By Caroline Carter
Staff Writer
From starting out as a gymnast to serving as captain for the Coppell High School varsity cheerleading squad, Anna Goldblatt has always been a talented and dedicated athlete.
Following in the footsteps of several CHS alumni, Goldblatt will be a part of the cheerleading squad at the University of Texas at Austin next year. After an intense tryout process, Goldblatt was selected to serve as a member of the all-girl White Squad for the 2012-2013 school year.
“I am so excited to be a part of the team for next year,” Goldblatt said. “I loved cheering for high school, so it just made since to try out for the team. Attending UT was a dream in itself, so making the cheer team and going to school in Austin is really great.”
Unlike many high school cheerleaders, Goldblatt did not begin her training to become a cheerleader until age 14. As a competitive gymnast, she gained much of her strength and flexibility from the extensive training of gymnastics. At one point, Goldblatt was at the gym practicing for roughly 40 hours a week.
“I was a competitive gymnast for the beginning of my life,” Goldblatt said. “I was even homeschooled for a while since I was up at the gym so often. But then I realized that I missed going to a real school with my friends, so we made the switch. I was then opened up to cheer once I came.”
With an extremely rigorous tryout process, more than 60 girls tried out for the squad at UT. With only four new members selected for the upcoming school year, Goldblatt says she feels a huge honor.
“[The tryout] was definitely intense,” Goldblatt said. “But the environment for the tryout actually was relaxed, which was nice. They tried to make it like how a normal practice would be run. I also knew a couple of girls who went to Coppell last year. Having them and a few other girls I knew there made the process less stressful.”
Goldblatt’s friends and team members are all extremely excited for Goldblatt’s opportunity. Co-captain for the varsity cheerleading team, senior Leslie Adkins, said Goldblatt will be greatly missed for her great contributions as captain.
“Anna and I got a lot closer this year because we had to work together a lot as the two varsity captains,” Adkins said. “She is incredibly spirited and was always the best at remembering cheers. Anna was easy to work with and since she was a captain all four years, she had a lot of experience.”
During her senior year as captain, Goldblatt was under the direction of Tiffany Ganss, varsity cheer coach and multimedia instructor. Ganss says Goldblatt displayed the necessary leadership skills of a captain and that many of the other team members strongly looked up to her.
“Anna is an extremely hard working and personable girl,” Ganss said. “Everyone on the team respected her and she did a great job of leading the team during football season. I knew I could always count on her since she followed through with whatever I asked of her.”
Ganss says the process for a collegiate team is much different than a tryout for a high school team. There are a lot more stunts and technical elements required from the cheerleaders.
“Cheering in college resembles competitive cheer more than it does high school cheer,” Ganss said “It is more physically demanding than high school cheer since they have to maintain a good physical appearance. She’ll also be having more rigorous practices with a lot of conditioning.”
In addition to cheering for UT, Goldblatt plans to stay involved with other activities on campus.
“I will be pursuing a career in psychical therapy,” Goldblatt said. “I also plan on rushing in the fall to join a sorority. I’ll be pretty busy during the year, but I am really excited.”
Though it will be bittersweet for Goldblatt to trade in her red uniform for a burnt orange one, serving as a member of the cheerleading squad will make her freshman year in college even more memorable.
