By By KAREN L. HARRIS / Edwardsburg Argus
On Thursday, Dec. 21, the seventh and eighth grade cheerleaders at Edwardsburg Middle School performed at the Notre Dame JACC during a Notre Dame mens' basketball game.
The girls cheered during two time-outs and performed their dance routine during halftime at the Notre Dame-Army game.
According to Jacque Chislea, the middle school cheerleading coach, the girls were pleased and honored to be cheering at Notre Dame.
She explained, "Leslie Zech first contacted Notre Dame about having the Edwardsburg High School girls cheer at a game, but she found out Notre Dame no longer does that for high school cheerleaders, just middle school. So she passed the contact number on to me.
I called the Notre Dame cheerleading coach many times throughout the fall but it was football season, so I'm sure they were really busy. They finally got back to us. I told them our girls were really great and they invited us to come."
In addition to an invitation, Notre Dame extended discounted tickets to all of Edwardsburg.
"There were 220 Edwardsburg people at the game. It just goes to show you how strong our community pride is that so many people came out to see our girls cheer." Chislea said.
Seventh grader, Katie Hendricks said, "it was really a great opportunity. We were all nervous but when we got out there, we did the best we could and it turned out great!"
"We had such a great time and it was amazing to see all of the Edwardsburg people come to support us. It was an awesome experience and opportunity to be able to cheer at Notre Dame," said Kelsey Preston, a seventh grade cheerleader.
The Edwardsburg cheerleaders weren't the only ones who enjoyed the game. Notre Dame walloped Army, 88-47.