The Sparkle Cheer Team is one of multiple unified sports offered at Strath Haven High School, and the squad offers an immersive and unique cheer experience to teens with special needs or developmental disabilities.
The team started in the fall of last year by head cheerleading coach and eighth grade math teacher Ms. Heather Burns, alongside former special education teacher Ms. Carly Flanigan.
“We weren’t really sure where it was gonna go,” Burns said. “We didn’t know if we would have the interest, if we would be able to put it together, so we kind of just winged it and it worked.”
From the start, both women’s goal was to spread the joy of cheerleading to as many students as possible.
“We started the team last year because we wanted to give students who wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to cheer an opportunity to be part of a team,” Burns said.
The team aspect is one of the most important aspects of unified sports, and Strath Haven cheerleaders took that head on when the opportunity for inclusivity arose.
“Almost all the team decided to do [Sparkle Cheer] because we thought it would be a fun experience to include everyone,” cheer captain junior Ella Leggett said.
Sparkle Cheer provides Haven cheerleaders the chance to meet new people and make new connections through an activity they are passionate about.
“It’s fun, and they love interacting with some other peers on the team that they wouldn’t normally interact with,” Burns said.
In addition, Sparkle Cheer offers a more relaxed atmosphere for all students to have fun with cheerleading, without the pressure that often comes with a typical team. The team practices once a week for half an hour, starting in August’s pre-season and following through to the end of competition season around January.
“It’s a stress-free environment,” Leggett said. “At competitions, it was always the one thing that you could go out and have a lot of fun doing.”
The easygoing dynamic allows for a lively and cooperative spirit within the team.
“[At competitions] all the other teams will watch, and it just becomes something that’s really fun,” Haven cheerleader junior Maggie Coppock said.
The Sparkle Cheer Team competed in five local competitions throughout this year’s season and many other events.
“They cheer at all the varsity football games with the other girls,” Burns said. “They cheer at all the varsity girls and boys basketball games, and then they participate in many of our community events like the Media Halloween Parade as well.”
The Sparkle Cheer Team remains fairly unique to Strath Haven, and it continues to soar high and build opportunities for inclusion within the cheerleading community.
“It’s cool that our school does it, because I think we’ve only ever seen one other team really have something similar,” Leggett said. “It shows how Strath Haven really values inclusivity.”
