Not just for pep anymore
Jim Carnett, Special to the Daily Pilot
Orange Coast College has long ben one of the nation’s leading
community colleges in transferring students to universities.
Last year, OCC ranked first in Southern California and third in the
state in the number of students it sent to four-year institutions.
With 24 intercollegiate sports, and nearly 500 athletes, OCC, for
decades, has ranked near the top of the list when it comes to securing
four-year scholarships for athletes.
In recent years, the college ha fashioned a reputation for sending
forth athletes of a slightly different sort to universities: members of
its nationally-acclaimed cheerleading and dance squads.
On OCC’s campus, cheer and dance are considered an intercollegiate
sport.
In the five years that Mike Reynolds and Dan Sapp have coached the
teams, the Pirates have won seven national titles.
OCC has finished first in dance four times and first in cheerleading
three times.
The Pirates have also logged two second-place dance finishes and a
second place in cheer.
The University of Kentucky annually has the top cheer and dance teams
in America at the Division I level. Other top universities include the
University of Alabama, the University of Tennessee, the University of
Central Florida and the University of Hawaii.
Top schools on the West Coast include the University of Washington
and...Orange Coast College. It’s a short list and, yes, OCC is right up
there with the big boys...and girls.
“We’ve established a national reputation,” said Reynolds who, with his
business partner, co-coach and friend Dan Sapp, has been involved in
collegiate cheer and dance for nearly two decades. “We compete in the
Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) Cheerleading and Dance Team
National Championships each January at Walt Disney World/MGM Resorts in
Orlando, Florida We’ve won our share of titles in the competition and all
the big four-year schools know who we are. They watch us perform and they
recruit our athletes.”
This year, three former OCC cheer squad members are performing at the
University of Hawaii. Three others are at Hawaii Pacific University.
Other former OCC students are at Delta State University, in Cleveland,
Mass., and at the University of Kentucky. Orange Coast alums have also
been Laker Girls, Charger Girls and Clipper Girls.
“Our grads are out there...everywhere,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds and Sapp grew up in Texas, a state where football and
cheerleading are a way of life; more accurately, an obsession.
Reynolds hails from Athens, the “Black Eyed Pea Capital of the World,”
situated 75 miles east of Dallas. Sapp is from Irving, between Dallas and
Fort Worth, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
“In Texas, once a kid pops out of the womb, it’s either football or
cheerleading,” Reynolds said with a laugh.
Reynolds and Sapp were cheerleaders at Trinity Valley Community
College in Athens, formerly known as Henderson County Junior College.
“Trinity was five-time national champ in the years we were there,”
Reynolds said. “It became the first community college to compete in the
national championships.”
Now OCC’s teams, coached by the Texas duo, dominate the community
college scene.
Reynolds ended up earning a B.A. degree in marketing from East Texas
State University. Following graduation, he and Sapp packed a car and
headed west for California.
Sapp completed his degree in psychology from Long Beach State
University.
“We’d always wanted to come to California,” Reynolds said. “That was
our dream. We arrived 14 years ago.”
Reynolds was a cheerleader and stunt team member for the Los Angeles
Rams. He traveled with the Rams to play in Japan and cheered at the
American Bowl in London.
Sapp was also on the Rams’ stunt team and was a member of the Long
Beach State dance team. He danced professionally with Paula Abdul and
performed in music videos and at the 1992 Academy Awards.
After his cheerleading career was over, Reynolds worked as a loan
officer for a mortgage. But cheer, dance and coaching were in his blood.
Six years ago, Reynolds and Sapp opened Orange County’s first
cheerleading and dance school, Pace All-Stars, located in Huntington
Beach. Business has boomed.
“Cheer and dance have become a national craze. We were the first
school in Orange County. Now, there are about 30 of them,” Reynolds said.
Pace sponsors 11 teams, with competitors ranging in age from five to
23.
“We were invited five years ago to come to OCC and help build the
program,” Reynolds said. “Many of our Pace dancers and cheerleaders were
looking for a place in Southern California to go to college and compete.
USC and UCLA didn’t have the types of programs they were looking for. We
were able to establish a very competitive program here at Coast.”
In their first year at the helm, 1995-96, OCC won the national
championship at Disney World in the community college cheerleading
division, and finished second in the open space division.
Orange Coast’s cheer and dance programs now attract students from well
outside the boundaries of Orange County.
“I probably get three of four letters a week from kids throughout the
country expressing interest in our program,” Reynolds said. “We’re seen
somewhat regularly on ESPN, because the sports network re-runs footage
from the Universal Cheerleaders Association National Championships. Many
kids are introduced to us via television.
“We’re also included on the UCA web site and we’re listed in the UCA
national rankings. Our reputation is out there and everyone interested in
cheer and dance knows who we are,” Reynolds continued.
Reynolds’ squad this year features 16 female dancers and 18
cheerleaders. The cheerleading squad is divided equally, with nine males
and nine females.
“All of our dancers have had extensive experience before coming to
Coast,” Reynolds said. “They danced in high school or were members of
various dance teams or schools.
Most of the female cheerleaders are former gymnasts and many are
dancers as well. The guys are former football players, wrestlers or water
polo players.
“The girls must be athletic and the guys strong,” Reynolds said.
Orange Coast runs a year-round program.
“Our cheerleaders and dancers aren’t a ‘rah-rah’ group, they’re
athletes and they train hard all year long. Probably as many as
two-thirds of them teach for professional cheer and dance companies here
in Southern California,” Reynolds said.
OCC’s cheer and dance squads have earned a reputation for being
innovative and creative.
“We’re known for doing wild pyramids...tricks that most other college
and university groups won’t try,” Reynolds said. “Not many community
college can do what we do. We take one or two pyramids to Orlando each
year for the nationals.”
Last year, the team took a pyramid titled, “Peek-a-Boo.”
“It had never been attempted before,” Reynolds said. “We dreamed it up
and brought it to the competition. It’s a surprise pyramid, in which the
students create a pyramid in front of the audience, then a girl flies
from behind and is caught by the guys in front. It’s a blind toss and is
breathtaking. She appears to fly in from nowhere.”
OCC’s squad nailed the routine in the national competition.
The team that ended up winning the Division I title, the University of
Kentucky, was on hand to watch the performance.
“The Kentucky coach came to me afterward to offer his congratulations.
He said they had thought up the same trick, and wanted to use it, but
were afraid to try it at nationals. That made us feel pretty good.”
Reynolds admits there’s an element of risk in cheer stunts.
“Our girls fly in every routine,” Reynolds said. “We have nine girls
and nine guys on the squad and each girl has a partner. We throw our
girls at least 25 feet in the air and to do that, the girls must have
complete confidence in their partners. They do.
“The first responsibility of every guy in every stunt is to catch the
girl and our guys always do,” Reynolds continued. “We’ve had a few guys
get a foot in the face or an elbow to the head, but our girls never hit
the floor.”
Reynolds said OCC’s cheerleading and dance programs are strongly
supported by the college.
“It’s a rarity, believe me, that a school is as supportive of its
cheerleading and dance programs as this school is,” Reynolds said. “We
have a great relationship with all the coaches and our kids feel
respected by the administration, by their teachers and by their fellow
athletes and peers. Everyone on campus gets excited when we bring home a
national championship.
“Three years ago, when we captured our second-straight cheer
championship and picked up our first dance title in Orlando, college
president, Margaret Gratton, drove to LAX late at night to personally
welcome us off the plane,” Reynolds continued. “Our students were
shocked. That meant a lot to them.”
Reynolds says the cheerleaders and dancers have a good relationship
with OCC’s athletes.
“Our kids like being on campus and have a great rapport with the
athletes, particularly football players,” Reynolds said. “Many of our
kids stop by football practice a couple of times a week just to watch.
They talk with players when practice is over. The players give us support
when we’re on the sidelines during the games.”
After they graduate, OCC’s cheerleaders and dancers their Orange Coast
College roots.
“I had a fantastic experience at Coast,” said Joslin de Diego, an
Ocean View High grad who was a cheerleader at OCC during the 1996-97 and
1997-98 seasons. She’s now in her second year as a member of the
University of Hawaii cheer squad. She is joined on the U of H team by
former OCC cheerleaders Jamey Gossett and Curtis Johnson.
“The University of Hawaii loves our kids,” Reynolds said. “They’ve
pretty much given us a standing invitation. They’ll give a scholarship to
any OCC cheerleader or dancer who wants to go there. They know that we
produce good athletes and good students.”
Joslin lives in Waikiki and is attending Hawaii on a full scholarship.
“They’re paying my tuition, fees and books, which, for an out-of-state
student, is a substantial amount of money,” she said. “I pay my living
expenses.”
Joslin began taking gymnastics at the age of six.
“I’ve basically been in gymnastics and cheerleading ever since,” she
said. “It’s paying my way through school and I’m having lots of fun. OCC
provided me with a wonderful opportunity. I had a great time there--the
trips to the national championships were something I’ll never forget--and
it was because of Coast that I landed the Hawaii scholarship.”
Cheerleading and sports are “big time” in the islands.
“Last year, the University of Hawaii football team was 0-11, be we
were still celebrities in Honolulu,” Joslin said. “We appear all over
town at special events, parades, grand openings and Pop Warner clinics
and we sign posters for kids. The community loves us. This year Hawaii’s
football is doing well. We’re 4-2, so the stands at Aloha Stadium are
nearly full. We had a huge crowd when we hosted USC.”
Not just an enthusiastic cheerleader, Joslin is also an excellent
student, majoring in history, with a Spanish minor.
“When I graduate from Hawaii next year, I plan to return to the
mainland and earn my master’s and Ph.D. from UCLA,” she said. “My goal is
to someday be a college professor. I can’t say enough about my Orange
Coast College experience. The school was so supportive, I loved it there.
If Orange Coast was a four-year school, I’d have gladly remained. I
really didn’t want to leave.”
Tricia Salvo, who was a cheerleader at Deer Valley High in Glendale,
Ariz., was drawn to OCC for cheerleading. She competed in 195-96 and
1996-97 and was a member of OCC’s first national championship outfit.
Salvo has been a cheerleader for three years at Hawaii Pacific
University. HPU is an independent, private school in Honolulu, with an
enrollment of 7,300 undergraduates.
Because cheerleading is not an NCAA-sanctioned sport, cheerleaders are
not limited to four years of university eligibility, though OCC allows
its cheerleaders and dancers to compete only for two years.
OCC’s cheerleaders and dancers must also be full-time students,
enrolled in at least 12 units each semester and they must maintain
academic eligibility like all other campus athletes.
Salvo is joined on Hawaii Pacific’s team by OCC graduates Erick
Sandoval and Josh Delgado.
“I have fond memories of my time at Coast,” she said. “It was an
exhilarating experience. We won two national championships while I was
there and I was a member of the first team that really got things going.
Mike (Reynolds) and Dan (Sapp) were a big influence in my life.
“Coast is a huge school with much to offer,” Salvo continued. “I tell
my friends here in Hawaii that I attended Orange Coast College on the
mainland, a community college with 25,000 students and they can’t believe
it. It’s because of Coast and its cheer program that I’ve been able to
continue my education at a private university. I’m grateful for what OCC
has done for me.”
Salvo is majoring in computer science. When she graduates, she’ll
return to California to seek a job in the Bay Area.
A lot of OCC’s students are recruited by four-year schools at the
national championships in Orlando. OCC’s team will return to Disney World
next Jan. 6-9 for the 2000 competition.
“The four-year coaches watch our performance,” Reynolds said. “They’ll
see an athlete they like and will make contact and inquire as to their
plans after OCC. Just like football and basketball coaches, these cheer
and dance coaches are out to recruit the best talent they can find. Our
students end up with scholarships and paid educations.”
Joslin de Diego agrees.
“That’s the way I was recruited,” he said. “U of H coaches spotted me
in Orlando and talked to me. They told me they wanted me to come to
Hawaii after finishing my studies at Coast. I’d been planning to go to
UCLA, but frankly, UCLA doesn’t have a very good cheer program.
“Hawaii sounded good and though I’d never before visited the islands,
I decided to go, sight unseen,” Joslin continued. “It took me a while to
adjust to island life, but I’m happy with my decision.”
Lots of parents, Reynolds said, see cheerleading and dance as a
stepping stone for their youngsters.
“I have parents with junior high kids at Pace who tell me all the time
that they’re going to have their kids stick with our program, then attend
OCC and transfer to a university,” Reynolds said. “They’re already
planning ahead for scholarships and college degrees, even though the kids
are just 11 or 12 years old.”
Just like the father of a 12-year-old Pop Warner quarterback, who’s
thinking about a college scholarship for his son, parents of cheerleaders
are also in it for the long haul.
And OCC’s highly successful cheer and dance program provides an
excellent launching pad, literally!
National championships are a byproduct of the program, with a
university degree awaiting those Orange Coast College students who choose
to accept a four-year scholarship.
Not a bad deal.
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