AUGUSTA, Ga. – It’s a new era for Augusta University, undergoing a name change and a complete re-branding of its image all within the last year. There are new logos, new fonts and a new competition cheerleading team. The first time they have fielded one in more than 20 years. And the new team is already winning.
The Jaguars won the CheerSport College Level 4 Regional Championship in Atlanta, Georgia on January 23. They will now focus their attention on the CheerSport Nationals on February 6, also in Atlanta.
The team began as the vision of Emily Banks and Ashley Wilcox more than a year ago, when they were freshman at the school. They used social media to recruit new team members, as well as asking girls on campus who they saw wearing cheerleading clothing if they would be interested in joining a competition squad. The team currently has 17 members.
Kenietha McRae is the head coach and she says the hard work and extra practices the team put in paid off at their first competition. “It’s a great feeling. I don’t think a lot of people at this school knew that we had this second team outside of spirit squad, which is our game-day team,” said McRae. “People were like, ‘I didn’t even know y’all had a team’ so it was a good feeling,” she added.
All the girls on the team say they are proud to be a part of the new era of competition cheerleading at Augusta University. “It’s awesome that we were the ones that got this going and now it can turn into a great program here and I’m really excited to see what’s in store,” said Banks.
The team hopes to add more member for next season, and are also considering making the squad co-ed.
