Coach Kaylie Crawford is in her third year as the Head Coach for the Boise City Cheer Team. Her favorite part of coaching the team is the girls. She and her assistant have always made building relationships with them a top priority. “Every single one of them means so much to us and we love cheering them on not only in cheer, but in their lives as well,” she says. Cheerleading has always been a big part of Kaylie’s life, so instilling the team with a love for cheer has always been a lot of fun. She loves seeing them love the sport as much as she does.
Coach Crawford celebrates her teams victories on and off the mat by giving them recognition that she knows that they deserve. They have team members that are very talented in cheer but also in other sports as well. They had one member place first in her class at the state cross country meet this year. Kaylie says “we invest so much time in these girls, so watching them succeed on and off the mat is so much fun!”
When Coach Crawford took over, there were only six girls on the team. They now have 16 members. “I think the biggest reason in our numbers growing every single year is because of the relationships that we build with these girls. The relationships then turn into a team full of girls who respect me as a coach and know that every decision that I make is for the betterment of our team and our program,” Coach Crawford says. They had 10 of the 16 members make the All-American team this year at camp.
Some of the fun that they have is on the road. They often travel to games and competitions and find fun games to play along the way; even singing their favorite songs together too. The challenge that they’re excited to face this year is stunting. “When I first came on as head coach, the girls were not familiar with stunting. As a former college cheerleader, stunting is my favorite part of cheer,” Coach Crawford says. They’ve been working on building a strong foundation on technique to bring in new stunts.
By Ariel Casida
