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BRING IT ON! Cheerleading Squad Makes A Splash In New Movie

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Sebring High School cheerleaders and their friends cheer as they are featured in the movie, "Bring It On: In It To Win It," during a viewing party on Thursday.

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By MANDY SHEETS | Highlands Today

Published: December 22, 2007

SEBRING — Watching "Bring It On: In It To Win It" with the Sebring High School cheerleading squad is like a "Where's Waldo" of people they know.

"That's me," Michael Dozier exclaimed as he stared at the big-screen version of himself during a viewing party with much of the squad Thursday night. "Man, that's kind of weird."

Then the whole squad tumbles onto the mat as the announcer says, "Here comes Sebring." Several clips of the squad performing a routine they choreographed themselves made the final cut of the DVD.

"We kind of expected to end up on the cutting room floor," said cheerleading coach Carolyn Shoemaker. "The directors held true to what they told us and actually featured us in the movie."

Taylor Bennett, a senior at Sebring High School, rushed out and bought the DVD first thing Tuesday morning, when it was released.

"We were so surprised at how much we are actually in the movie," Taylor said. "It makes all the work we did and all the long hours worth it."

Sebring is one of the teams competing for the spirit stick at Cheer Camp Nationals in the movie, which is a sequel to the popular 2000 movie "Bring It On." It's the only squad used that actually retains its real name, and they even sport their blue Sebring uniforms.

As sophomore Michael Smith watched the movie, it seemed like he had already seen it about 100 times because he already knew so many of the lines, but that's just because he sat through so much of the filming.

"We must have watched that actress try to say inter-cheer-rational relationship about 15 times before she got it right," Michael said.

Kayla Griffin, a senior at Sebring High School, said she has a lot more appreciation for everything that goes into making a movie after being a part of the process.

"Waiting around was really boring and long," Kayla said. "The directors ignore you until it's your turn, but most of the time, you are waiting … It wouldn't be bad if you were a lead, though, because those people are always pampered — from people fixing their lip gloss to bringing them water."

Shoemaker said she had to keep reminding the cheerleaders the payoff would be worth it in the end.

"By the fourth or fifth day, they got really tired because they had to be at school at 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus to Orlando and then sometimes we wouldn't get home until 10 that night," Shoemaker said. "Some of those days, we never even filmed a thing because of technical difficulties."

In addition to being seen by thousands of DVD watchers, the team enjoyed a financial pay off as well.

"The pay definitely made it worth our time. We didn't make what the stars make or anything, but it's much better than any of our fundraisers," Shoemaker said. "It will go to cover the cost of cheerleading camp. This is an expensive sport."

Not only are they a success on the silver screen, the squad is thriving in competitions this year. They qualified to compete in a national competition in February in Orlando and have ambitions for winning the state championship during the first year cheerleading is considered a sport by Florida High School Athletic Association.

"If we win, we would get rings and a state banner," Shoemaker said. "It would be really cool to be the first team to ever win the state title."

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