Too small for basketball so Dixie Heights graduate earns spot on UK cheerleading squad

By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter

In junior high school, Kennedy Webster was cut during tryouts for the girls’ basketball team mainly because she was only 5 feet tall. That’s when an aunt convinced her to give cheerleading a try and her small size proved to be her biggest asset.

“I pretty much made the team because I was so little that they could do whatever they wanted with me (in cheer routines),” Webster said. “Then they just kind of taught me stuff along the way and I started taking gymnastic lessons on my own.”

Webster spent four years as a cheerleader for Dixie Heights High School. She was on squads that won awards in regional and state competition and placed among the top 15 in a national tournament. But her success story didn’t end after graduation. In June, she went to a three-day tryout at the University Kentucky and was selected for the Wildcats’ cheerleading squad.

“Between 50-60 girls tried out and they made cuts after each day,” she said. “On Sunday, we had to go through an all-day thing starting at 11 (a.m.) and going to 6 or 7 (p.m.). Once you do that, you have to sit there and wait for 45 minutes while the judges decide.”

This year, the judges decided to add all 29 of the female and male finalists at the tryouts to the UK cheerleading corps. The newcomers were assigned to the White Squad that will cheer at home football games, women’s volleyball matches and women’s basketball games during the 2015-16 school year.

Three weeks ago, Webster went to her first training session with the UK cheerleading squad and got an idea of what lies ahead during her freshman year. In addition to attending classes and doing assignments, she’ll be going to workouts and training sessions each week and then cheering at sporting events. The White Squad members also conduct clinics for high school students who are hoping to become UK cheerleaders themselves.

“Me and my roommate were just talking about how it’s crazy to think we’ll be the ones working the clinics this year where before we’d always been the girls at the clinics,” Webster said. “That’s crazy to wrap my head around.”

During her senior year in high school, Webster went to those cheerleading workouts and clinics at UK two or three times a month just to earn an invitation to the freshman tryouts. She did that in addition to cheerleading for Dixie Heights football and basketball teams while also taking advance placement courses at school to get early college credits.

Her hard work and determination certainly impressed her stepfather, Ken Chevalier, a teacher and boys’ head basketball coach at Dixie Heights.

“It’s been refreshing to see Kennedy the past four years move from a beginner cheerleader into someone who has developed the talent to make the UK cheer team,” Chevalier said. “Girls train all their lives and don’t get this kind of chance so this makes her situation even more incredible. Kennedy has always been dedicated and focused, and she is a great athlete.”

Webster did have to overcome some setbacks along the way. As a freshman, she was dropped during a cheerleading stunt and suffered two minor spinal fractures that sidelined her for a few months. At the end of her sophomore year, a hairline fracture on her kneecap put her on crutches for nearly eight weeks. But the 5-foot, 100-pound teenager never considered giving up cheerleading. She went back to doing the same stunts after each recovery period.

“With both injuries, we made sure Kennedy was 100 percent recovered before returning to practice,” said her mother, Kim Chevalier. “As parents, you are always concerned about your child getting hurt. But focusing on long-term goals and having a positive attitude allowed Kennedy to reach her full potential with the emotional support she needed to persevere and keep driving toward her dream.”

Ken and Kim Chevalier provided much more than emotional support. They were the ones who made the 80-mile trek to Lexington with their daughter whenever she had cheerleading workouts or clinics at UK. They also paid for the lessons she took locally with David Cole at Top Flight Gymnastics and Evan Sayers at Pride Cheer Academy to develop all the skills she needed in four years.

“I’m not afraid to try anything,” Webster said. “I picked up on my basics so fast that I was able to move on to bigger skills and get them quicker.”

The final round of the UK tryouts in June was held at Memorial Coliseum on campus and spectators were permitted to watch. Webster said several members of the Dixie Heights cheerleading squad were in the crowd along with her mother and stepfather.  One of her friends used a smart phone to shoot videos of Webster’s routines and texted them to members of the cheerleading squad who couldn’t be there in person to support her.

“All of my social media was completely blown up all day before I could even check it,” Webster said. “It was crazy, but it was amazing too. It definitely helped calm my nerves and made me feel better going through it all.”

Webster plans to major in nursing at UK. She said if a cheerleader’s grade point average slips below 2.5 you have to attend group study sessions. If it drops below 2.0, you’re not eligible to perform at games until you get it back to an acceptable level.

“It’s going to be a lot of work, but I’m really excited,” Webster said. “Some of my friends are like, ‘You’re not going to have a social life at all,’ and I said, ‘That’s OK. I am going down here for school after all.'”