SE: K-State Cheer Qualifies for NCA Collegiate Cheer Championships

By Corbin McGuire

The moment K-State's cheer team found out its competitive squad qualified for the NCA Collegiate Cheer Championships was so shocking that it took a few seconds, and some affirmation, for it to fully sink in that it was going to Daytona Beach, Florida, on April 3-7.

The 23-member team was brought into Bramlage Coliseum after a practice on Tuesday night and misled into thinking it was to film some promotional videos. A supposed example was then played on the video board.

At the end, it flashed the words: "Pack your bags, we're headed to Daytona!"

One Wildcat then asked the question many were thinking, "Are you for real?"

Assistant coach Ian Sullivan ended all confusion by telling them, "We're going to Daytona," which prompted an emotional celebration.

"We're going to Daytona"

Congrats to @kstatecheer on qualifying for the NCA Collegiate Cheer Championship in Daytona this April pic.twitter.com/qgRnYIsl04
— K-State Athletics (@kstatesports) January 30, 2019

"I was shocked," senior Caroline Shannon said, speaking more about the timing of the news, as the team was told it would not know until Friday. "The NCA Nationals is the premier (event)…that's like the goal in college cheer. It's huge. I think this is a monumental step for the program."

"It's just cool…a long time coming here," added head coach Dani Ruoff, in her 11^thyear at K-State. "We still cover all the games, but now we get to compete, so it's just the icing on the cake to everything we get to do."

For a long time, the K-State cheer program has been solely about providing game day support. There was no competitive squad.

Still, Shannon said she had "enjoyed every second" of her experience on the team and was perfectly content for it to stay that way. Ethan Ansell agreed. He joined the team knowing it did not compete and with no indication that it might in the future.

When the decision was made to form a competitive team out of the larger cheer squad — a push made by Ruoff and supported by athletics director Gene Taylor — the excitement started to build within the team.

Shannon, who had competed at the highest levels of cheer growing up, saw it as a chance to be part of something special.

"It's just something more that you want," she said. "I always am wanting to work for something different, something more, go to the next level. I don't like stopping, so hearing that it just pushed me to get better."

Ansell played sports growing up but was "mediocre, at best," he said. He saw cheer as his best chance to channel his competitiveness for athletic challenges at the college level.

"I saw a path where I could actually go for it," he said. "I went for it, made it and just stuck with it because I loved it. I always told myself if we ever competed, I'd be down for it, I'd be ready for the next challenge."

Ruoff wanted her team to have something to work toward, like all the teams they support throughout the year. That was her pitch to Taylor when they sat down in his first few months on the job.

"It helped us to have a championship or a goal at the end to work toward," she said. "It just made it a little bit sweeter."

The sweet taste was made possible by a video the team put together in about a six-day span in January — one of a few ways to qualify for the NCA Collegiate Cheer Championships. The video included a cheer recorded from a basketball game along with stunt, pyramid and tumbling work.

The finished video was submitted on January 22. Three days later, Ruoff found out it qualified the team for the biggest cheer event of the year. It was all she could do to hold it in until Tuesday, when the team was surprised with the news.

"That's the one that everybody wants to go to," she said.

Now, after performing at Wednesday's women's basketball game, the preparation for the championships really begins.

"The opportunity to do it is great. I just hope that we can show we deserve to be there," Ansell said. "I want us to push ourselves to do the best that we possibly can and say, 'This is what we have now, but now we can improve on it and we set the way for other people.'"

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: K-State Cheer Qualifies for NCA Collegiate Cheer Championships

Players Mentioned

Ethan Ansell

Caroline Shannon

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