September 21, 2024
HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING

Barnes designs Tigers’ routine

Every year, coach Kelly Bubar has the members of her Fort Fairfield cheerleading team do the choreography for its competition routine.

This year’s routine, however, is the handiwork of mainly one cheerleader, senior Joshua Barnes.

Barnes’ routine, which he insists is a team effort, has already won Fort Fairfield a Class D regional championship this year. The Tigers were hoping it carried them to the Class D crown Monday night.

“It’s something I’m interested in and something that I like to do,” Barnes said of his choreography.

Fort Fairfield and the rest of the Class D field were to compete along with the Class A teams Saturday evening, but a broken water main near the Bangor Auditorium forced the postponement.

Monday’s competition started at 6 p.m.

Bubar said she’s never had one student-athlete take on the whole routine. Many high school teams hire choreographers to put together their routines.

“This much [involvement by one student], I would assume, is very rare,” she said. “[Barnes is] very talented. Some of the other [cheerleaders] came in with words and things like that. Every year I have the kids actively involved in the choreography because then they enjoy practicing it.”

Barnes has been cheering since he was an eighth-grader, so he had plenty of his own experiences from which to draw.

“Last year my coach gave me the opportunity to choreograph the dance,” he said. “This year she gave me the opportunity to do the whole thing.”

Last year’s routine won the Class D state championship.

Bubar said Barnes keeps in touch through the Internet and e-mail with fellow cheerleaders in other communities both in and out of Maine to share ideas.

Barnes spent about two months this summer selecting music and putting together the routine so that it flowed.

“I worked on it here and there, picking something up, seeing if it works and if it works, putting it in,” said Barnes, who hopes to cheer in college.

After Barnes picked the musical pieces, Bubar put them through a computer program to splice them together.

The music is a mix designed to grab the audience’s attention.

“It’s a lot of older music, things with voiceovers, some newer music,” Barnes said. “It’s things that pop and get noticed.”


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