Elevate McKinley is a cheer-abilities team that provides opportunities for children who have differing abilities and they recently wrapped up their season.
Head coach Melanie Knight said the cheer team is for children who have any medical diagnoses, cognitive, social emotional or behavior or are in an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
“It’s really just everything all-star cheer would be but for children with differing abilities,” Knight said. “It actually can be adults as well. We don’t have any adults, but there are some teams that have adults. There’s not an age cap on it.”
Knight said she has cheered for her whole life and her stepdaughter cheers for Topline.
“They had a competition here in Durant a couple of years ago and several of the kids went to watch the Topline girls and a couple of my friends have daughters who loved it, but they are special needs,” Knight said.
She said she was asked about a group for special-needs people and her first reply was that they could do something small.
“I had no idea that it would be big,” Knight said. “I thought it was just going to be, we’ll practice a couple of times and maybe perform at a basketball game or something. I immediately had tons of people interested. Like, I was blown away at how many people are interested.”
“I have a friend that had a specialneeds daughter who was super interested in cheer and she knew that I had done cheer and so I just said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and it just happened,” Knight said. “We didn’t think it was going to be like this but we thought it would just be something fun for them to do.”
Knight’s brother, Brad Dollar, owns Bryan County Sports and Knight said he was a huge help in getting them what they needed as far as a place to practice at. Dollar also paid for their insurance and helped with their music. “So, having that contact was tremendous for us because it gave us a platform to start out on,” Knight said. “We didn’t have a place to practice. We had nothing. I didn’t know anyone that did music. I just figured it out. I made the uniforms. We just did it from the ground up and then this season, it just blew up.”
Knight said everyone is very friendly and encourages each other.
“We help each other,” Knight said. “It’s not like a cutthroat competition. Everybody cheers for everybody and I’ll help them, they’ll help me. Backstage, if we need extra hands, we’re always swapping with each. The athletes always meet each other. We always introduce ourselves backstage so they feel like they have tons of friends that are in the cheer world.
“It’s really a community more than a competition, but there is the competitive portion of it and your score does matter. So, it’s the best of both worlds for someone like me that’s super competitive but super empathetic. Inclusion is a huge thing for me, especially being in a small town where people don’t perceive it as such a need, but then once you start knocking on doors and people start seeing stuff, then you realize how many people need that.”
The group has participants that have diagnoses from autism, blindness and social emotion delays. One of them has Down Syndrome.
“We don’t talk about our diagnoses,” Knight said. “Our girls when they show up, they have no idea that there’s anything different about any of them. I actually have a couple of girls that I’m not even exactly sure what their diagnoses is. It’s clear that there is a need there, so I don’t ask them to disclose that, some of them do and some of them choose not to.”
Last season when Elevate went to their first competition, they were excited to see the cheerleaders, according to Knight.
“Now, they’re like, we are cheerleaders,” Knight said. “Like they see themselves like they see the other ones and it was kind of a progression because first, they really looked up to the Topline girls and those girls were real cheerleaders and for whatever reason, they didn’t really think that they were. “Their whole mindset has shifted. It gives them something that’s theirs that is a goal they can obtain. They have to work for it, it’s not just handed to you. But you can obtain it and you are given every tool you need to be successful. If you use their tools, then we win and if you don’t then we don’t and if we don’t win, it’s okay. We go back to practice, we fix it. Our first competition we had low scores for our jumps so we spent a week working for our jumps.
Knight said all of the cheerleaders have strong support from their families.
“My favorite part when we talk about family is the siblings,” Knight said. “We have one little girl that has a brother. He comes to every practice. He cheers her on.
“So, when their siblings show up, that’s when you see the light come on of excitement for them. Mom’s going to be there, dad’s going to be there, right. Second to siblings is when their teachers show up. When their teachers show up, nothing can beat that. That’s like the coolest thing for them.”
Family members also help out.
“Clothespins are a huge thing in cheer,” Knight said. “You paint them and put your name on them and you clip them on each other’s bags at competition. We have one mom that made sure all of the girls had those. We had another mom that makes sure they all have shoe charms. So, everyone chips in, in their own little way. For all of the girls, not just for their own which is cool because sometimes in sports and activities of neurotypical kids, you don’t always see that parent camaraderie and we have it.”
Last year was Elevate’s first season and the team has grown significantly from the eight participants when it was formed.
“For this season we have 25,” Knight said. “That’s a huge jump from last year and we are so excited.”
