Alabama Spirit Squads Place High in National Competitions
1/28/2004 12:00:00 AM | Spirit Squads
The University of Alabama Cheerleaders, Big Al, and Dance Team are an invaluable part of "The Tradition" at Alabama. Known for their national excellence, they consistently soar in the ESPN National Cheerleader and Dance Competitions.
The 2004 College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship took place January 16-18 at the Walt Disney Resort in Orlando, Florida. The competition recognizes the country's best all-around college cheerleading and dance spirit leaders.
The Alabama Cheerleaders again placed extremely high, finishing a close second place behind the University of Kentucky.
"We performed a near perfect routine, and I could not have been more proud of our team," Coach Debbie Greenwell said.
The teams are judged on their stunting and gymnastic skills, ability to lead the crowd in a cheer, and a previously submitted "crowd tape" assessing their crowd-leading techniques at their schools.
Nineteen college mascots competed in the College Mascot National Championship. Bama's "Big Al" finished in fourth place in the competition. Michigan State University's mascot "Sparty" took top place.
The Alabama Dance Team also competed and came in a strong seventh place.
Debbie Purifoy Greenwell has been the coach of the Alabama Cheerleaders and Director of the Mascot and Dance program for the past 18 years. Coach Greenwell's Assistant Coach, Brian Groeschell, again choreographed an exciting and difficult routine for the cheerleaders. Tiffany Fortunis is a graduate student who assists Coach Greenwell with the Dance Team.
It is estimated that 7000 spectators attended this year's event at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex. This year's competition will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 and will reach more that 83 million homes this year. For more detail and television air dates, stay connected to http://www.rolltide.com/ and http://www.varsity.com/ for dates and times.
