Four WHS cheerleaders raising funds after selection to Shrine Bowl All-Star Cheer squad

Four Waukon High School senior cheerleaders have been selected as part of the Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Cheer Squad and will be cheering at the 2017 Iowa Shrine Bowl All-Star Football Classic to be played July 29 at the UNI-Dome on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls. That senior foursome includes Whitney Cota, Mariah Hancock, Hannah Rogers and Jade Blake.

In addition to football and cheerleading, the annual Shrine Bowl benefits the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children by raising sponsorship funding that is donated directly to the Shriner Hospital program. Each individual participant in the Shrine Bowl is asked to raise $800 in sponsorship and/or donation funding.

In an effort to meet their combined $3,200 commitment, the Waukon High School foursome will be hosting a series of fundraising events, including bake sales and having a donation jar placed at several Waukon Indian varsity athletic events for the remainder of this winter season, including the Saturday, January 28 Northeast Iowa Conference Wrestling Tournament being hosted by Waukon High School. A sponsorship fund has also been set up at Farmers & Merchants Savings Bank in Waukon.

Try-outs for this year’s Shrine Bowl All-Star Cheer Squad were held October 16 at the Za-Ga-Zig Shriner’s Temple in Altoona. A panel of judges from the Iowa Cheer Coaches Association (ICCA), who will also later help coach the cheer squads at the Shrine Bowl event, chose 60 cheerleaders from those try-out performances - 30 for the North Squad and 30 from the South Squad. During the last week in July, the selected cheerleaders meet at UNI and learn a choreographed routine and various cheers through website videos provided one month before reporting to the week’s event. The routine and cheers are performed during the Shrine football game Saturday afternoon.

The cheerleaders, as well as the football players selected for the All-Star Classic, are able to participate in a number of activities hosted by the Shriners that week. Some of those events include the Shrine Bowl Parade, an Honors Banquet, and mini-camps where those high school participants interact with hospital children.

For Hancock, this will be the second consecutive year she has been selected to the Shrine Bowl All-Star squad. “It is an amazing experience and I am so excited to attend for another year,” she said. “I am also excited to share it with the other girls that made it this year.”

For Rogers, her first-year experience at the event holds multiple meanings for her, as she shares, “I am honored to be a part of the cheerleading squad at the Iowa Shrine Bowl; not only because I will get to cheer one last time during high school, but I get to help the Shriners by fundraising and spending time with them. This will be a great experience and I cannot wait to be there.”