Coronado High School Cheerleaders, left to right: Front row — Carolina Quintana, Becca Shapiro, Captain Cami Rodriguez, Captain Taye Guardado, Sydney Freyermuth, Sydney Ward, Natasha Marcum; Back row — Katie Meneses, Coach Amy Stell, Amanda Villarreal, Anika Pettit, Abigail Gladden, Yasmin Martinez and Sydney Reiter).
I’m so old I remember when high school and college cheerleading used to consist of some pretty young ladies, and sometimes a young fellow, waving pom-poms and occasionally jumping up and down.
These days, cheerleaders have to be super athletes with acrobatic ability. They do back flips, balancing acts and get thrown up in the air. It’s so daring, I often hold my breath fearing for their safety.
But oh, what a show they put on.
El Paso has a great group of high school cheerleaders but today, under the direction of coach Amy Stell, Coronado High School is sitting on top of the cheerleading world.
THE CORONADO Thunderbirds won The Best ‘N’ West Mini-National Competition in Las Vegas last month. The team competed against schools from across the country and took the school division and overall cheer division
“For the first time ever, we won the whole thing,” coach Stell beamed. “We’ve won our division in the past, as recently as last year in Florida. However, this time, we won our division of Intermediate varsity with tumbling, the School Cheer Division and the overall Cheer Division including All-Star teams (50 plus). Out of 90 total points, we scored 84. WOW!!”
The team was awarded letter jackets and national championship rings similar to Super Bowl rings, only smaller.
Hurrahs and congratulations to you, T-Birds.
TRIVIA QUESTION: You probably know the answer to this one, but who is the only player to lead the Major Leagues in homeruns and ERA? Answer at end.
I LOVE HEARING from readers. Some bring back fond memories. Following is an email from Steve McKnight:
“…A friend gave me a copy of the book on coaches (Buryl) Baty and (Jerry) Simmang – ‘Champion of the Barrio.’ It was a wonderful read and I have sent copies to many of my El Paso friends, including Mary Hoover, Sara McKnight, Van Hill, Ronnie Kahn and the Shapleigh brothers.
“I grew up in El Paso in the 1950’s and 1960’s and loved sports. Nemo Hererra was my baseball coach at Coronado High School, Wayne Hansen was my Grey Y football coach at Mesita. It was a magical time. I took great pride when Bob Beamon jumped over 28 feet at the Mexico City Olympics, when the Miners won the NCAA championship in college basketball, when Jimmy Edwards won the state tennis championship and on and on and on. All the while I read your wonderful sports writing in the El Paso Herald Post (Note: Excuse me while I blush).
“Among my many heroes, including Frank and Sara McKnight, Dalton Hill, Mary Hoover, Walter Driver, Margaret DuPont, Margaret Varner, Nolan Richardson, and many others – now I can remember you as well as coaches Simmang and Baty. Your column on ‘Champion of the Barrio’ published in El Paso Inc. was spot on.”
BY THE WAY, if you have missed one or more of my previous columns and would like to find them, just google elpasoinc.com, go to the website and type “ray sanchez columns” in the little search space. They’ll pop right up going back many years. Also, I keep getting asked by folks where they can get my latest book, “The Good, the Bad and the Funny of El Paso Sports History.” You can go to Barnes and Noble Booksellers or go on Amazon.com but if you want it fast and autographed just give me a call at 915-584-0626 or email me at rayf358@yahoo.com and it’ll be out to you the next day.
LAST WEEK’S column on KVIA-TV general manager Kevin Lovell qualifying for the Boston Marathon got some nice responses but the following email from El Pasoan Alton Setliff summed it up pretty well:
“Kevin is a very nice person. Not bad for a dude from Dalhart, Texas.”
ANSWER to trivia question: Babe Ruth, of course. I like to mention his feats now and then just to keep the memory of the greatness of The Bambino alive.