After being sentenced to a year-long probation by the Baker University athletic department, the cheer and dance squads will try to appeal their case Tuesday in hopes of bein granted permission to compete in the Heart of America Athletic Conference spirit squad competition in February.
Head spirit squad coach Cathy Ritter said the squad was put on probation after pictures of squad members drinking underage at the national competition in Daytona Beach, Fla., last spring were seen on Facebook by members of the Baker administration.
Ritter said the squad has been prohibited to attend any competitions outside of cheering for Baker’s athletic teams at games for an entire year.
Cheerleading captain Brittany Lob said the team hopes to be allowed to attend the HAAC competition because this year’s squad is a new group of athletes.
“It was just a situation that was blown out of proportion,” Lob said. “We just want to get the chance to get the story straight. The squad has been awesome this year, and we haven’t had any problems at all.”
Ritter said the squads have been taking extra precaution so far this year in hopes of being allowed to compete again.
“There are still a few (squad members) that were involved in the situation on the squad, but they’ve been told they are on thin ice, and they can’t make one mistake,” Ritter said. “The person who took the pictures and put them on Facebook is no longer on the squad.”
Lob said she doesn’t find it fair to this year’s new athletes to be on probation since they weren’t around last year when the incident occurred.
“It’s a completely new squad, and the new girls aren’t aware of all the circumstances that happened last year; they just know we’re on probation,” Lob said. “We want to leave the past behind us and just start over new.”
Captain Jeremy Webb said the squad made its drinking policies more stringent than they’ve been in past years in hopes that these kinds of problems will not occur again.
“The steps we’ve taken to get off probation is that we have no tolerance for underage drinking, drinking and cheering or drinking and coming to practice,” Webb said. “We know we can’t stop it all, but if you’re not supposed to be, you shouldn’t be.”
Webb also said the girls new to the squad aren’t aware of all the details, but understand the squad is being watched closely.
“(The new members) understand we need to represent Baker and understand they need to be responsible for their actions and not mess up,” Webb said.
Cheerleading captains Webb, Lob and Allyssa King, along with dance captains Erin Edwards and Kendra Morrison plan to appeal the probation with Ritter Tuesday.