By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News Editor
February 11, 2008

This weekend, ice is on the minds of the Hood River Valley High School cheerleading squad members, and in particular its veteran, Kathryn Wilson.

Not ice as in the frozen matter seen all too much of late in the county. Another “Ice”: it’s the performance theme of HRVHS’ routine at the Oregon 6A State Cheerleading championships in Portland.

Wilson, 17, is a senior and the sole four-year member on the current cheerleading squad. Competition gets underway at 1 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum.

“We go first, which isn’t such a good thing,” Wilson said of the competition among small 6A schools. But as team leader, she knows it is largely up to her to help her team be mentally prepared; she wants to go out with firm footing on this “Ice.”

The event will be more than the chants and static formations the girls do along the sidelines at basketball games. The other side of cheerleading is the weekly tournaments the girls train for, mixing tumbling, dance, gymnastics, and, yes, school spirit, in a demanding and literally high-flying demonstration of skill and daring.

“It’s a hard sport. Not everyone can do it. A lot of people try out and then say, ‘I have a lot of respect for you. It’s not as easy as it looks.’”

“We’re trying to show other schools what we can do; that being a cheerleader is more than just jumping around in a skirt.”

The team has traveled around the state, showing their skills to judges and fellow athletes, but withholding the full “Ice” routine.

“Teams really do steal ideas from each other,” Wilson said.

She got started in cheer in the ninth grade, when she and five other classmates tried out for the team. Four of them made it, but Wilson alone has continued all four years on the squad.

For Wilson, cheerleading is a natural extension of the gymnastics she has loved since starting the sport at age 3. As she got older, “I wanted to do something where I used my gymnastics.” That’s still her favorite part of the experience, that and the fact that “it’s intense.”

“I like to complete. I like it because it’s intense. You’re competing against other schools and you need to step it up and bring something that the other teams don’t have.”

Wilson is the “main tumbler” as well as “base” and “back spot” for the HRV varsity. That means in addition to doing many of the active flips and stunts, she literally holds up teammates when they do stacking moves. Wilson is right there at the base, and she said there’s no room for mistakes when you’re literally holding a teammate on your shoulders.

“If someone makes a mistake, someone’s going to get hurt.”

To her teammates, Wilson is known as “Charlie.” She acquired the nickname while in youth gymnastics. She started with Bette Benjamin’s Rainbow Gymnastics, and then was coached by Steve Roney of Hood River Gymnastics, working out first at Hood River Armory and then at Hood River Sports Club.

“I’ve always been a power tumbler, and Steve told me one time, ‘You don’t tumble like a girl.’ And there were too many ‘Ks’ to remember among the girls, so he started calling me Charlie.”

“I’m probably the strongest member of the team,” she said. “Physically strongest,” she responds when asked to clarify.

“I raise cows.”

Wilson, who is also president of the high school FFA chapter, has her own herd of Angus cattle, which keeps her busy in addition to school and cheer. She has help from her parents, Jim and Kelli, and brothers Justin, 9, Tyler, 12, and sister Stephanie 21, on their Odell farm.

Wilson plans to pursue gymnastics and cheer in college next year. She will enroll in the dual enrollment program at Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College, where she will study agriculture.

But for now her sights are focused, intensely, on cheerleading.

“I’m really proud of our routine. And I’m proud of the team,” Wilson said. “The team has worked really hard, especially the younger girls. They’ve really stepped up.”

This weekend Wilson is looking forward to a signature move known as a “layout,” with a specific reference to ice. Wilson will kick her legs and splay her arms like a human snowflake.

“It’s not fun to land. But I do it for the girls. I want to win state.”