| The Road to a Grand National Championship | |
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When a school consistently wins National titles, you know it's more than an fluke. Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, Texas, is one such school. The SFA Cheerleaders are the reigning NCA Grand National Champions and have won three NCA National Championships titles in the last seven years. With these accomplishments, you can be assured this school knows the road to a Grand National Championship well.
The SFA Cheerleading program is not unique in many ways, they practice hard, recruit hard, and compete hard, just like most other teams. But when questioned about their strongest point, both Dan Wallace, Dean of Student Development, and Matthew Sturko, SFA Head Cheer Coach, mentioned LCLM, their Cheerleading fraternity/sorority. As Coach Sturko puts it, "Many squads have great athletes, without LCLM we would not be any different. LCLM are the letters we have chosen to represent our fraternity/sorority. A lot of squads will say their team is like a family. We feel the same, in fact so strongly that we decided to give it a name."
LCLM was started by Craig and Jeff Dickerson, who are former SFA Cheerleaders and coaches. They are referred to at SFA as part of the Trinity Valley dynasty or Dickerson Dynasty. Coach Sturko feels it is necessary to recognize Trinity Valley and CCFC because that is the concept that inspired LCLM.
When Coach Sturko was asked what made his squad stand out from other Cheerleading squads, he replied, "I take much pride in the male members of this team. There are often many stereotypes of male cheerleaders. The male members on this team portray a very masculine image. All athletes on this team have a reason for being here. Everyone has a special purpose. We have modeled our squad much like the infamous James Speed has Louisville, when some tumble it will spin your head, when some stunt it will do the same, but it is not expected that everyone do both. We allow for our athletes to do what they do best. This philosophy has obviously worked for Louisville and is doing quite well for us as well."
Their program has become so successful Dan Wallace said, "It's really competitive among the students. In fact we were turning away so many good female candidates that we decided to form an All Girl Squad this year with 18 girls on the squad for the first year. They'll compete in the NCA nationals and perform for us at home football games and volleyball games."
Even with grueling practices, up to 6 days a week, to get ready for Nationals, the SFA team still has fun. They consider Nationals their most bonding experience. "It is embedded in every heart on this team to do their individual best. We love what we do and we love each other, that is where the fun starts." Obviously, SFA has hit on the right combination to win competitions.
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