Coach Kati Spry has rejuvenated Murrieta Valley鈥檚 competitive cheer program
MURRIETA, Calif. — Murrieta Valley High School鈥檚 competitive cheer program didn鈥檛 exactly have the best start this school year. They were coming off an incredible placement of 4th in the nation last year yet struggling with the loss of a beloved coach, the challenge of not having an official coach hired until after winter break, and overall COVID exhaustion. As the season wore on morale was low and many students and parents lost faith in the program. Almost 25% of the team quit. This required changing the entire routine to accommodate for the missing, two weeks to the last opportunity to receive an invite to nationals.
The interim coach, Kati Spry, sat the team down and had a difficult conversation with the athletes. She knew there were those who doubted her coaching skills, doubted the strength of the team. But Kati asked the remaining 17 athletes to trust her. To make the decision to be all in. It became their motto. Kati says it was a defining moment.
鈥淲e would fight harder, work harder, we would do it for each other.鈥�
In December they received the invite to nationals with their raw score a whopping 20 points higher than what they received at another competition two weeks prior. They were on fire! In early February they went to Florida and competed at the National High School Cheerleading Championships. Impressively, they we were at the top of the leader board the entire way placing 5th out of 38 teams. This is the 2nd time in over 20 years they competed at the national level. It鈥檚 an incredible feat.
Coach Kati Spry, now officially hired as the head coach of the cheerleading program at MVHS, has been coaching for over ten years. She danced throughout her school years, dancing professionally for San Diego鈥檚 hockey team, the Gulls and their arena football team, the Riptide. She began her cheer coaching career with her alma mater, Ramona High School. She鈥檚 been assistant coach at MVHS for three years and also coached at Murrieta Valley Pop Warner.
She had big shoes to fill, replacing Mike Henderson who took the athletes to nationals last year. And she鈥檚 doing it alone. There are three cheer teams. Sideline (traditional school spirit who cheers at many of the games for football, basketball, girls/boys volleyball, wrestling and girls/boys water polo), Traditional Competitive Cheerleading (TCC) which CIF recognizes, and Stunt the Sport which is also a CIF recognized sport. Kati has her work cut out for her with practice three times a week for four hours and many many games. Competition requires travel and additional time. She鈥檚 currently a stay-at-home mother of her oldest, a daughter and freshman at MVHS, a son in 5th grade and a 2 year old that she and her husband are fostering and hope to adopt.
She鈥檚 excited to continue to excel the cheer program and is so proud of the athletes who stuck it out even when they continued to be tested again and again. She enjoys, 鈥淭eaching kids to be good humans and pushing them to be the best version of themselves.鈥� According to Kati, 鈥淥ur legacy is just getting started!鈥�
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