Briana Borsh-Symons

Imagine sitting on your couch one lazy summer day engrossed in ESPN. After a brief commercial, you're suddenly glued to the screen as a sport of intense skill and dedication dominates the TV. Competitive cheerleading. Instantly hooked, you watched the program from start to finish in silent awe.

Briana Borsh-Symons, a seventh grader at Leechburg Middle School, had this exact experience three years ago. After the program, she ran to her mother, Janie, and said, "I want to do that." Not long after, she found herself in Twist and Shout All-stars, a competitive cheerleading squad from Ford City.

This activity is extremely demanding on her time. Every month of the year and every day of the week she spends her time practicing. She divides her time between two types of practice: cheerleading, which is dancing and mounts, and also gymnastics for the tumbling portion.

The practice has certainly paid off. This past year, her squad took first place in the National Cheer Power Northeast Championships. This year the squad will be attending the National Championships that will be held in Orlando, Florida. Bri also is the youngest girl on the senior squad. To be in at this level, she had to have strong tumbling skills to compete with the other girls. Because of these achievements, Bri was chosen to attend the Capital One Bowl game in Orlando in 2003. She was also invited back this year.

Besides cheerleading, Bri was a competitive dancer for seven years at Sandra Lynn's School of Dance and Western Pennsylvania Performing Arts Company in Vandergrift. Starting at age three, the majority of her young life was spent on dancing. As a competitive dancer, she has won first place in every competition she has ever been in.

One of the most rewarding things about cheerleading and dance, Bri said, is the lasting relationships she has found in and outside of this valley. Not only does she have life-long friends at school, but also from all over the US. Friends such as Jennifer Dowling have "really taken her under their wing and molded her into a top notch cheerleader," said her mom. Briana's mother has also always encouraged her and has been a strong influence in her life.

As for the future of this bright rising star, Briana plans on attending a state college. Of course the most important part of the school is whether or not there is a competitive cheerleading squad. Her hope is to continue her cheerleading career as long as possible even as a coach or judge in the distant future.

Her other activities include teaching Sunday school to four- and five-year-olds at the Hebron Lutheran Church of Leechburg.