The Cumberland Valley cheer program won their seventh PIAA championship in January. It’s a staggering amount, considering the sport was just sanctioned as a PIAA sport 15 years ago.
A week after, the team got on a plane to Orlando, Fla., to compete in the National High School Cheerleading Championships, held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. There’s no doubt that the Eagles program is unmatched in Pennsylvania.
For the third straight year, they’re opening the doors for cheer athletes from far and wide to showcase their talents, too.
The PA College Cheer Recruitment Combine, hosted at Cumberland Valley High School, returns to the area on Sunday, May 18.
In its third year now, the Combine “connects athletes with coaches from across the country representing college cheerleading, STUNT, and acrobatics & tumbling programs,” per the press release.
Student-athletes will be afforded the chance to meet college coaches and learn about NCAA programs in attendance before showcasing tumbling and stunt skills.
Almost 40 college programs nationwide attend, including Morehead State, the most decorated program in the country. West Chester, Penn State, Temple, Villanova and plenty more will flock to Cumberland Valley to recruit the next group of college cheer athletes.
Talia Merlie came up with the idea to host the showcase, understanding a need for exposure opportunities locally for cheer athletes to move on to college programs.
“I feel like we have such a talented group of cheerleaders at Cumberland Valley,” said Merlie. “They really needed this opportunity in order to showcase their skills because, like I said, there wasn’t really anything like that in Central Pa. You would have to travel hours in order to get to a combine.”
But the talented athletes won’t just be coming from the 15-time district champion Eagles. One of the event’s coordinators, and CV assistant coach, Amanda Martin says that they’ll have athletes from all over the region, and some even as far as Texas, that will travel to compete.
Luckily, Cumberland Valley has accommodating facilities for such a large crowd, and the event uses all three gyms in Cumberland Valley High School, including “The Dome”, which has played host to thousands of events, and can hold large crowds. Merlie says the facilities for the event are “above and beyond some others in the area.”
Merlie is a graduate of Dallastown and Kutztown University, before leaving the area to coach Competitive Cheer at the NCAA level at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas.
“Throughout being involved in cheerleading throughout my life, I have been to combines as an athlete and as a college cheerleading coach and so I wanted to bring that experience here to Central Pa. because there’s really not anything like that close to us here in Mechanicsburg.”
Cumberland Valley juniors Karlee Steigleman and Leah Basehore understand how lucky they are with the opportunity right in their backyard.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” said Bashore. “Truly, like a blessing, because not many people get these experiences and opportunities. There’s not many combines around us, so I think it’s really great, especially the amount of colleges that are going to be here.”
Basehore and Steigleman are looking forward to running it back in their senior years. Fittingly, team practice Thursday night included running the mile at Chapman Field.
Last year, the Eagles battled. They placed eighth in the preliminaries for the PIAA championships, but turned it around into a first place finish for their seventh PIAA title in seven years. They went on to place 11th at the UCA Nationals in Florida, with routines that placed them 11th in Super Large Varsity DI Game Day out of 44 teams nationwide, and 11th in Large Varsity DI Traditional, out of 39 teams nationwide.
Throughout the summer, the team still practices, and they claim a strength and conditioning program to build confidence and mental toughness, which helps the athletes “learn to be resilient, and whenever something doesn’t go right, just knowing, if you put the work in, you’ll be able to get it eventually,” Steigleman said.
Assistant coach Amanda Martin says there’s always a choice between being a team that practices two days a week, or one that practices four days a week.
The Cumberland Valley program opts for commitment, and it’s paid off, every single year.
That commitment will also benefit the cheer community at large with this weekend’s combine.
For more information, see https://www.thisiscvcheer.org/pacombine
• Sign up for PennLive’s daily high school sports newsletter
Thanks for visiting PennLive. Quality local journalism has never been more important. We need your support. Not a subscriber yet? Please consider supporting our work.