Shelby Emich, Executive Assistant to President Richard O’Hara, took on a new role as JV cheerleading coach on November 30.
Q: How did you get the position?
A: I actually volunteered to do it. Mr. Dukes sent out an email. I think the prior JV coach [Caitlin Trigiani] had a scheduling conflict with her job. They needed help. I had coached Emorton Rec cheerleading for a couple years, so I told him I could help if they needed me. I got an email from the varsity coach and she said thank you so much. So here I am.
Q: Were you a cheerleader in school?
A: No. My daughter cheered. She was eight; she’s eighteen now. She did Rec and All Star Cheerleading. I’ve been around it. I coached Rec for three or four years until she was done with that age group. And it’s fun. I do like it.
Q: What do you like about cheerleading?
A: There are a lot of things I do like. I can remember the first age group I coached was five-six. That was just incredibly amazing that they were able to remember all the things they had to do for two and a half minutes and actually put it all together. But I think as they get older not only are they a lot of fun but you learn a lot from them. They learn from you; you learn from them. And the team kind of grows together. I think that is one of the things I like the best about it.
Q: How do you feel about the team so far?
A: I think in the past two weeks they have done a lot of hard work. It’s a great group of girls. They get along very well. They are a lot of fun to be around. I think they’re doing awesome. They’re very good cheerleaders with a lot of potential.
Q: Do you feel confident for their upcoming competitions? Which hard competitions are coming up?
A: Yes, I do. I only know of the one in February. There is one in January, but I don’t know where that is yet. The one in February is Reach the Beach [in Ocean City]. So that’s usually a larger venue with more teams. It may or may not be hard but at least they’ll have a good time. They’ll be ready.
Q: What do you emphasize when you coach?
A: I think it’s a little bit of all of it. I think that working together as a team is very important because if you can’t come together as a team, you’re not going to move forward. You’re not going to improve your skills. And I think being considerate of your teammates and knowing everyone’s little faults and learning how to mesh with them is very important. Also, the physical aspect of cheerleading is safety, along with having fun and focusing and working very hard. It’s a little bit of all of that rolled into every practice.
Q: Do you have a favorite cheer yet?
A: Not yet. I’m still trying to remember them all.
Q: What is your greatest challenge?
A: I haven’t given that much thought. I don’t feel like I have any right now or maybe it’s just not really apparent. I started two weeks ago, and there have been no problems. They work very hard the whole practice. They get frustrated but kind of learn to work around it with each other in the practice.
Q: Do you have any goals for this year?
A: Just to have fun. For the girls to feel good about what they do and the season. Knowing that they did the best that they could and that they had a good time doing it.
Rachel Kokoska can be reached for comment at [email protected].