The Band of Brothers isn’t the only BYU team facing 64,000 crazy fans every week. The cheer squad leads the crowd, encourages BYU spirit and supports our teams with smiles on their faces. One member of the cheer squad is being highlighted for her dedication and effort.
Nashville-based Athlon Sports picked senior cheerleader Whitney Wonnacott to compete in the second round of its annual Sideline Spirit Contest against cheerleaders from universities all over the country.
“We want to find the university with the most school spirit,” said Kelly Urbanek, events manager at Athlon Sports. “We’re looking for that one person who can display the all-around warm, fuzzy feeling they have when they’re on the sideline.”
Wonnacott will compete against contestants from the University of Oregon, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Florida. Anyone can vote by texting the word “spirit” to the number 67463 and then picking the letter ‘C’. Each fan will be limited to one vote per round, and the contestant with the most votes at the end of the week will advance to the final round.
“Regardless of her marrying Jimmer, people should vote for Whitney,” said Stevi Poulsen, majoring in advertising. “She’s a great person that wants the best for our team and our school.”
The winning contestant will be awarded a $1,000 personal scholarship, as well as $2,000 cash for her school’s spirit program.
“Winning the Sideline Spirit Contest is more for my team so I can give the money to them,” Wonnacott said. “All of us would love to have the money to go to camps or Nationals. It would help out my team a lot.”
Wonnacott’s teammates and friends hope networking through Twitter and Facebook will help get her name out there to give her an upper hand on the other contestants.
“BYU has a lot of cheerleaders and it’s hard because fans don’t get to know us individually,” Wonnacott said. “Cheerleaders at other universities only have a few people on their squad, so their fans get to know and recognize them.”
The cheer squad is asking for fans to text, help and support the team prepare for Nationals. They took second place at Nationals last year and hope to take first in February.
“Anything that can help our team get one step closer to win Nationals will be great,” Poulsen said. “All it takes is one simple text.”
Voting ends at 11:59 CST Saturday.
