Recently, Senior Arianna Gray committed to The University of Delaware for cheerleading. This squad is a Division 1 team as well as being nationally ranked. They have won at least 10 national titles and usually rank within the top 10 at College Nationals every year. When the recruitment process started, Ari knew that Delaware was her top choice. After cheering her whole life, she developed a huge goal and that was to cheer D1.
Ari had her mind made up. “I didn’t really have any other options for cheer. I put everything into being on the team at Delaware because that’s where I knew I really wanted to be.” The process started with just getting accepted into the college.
Delaware is a recruitment only squad, meaning that they do not hold tryouts. Ari attended a couple of recruit clinics to get to know the athletes and see if she worked well with them as well as getting to know their head coach, Kirby Lynch. By the end of her junior year, she started submitting video highlights to show off her stunting, tumbling, and gameday skills. She made sure to stay in frequent contact with Kirby, the head coach, so she could keep herself on the radar.
In the fall of this year, Ari had a zoom meeting with the coaching staff; this made her feel even more confident and comfortable. Then, in February, she had one more meeting with them, as she was already anxious about what they had to say. All of her fear went away as they offered her a spot on this Division 1 team. It is such an amazing accomplishment.
Ari is most excited to cheer at the collegiate level and get to learn new things. She is also very excited to have new teammates and a brand new cheer family. Her best advice is, “to stay on the coaches radar as much as you can as well as taking every opportunity they give you, even if you think it isn’t worth it, because they realize the small details”.
