White County High School cheer captains Savannah Kelley and Maddie Wright will be part of the Varsity Spirit Spectacular 2021, which will be held Nov. 19-22 as part of the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade.
“I am so excited. I am a little nervous just about being prepared for the event,” Kelley admitted. “But I have never been to Disney, so when I found out I got to go AND I got to cheer in their Christmas Parade, I was signing up the first day it opened.”
“I am nothing but over-the-moon excited to participate at this event,” Wright said.
“When I first found out about the opportunity to go to this event as a captain of the cheer team, I was filled with the joys of being able to go back to one of my favorite places in the world and do my favorite thing in the universe, to cheer.”
The White County seniors were chosen for the event, which is set aside for captains, co-captains, and officers of varsity cheer teams, after they had participated in a Varsity Spirit UCA Cheer Camp. They will be joining hundreds of other cheerleaders from around the country for four days of cheer, dance, and parades.
“There are four different teams (Minnie, Mickey, Donald, and Daisy), and we will be divided by states and will be cheering in four different parades,” Kelley explained.
The White County Warriorette captains, along with their counterparts from around the country, will rehearse as a group for the first, and only, time on the morning of Nov. 19 when they all arrive at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort.
“We will have to know the cheer routine for the parade before we arrive Thursday evening and will have one practice, on Friday, followed by a morning practice, on Saturday, to review for performance,” Wright explained.
“Once we are put in our place with our team and find our spot in line, we will rehearse until it looks perfect,” Kelley added. “We will practice the routine to clean up variations and work on stepping together with the same foot.”
The girls have received videos to use to learn the parade routine, which consists of both a cheer welcoming the holiday season and a dance to Christmas music. During the parade, which will have the cheerleaders continually walking through Disney’s Magic Kingdom Park, the teams will perform both the welcoming cheer and the dance several times.
The experience is one that Kelley and Wright hope to carry with them into their futures.
“I am hoping to meet many new faces and make many new friends while I am there,” Wright, who also plans to cheer on an all-girls squad in college, said, adding that the performance experience will help her at the next level. “I feel like one of my favorite memories I will gain from this experience is what it feels like to walk down the streets of Disney performing in front of thousands of people.”
Kelley, too, is looking forward to connecting with like-minded athletes from around the country.
“I know this will be an experience that I will always remember, and I hope it is filled with good times doing what we all love. I can’t wait to meet all of the participants and gain new friendships,” she said, before adding that she hopes she can learn from the other participants. “Considering this is a captains’ event, I am hoping to learn ways to be a better captain/cheerleader for my squad.”
Before they can meet their new friends and teammates for a weekend, the girls have to raise $3,000 each to cover the cost for themselves and one chaperone each to attend the event. Both girls’ mothers are helping with the fundraising efforts as they have been making baked goods as well as serving up and delivering lunches to those who are wanting to help see the Warriorettes represented in the Walt Disney World Christmas Parade.
Having the opportunity to be a part of Varsity Spirit Spectacular isn’t the first honor the Warriorette captains have shared. Kelley and Wright were both named All-Americans at UCA cheer camp during the summer leading into their senior year.
“To make All-American, we participated in try-outs, where we learned a cheer and a dance routine in two days, then we performed in groups of three in front of UCA judges and the rest of the camp participants in the audience. We were required to showcase a jump of choice, the dance routine, and the cheer,” Kelley explained. “We were judged on personality, technique, our knowledge of the material, motions, how well we adjusted to performing with strangers, and how well we perform in front of a crowd.”
Neither girl is a stranger to performing in front of a crowd, however. Wright has been cheering for 14 years, including being part of several competitive teams since the age of 3. Kelley, who didn’t begin cheering until her sophomore year in high school, got her performance experience on the pageant stage, most recently winning the 2021 White County Fairest of the Fair and the 2020 UltraContinential Teen USA pageants.
But performing isn’t the only thing they have focused on during their high school years. Kelley and Wright are outstanding students planning careers in the medical field.
“I am going to go straight into a four-year university after I graduate high school and major in medical technology,” Wright said of her future career plans. “Then, I am going to go back for a graduate degree in cancer biology.”
As for Kelley, she hopes to attend John Hopkins University where she plans to study pre-medicine psychology.
“When I graduate high school, I will have 24-credit hours from dual enrollment, so I am going to work hard to get my bachelor’s in two to three years. I then plan to attend medical school,” Kelley, who has a 4.0 and is a member of BETA club, said. “I am currently planning on being a hospital psychiatrist, but I also know that it might change once I start occupation rotations in medical school. If I find that psychiatry is not where I want to be, I want to look into being an emergency room physician.”
But, before the seriousness of college and careers, the two senior captains of the White County Warriorettes cheer team will head off to Orlando, Florida, to represent their squad while marching, cheering, and dancing through the “happiest place on earth.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here