Quoin cheerleaders end season with trip to state IHSA finals
In only year two of having a coed cheerleading squad, Du Quoin High School's team did what most small schools would consider unimaginable: They made the 2020-21 IHSA state finals.
In so doing they went up against the big suburban powerhouse schools that have dominated coed cheerleading since long before the IHSA even offered competitive cheerleading. Unlike all-girl squads, which compete in large, medium and small-school divisions, there is only one coed division.
But instead of being intimidated by the likes of Lockport and Buffalo Grove, the Indians embraced the challenge.
"These memories are going to last a lifetime," said Head Coach Amy Fornear, who is also the District 300 nurse. "Like I said on Facebook, we were by far the smallest school in the competition, but we competed with the biggest hearts."
Like the competitive dance state series, there were no live performances in the state cheerleading series. Instead, teams filmed their routines and sent the videos to the IHSA for judging. There also were special COVID-19 rules - everyone had to remain 6 feet apart and there could be no stunts.
"We could do cartwheels and tumbling, we just couldn't touch each other," Fornear said.
The routine - done to a mix of eight different songs - was part-cheer and part-dance. Fornear choreographed the cheer section of the number, and dance team coach Bri Green did the dance/pom portion. The two sections were combined into one seamless performance.
Moreover, the team reworked their routine from top to bottom between the sectionals and the finals, based on the critiques they got from the sectional judges. Fornear said the judges were very helpful.
"We had one routine that we took to sectionals," Fornear said. "Then we took the judges' critique and we reworked the whole routine in basically two days."
The team, she said, trooped in after volleyball practice and football practice, learning the changes before the routine was filmed anew on Wednesday.
Fornear said it was worth it, even though the squad finished dead last among the 25 coed teams in the finals (the only other truly small school in the finals was Granite City, which finished 23rd).
"They wanted to show the judges that we could take their critique seriously," she said. And clearly, the squad took their cheerleading seriously, too.
This season the squad competed with 15 varsity and five junior varsity cheerleaders. Members of the 2020-21 cheer squad are Olivia Chapman, Lexi Cobin, Maddie Decker, Kami Harris, Konner Harris, Jessa Hinman, Neveah Loos, Madison Mathews, Lainey Miller, Sophie Miller, Bailey Nehring, Olivia Numi, McKinley Rider, Elaina Romani, Madison Soto, Ashtyn Weeks, Ella West, Reagan Whitley, DJ Willis and Jalynn Wood,
Whether the Indian cheer squad remains coed next year is unclear. A squad with two or more boys is automatically coed, and both DJ Willis and Konner Harris are graduating this year. The football players brought power to the squad, and Fornear doesn't yet know if any other boys will try out in the fall.
If not, the squad will revert to an all-girl team in the IHSA's small school division.
And even though their season is over, football is coming up and the girls will be on the sidelines to cheer for Harris, Willis and the rest of the Indians.