Ladybirds balance soccer with cheerleading or dancing among other responsibilities

By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM

Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter

During the week, a number of Highlands Ladybirds move around either turf or grass for the Ladybirds soccer team.

Then on Friday nights, you can find them cheering Class 4A’s top-ranked Bluebirds football team. There are five from this year’s senior class trying to balance that act. The three cheerleaders are goalkeeper Jesse Daley, defender/midfielder Taylor Roy and defender Ally Laycock. The two members of the dance team are defender/midfielder Alli Foellger and defender Courtney Wiseman.

All three sports demand a lot of time. Daley said a typical Wednesday is school, cheerleading from 3-5 p.m., soccer from 6:15-6:45 p.m. then she goes to work in the church nursery until 9 p.m.

“It’s a lot of running around and I have to be really organized because I live out of the district so I have to make sure I have my clothes for all the stuff I do,” Daley said. “It’s really hard to keep up with multiple sports and school, but it’s really worth it. I wouldn’t trade it for sleep or anything.”

In addition to both sports, Foellger dances three times a week at LeDance Studio. She takes regular dance and competition lessons at the studio.

“No matter what, I don’t have both sports every day,” Foellger said. “It’s a lot of time and effort. It’s worth it though because I wouldn’t like if I didn’t do one or both.”

They said doing both builds team chemistry. The cheerleading and dance teams also support the basketball teams in the winter. They also support the other sports at special events.

“It’s a lot of fun being able to dance and play soccer because with dance, you can dance at the football games and cheer on the team,” Wiseman said. “You can also be with the basketball team too. Soccer is a lot of fun. A lot of my friends play soccer. It’s good to be with them all the time.”

The Ladybirds have the support of their coaches. Highlands soccer head coach Tommy Kearns, cheerleading coach Caroline Thompson and dance coach Erin Minsterman have to work together when the girls are needed in both places.

“I think it’s a good thing. It’s a high school experience,” Kearns said. “The more things they’re involved in at school, the better it is for them. It is a lot of time and commitment to be able to be involved in all those things. As long as they’re enjoying themselves and getting something positive out of it, I’m all for it.”

The girls said it’s hard to please the coaches all the time despite their best efforts. They want all the teams to succeed.

 “I really leave it up to the girls to manage their time and do what’s best for both teams,” Thompson said. “We do come across times where they’re needed in both places at the same times.”

One of those times came over the summer. The cheerleaders had their camp and the soccer team played in the Bluegrass Games. Laycock, Roy and Daley ended up at Cheer Camp for two days and ended up playing two soccer games at Bluegrass Games.

Unlike a lot of places, the cheerleaders and dance team cheer on an exceptional football team. The Bluebirds are 77-2 since the start of 2007 with five straight state championships. Roy was named Homecoming Queen on Friday before Highlands smashed Mason County, 61-3.

“You always have a good, positive feeling about the game. It’s good to cheer on a team that is going to do well,” Roy said. “When it comes to close games, it’s a shocker to us so it makes us cheer harder.”

Laycock said it helps that the teams also have the support of the student section called the O-Zone. They’ve created their own Twitter account to get the freshmen into the games since they’re new to high school and may not understand a lot of the cheers. Laycock’s favorite cheers are the spirit cheers and “Hey Freshmen.”

“It’s really hard-core this year,” Laycock said. “They’re really proud of themselves for doing that. They want to get everyone involved instead of just the main leaders.”

Roy said her favorite cheer is the Cake cheer. The team has been doing that for years after winning one of their 21 state championships.

“It is such a tradition,” Roy said. “Even the parents would chime in at away games. Many of the times, they wouldn’t do the chants with us. But it’s such an easy and common cheer that everyone gets involved in it. It’s the main cheer that Highlands has.”

Foellger and Wiseman like both the hip hop and pom moves. The dance team won state in hip hop last year. Minsterman is a former dancer at Western Kentucky University in addition to dancing with the Ben-Gals for a couple years.

Academically, the Dance Team has done well in recent years. Wiseman said they girls can’t be failing two classes to be on the team. But that has not happened in the team’s seven-year existence.

“It’s hard to squeeze time in for homework but I always finish and do it pretty well,” Wiseman said. “We’re all pretty good in the academic areas.”

Roy announced some other good news for the Ladybirds. She said the rivalry between the cheerleading and dance teams ended this year.

“We’re never bickering,” Roy said. “I don’t know why there was bickering in the first place. It’s two different sports but we both do things to get the crowd going.”

As for the soccer team, things are not going well so far. The Ladybirds are 2-8-2 after three losses in the Lexington Catholic Cup. They’ve scored just eight goals all season.

“(Coach) Tommy (Kearns) always tell us to try really hard and focus on the next play,” Wiseman said. “After games, we’re usually really hard on ourselves but we work harder in practice and hope to get better. It’s hard because I don’t want it to end up like last year.”

Wiseman and Foellger will continue to dance in the winter and Laycock and Roy will also cheer on the basketball teams. Daley plays basketball so she’ll only cheer competitively.

But Daley hopes to make an impact for the Ladybirds this winter. Highlands finished 17-16 last season losing 13-8 in the Ninth Region quarterfinals.

“We have a lot of veterans so we’ve all been playing basketball since we were in middle school,” Daley said. “So there’s really no reason we shouldn’t get focused. State is our goal like it is every other year. But this year, it’s really serious and we’re ready to go.”

The five will be cheering on the Bluebirds in a huge game Friday. Highlands welcomes arch-rival Covington Catholic to Fort Thomas for a 7 p.m. contest.
The Ladybirds next contest is Saturday at 8 p.m. at Woodford County.

Photo by G. Michael Graham. Five Highlands seniors play soccer or either cheer or dance. They are, from left, Taylor Roy, Courtney Wiseman, Jesse Daley, Alli Foellger and Ally Laycock.