Two years ago, Paola High School combined its cheer and dance teams.

That move has already shown positive results as the Paola Spirit Squad are now two-time KSHSAA Class 4A Gameday Cheer Showcase champs.

For cheer head coach Regina Hollinger, the move to combine with dance coach Hannah Hasselquist made perfect sense. 

“We have a lot of competitive dancers, but the competitive dancers wanted to choose cheer in high school,” Hollinger said. “But we needed a dance team. (We) decided the best thing to do was combine them.

“We perform halftime just like a dance team would, but then they all cheer.”

The merge went fairly smoothly. It did help that the cheer team already had the perfect upperclassman to help lead the change: senior Jacie Collier, this week’s CapFed® True Blue® Student of the Week.

“Jacie brings a lot of great leadership to our team,” Hollinger said. “She’s very fun and spunky and we really enjoy having her on the team. I’ve known Jacie almost her whole life now. I’ve watched her grow up, so I’ve really enjoyed watching her become a young woman.”

Collier’s spirit career goes back to her toddler days. She started competitive dancing around the time she was three years old. Her mom, Lisa Collier, also used to coach the Paola cheerleading team.

“I’d always kind of been around this type of environment,” Collier said.
 

Collier said she loved being on dance teams during her younger years, but she stopped competing in dance during middle school after she broke her foot one year. She feared that she fell too far behind to catch back up, although she always intended to compete in cheer at the high school level anyway.

But when she found out that the cheer and dance teams would be combining heading into her junior year, Collier said she was still a little bit hesitant.

“It was definitely a really big change,” Collier said. “But once I accepted it, I was really excited to have Hannah (Hasselquist) be our coach and I trusted Regina (Hollinger) that she was making the right decision.”

With her background in dance, Collier felt like she adapted without too much difficulty. She also took on a leadership role to help with the merge.

“I think it gave those dancers a bigger opportunity to not have to choose between the two,” Collier said. “A lot of people don’t think cheer and dance is that different, but it definitely is. I tried to be that type of (positive) influence on the team.”

The team did not need much time to coalesce as they saw success in their first year returning to the state showcase as the Paola Spirit Squad.

However, the Panthers almost missed out on the chance to compete in the finals. The team’s band chant score left them on the edge of the top six, but the team ended up moving into third thanks to top three marks for each of the fight songs and crowd leading categories.
 

Paola finished strong by scoring an 88.90 to put more than four points between them and runner-up Louisburg.

“It’s so rewarding,” Collier said. “We put in so much hard work and to see that pay off is just so amazing. To be able to win it with last year’s team and then do it again, it just goes to how much effort and teamwork it really takes.”

Hollinger said that her team was so surprised that they made it though that it took all the pressure of the last performance.

That experience was completely different for Collier and the rest of the Panthers team this year though.

“As soon as we walked into that arena, you could just feel the eyes that were on us,” Collier said. “We had targets on our backs, everyone wanted to take our spot. There was a lot of pressure this year, for sure.”

Collier said that was fine with her.

“I almost think that’s better to work under pressure,” Collier said. “I think it makes it more fun, I think it makes us work harder.”

Collier said none of the other cheer or dance competitions compare to the experience at the Gameday Showcase.

“We do halftime performances, but it doesn’t even compare to that,” Collier said. “The arena is so big under the lights and having all of our family members and friends there to cheer us on, it’s so fun. 

“We are the cheerleaders, so we usually are cheering everyone else on. So to have that, those people supporting us at Gameday, is always something I love to see.”
 

Collier said she enjoys performing the cheers and dances across the football and basketball seasons. Instead of cheering from the sideline in the spring, Collier takes the field as a member of the Paola softball team. Collier said she’s been playing softball since she was young, starting with t-ball at the age of four years old.

“My older sister (Jenna) played and so it’s always been something that I wanted to do as well,” Collier said. “Having her as a role model for me and then my dad also coached the high school softball team for a really, really long time.”

Troy Collier coached the Paola softball team for 18 seasons, stepping away from the role after the 2017 season, three years before Jacie reached high school. The two Collier sisters would have had a chance to play together on the same softball team in 2020, but Jenna had her senior season canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a sophomore, Jacie nearly matched Jenna’s success of winning a regional championship, but the Panthers ended up finishing runner-up.

“We unfortunately did not make it to state, but we were kind of underdogs that whole season,” Collier said. “We came up and won that first regional game and were in the regional championship. … I will always remember that and I had such a fun time at those games.”

Collier said it would be great to make another run like that, but she doesn’t want to put that much pressure on her senior year.

“I’m just trying to go out, have fun and make these last memories with some people I’ve been playing with for a really long time.”

Collier, who is a member of the National Honor Society and Student Council, is putting more pressure on herself in the classroom. She’s set the goal of graduating in the top 10% of her senior class.

“That’s something I would love to see at the end of the year,” Collier said. “I’m looking forward to graduation and I’m really excited for it. I’m not trying to wish it away. I’ve loved high school, but I’m really excited for that next step in my life.”

Collier plans to attend Pittsburg State University, majoring in accounting with a minor in fraud examination.