HOLLY POND, Ala. — Holly Pond eighth grade cheerleader Bella Foust just completed her second year of middle school cheer and has had an amazing experience during that time so far. She also talked about her time cheering for Xtreme All-Stars and how much that has helped her become the cheerleader that she is today.
“I have a dance background, and when my dance studio closed, I wanted to do something similar, so I decided to do competitive cheer and really liked it. When I could try out for the school cheer team, I went for that. It has taught me discipline and how to work with a team,” Foust said. “Working with coach Ashley Wilbanks gave me the confidence to throw backhand springs and tucks. She also helped us work on facial expression, jumps, and stunts, which are all important to cheerleading. Since she was my first experience with cheer, I feel like it was a good foundation for cheer.”
She, along with the rest of the team, has seen so much improvement during their time cheering in middle school, and she was blessed to learn from some great cheerleaders and from her coach.
“Well, with any sport, improvement comes with practice, and we practice to improve. My coach, Michelle Boulahanis, works with the team to improve daily. We went to the regional competition and placed third. We received a bid to state, where we competed earlier not too long ago. As a team, I feel like we have improved since the beginning of middle school a lot, but there is always room for improvement. With cheer being a year-round sport, we will now be practicing for cheer tryouts, ” Foust said. “I like cheering with my team, because we develop relationships and friendships, which I hope will last a lifetime. I’ve learned that to accomplish your goals, it takes hard work and discipline and having encouraging teammates and coaches helps. My coach is an encourager that sees potential in our team and pushes us to be better.”
Placing third at Regionals was a big accomplish for the Lady Broncos, and Bella looks to use that as momentum going into next season, plus she talked about what she will work on in the offseason to get ready for next year, and her goals and the team goals for next season.
“Going to Regionals and hoping for a bid to state were some huge goals for us this year. This year, we had cheerleaders that had experienced regional and state competitions and were able to help and encourage the new cheerleaders,” she said.” I plan on working on all the elements of cheer to be able to improve and get ready for tryout. My goal is to be better tomorrow than I am today, and our team goals would be for us to work together as a team, appreciate one another’s skills, and celebrate everyone’s accomplishments.”
Bella talked about her role models in cheerleading, the best advice that someone has ever given her, what has made this cheer team special to be around and how important it is to be a role model for the younger girls that are watching her.
“My sister, Ava Claire, and my cousin, Sarah Grace, are both varsity cheerleaders, and I have looked up to them for many years, because they also danced with me. They’ve also helped and encouraged me,” she said. “My family encourages me daily that hard work brings positive results. Even though we struggled a little bit in the beginning with some things, we set goals, developed relationships, improved as a team, and became friends. Being a role model is very important to me, because I was one of those kids that looked up to the bigger girls, and with little girls now looking up to me, it shows me that I can be a leader and are encouraging those girls just like the varsity cheerleaders are encouraging me.”
She, along with the team, learned a lot about themselves and that will help them out a lot going into high school.
“I’ve learned that hard work really does give you a positive result in anything you do. What I learned about myself is that when something gets hard, you can’t give up on it. It will help me in high school by working harder and giving my full effort. Moving up to varsity isn’t always easy, so take things slow and work hard.”
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