Cheer team graduates first recruiting class members
March 17, 2023
Six XULA cheer members will take off their bows and put down their pom poms in May. The team honored six members: Kalenea Holt, Teddie Reid, Madison Clay, Carolyn Scruggs- Webster, Cyrus Riddle, and Nyah Moore during the halftime ceremony of the Gold Rush game against the Texas A&M-Texarkana Eagles on Feb. 17.
“The cheer program has helped me with my confidence in myself as well as my professional career because it’s allowed me to network with people who are willing to sponsor me, endorse me and other things do that nature,” said Teddie Reid, a psychological science major. “But it’s helped me boost my confidence and it’s also helped me step more into my leadership development and skills,” Reid said.
The competitive cheer team was integrated into the athletics in 2019 and the team is led by Coach Glenn Caston, who is in his sixth year at Xavier and his fourth year as competitive cheer coach.
“This is my first recruiting class, and I can say they have really shaped the culture of the team since the inception of the competitive program,” Caston said. “They have really been a foundation to getting other classes integrated into our program.”
The Xavier Cheer program has been successful in its first four years of inception, with the team being three-time regional champions and most recently winning the 2022 NAIA national title.
“We spent about two years onboarding them and getting them to understand what the program motto is and what I wanted to develop and then how we actualize and activate that in other spaces,” Caston said. “So, the seniors are critical, this is a bittersweet year because these are the first competitive cheerleaders of Xavier cheer and now, they’re leaving.”
The seniors said the cheer program was a fundamental part of their Xavier journey.
“Being part of the program has given me a sense of family outside of my academic family,” Scruggs-Webster said. “Just having a supportive coach and athletic staff, people always constantly pouring into us, giving us wisdom and advice, and at the end of the day they just want to see us grow,” Scruggs-Webster added.
Though the team celebrated their seniors and the end of the regular season in basketball, the cheer season is far from over. XULA Cheer went on to defend their title at the nationals on March 10 – 11.
“It’s hard because there haven’t been many teams to repeat a national title back-to-back so that’s a lot of pressure, but it’s welcome pressure,” Caston said. “We’ve recorded some of our highest scores this season, and after this accomplishment, the athletes have to be driven. But they’re ready,” he said.
