Radford has plenty to cheer about
Advertiser Staff
Three cheers for Radford High School, which came away a three-time winner at the 11th annual AmeriCheer International Cheerleading Championships last week in Kissimmee, Fla.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
And give a shout out to Baldwin High, too, for taking a second, third and fourth.
Members of the Radford High cheerleading team that won the AmeriCheer International title are, front row, from left: Brittany Cash, Keisha Pamaylaon, Kanani Kekuawela, Tiffany Threadgill and Jessie Saville. In the back row, from left, are: coach Bo Frank, Brittiany Broadwater, Charles Carter, David Carter, Ashley Carter, Lashamiaka Harris, Lawrence Lucius, Kristina Salisbury and Thomas Luna.
"It's really rewarding for the kids," said Radford coach Bo Frank, who accompanied the team that returned yesterday.
"We worked so hard all year. To get three in a row is unbelievable, beyond anything I dreamed of when I started five years ago."
Leading the way were:
• Radford's Brittiany Broadwater, 17, a senior honor student who won her second consecutive senior individual title; teammate David Carter finished second.
• Radford's five-member Varsity Black stunt team that won the senior all-girl group division;
• Radford's 11-member Varsity Black cheerleading team that won the small coed varsity division for the third year in a row, a feat believed to be a first for a Hawai'i team on a national scale.
Furthermore, Radford's cheerleaders were declared the Grand InterNational Champion for amassing the highest point total among the more than 130 cheerleading teams, which included groups from London, Brussels and Ecuador.
The cheerleading routine includes jumps, tumbling, motion, dance and cheering.
Frank credits work ethic for the success of his team of 20 girls and two boys.
"We worked six days a week all year long and fund-raise every week," Frank said.
Broadwater said she was "more excited about the team competition" than her own individual award.
"Being older, to see the younger girls so upset to not win states, to not win OIAs (O'ahu Interscholastic Association), it was killing me," said Broadwater, a 4.0 student, "and to give them that first-place win, it meant so much to me."
(In the state tournament and OIA championship this season, Radford finished second to Moanalua in the 11 or fewer medium division.)
In the individual competition at AmeriCheer, cheerleaders qualified by submitting video tapes. The top 15 were selected from around the nation. Each had to demonstrate jumps, tumbling, motion, dance and cheering.
Baldwin also made its mark in the event, taking second in the small varsity mount division and third and fourth in the senior all-girl stunt group division.
The competition lasted from March 17 to 19.
Senior All-Girls Stunt Group Division
(15 teams from United States and Canada)
1, Radford (Kristina Salisbury, Lasha Harris, Tiffany Threadgill, Ashley Carter, Kanani Kekuawela) 90.125;
3, Baldwin 86.250; 4, Baldwin 86.00; 11, Radford Varsity White 68.750.
Senior Individual Division
(15 competitors from United States and Canada)
1, Brittiany Broadwater (Radford) 94.250;
2, David Carter (Radford) 90.375.
Small Varsity Mount Division
2, Baldwin 75.625; 5, Radford Varsity White 66.375
Small Coed Varsity Division
(30 or fewer with at least 2-4 males)
1, Radford Varsity Black (Brittiany Broadwater, Ashley Carter, David Carter, Brittany Cash, Lasha Harris, Kanani Kekuawela, Keisha Pamaylaon, Kristina Salisbury, Jessie Saville, Tiffany Threadgill, Lawrence Lucius) 86.750.
