Fairmont Senior's Taylor commits to Glenville State Acrobatics & Tumbling
Apr. 9—FAIRMONT — Making the leap from high school cheer to college acrobatics and tumbling, Fairmont Senior's Meredith Taylor signed her letter of intent to join the acro-tumbling team at Glenville State University.
"I toured the college, and I just really loved it," Taylor said. "It's nice and small, and I think it's something I'd do well in. I met the team and the coaches, and I just really loved them and their personalities. I think they're such a great group of girls, and I'm just excited to start college with them."
Taylor spent all four years of high school at Fairmont Senior but participated on the cheer team during only her senior year. She did compete for the Champs Central in Clarksburg, an all-star cheer gymnasium, for six years.
Fairmont Senior cheer coach Nathy Janes said Taylor attended the meeting for the cheer team her freshman year but ultimately decided against joining. Janes said she wishes she had Taylor for more than just a year.
"I would have loved to have had her much longer than that," Janes said. "She's been cheering all-stars for a long time."
Taylor didn't plan on doing acro-tumbling in college, but when she received interest from schools to do it, she realized she wanted to keep doing cheer or something similar. She may do both cheer and acro-tumbling after her freshman year, but for now, she's sticking to the former which has her interest.
"I just think it's so interesting," Taylor said. "It's like all so nice and clean and all the stunts and stuff are so much more different than cheer. It's exciting to try something new, and I want to try something new."
According to Janes, there are three main differences between acro-tumbling and cheer: Harder stunt levels, separate stunt scoring and a lack of showmanship typically seen in cheer.
"Everything they've done, the stunting, the jumps, the tumbling, everything we do, we just do it all in one big thing, and they do it in sections and score it that way," Janes said. "I think high school cheer absolutely prepares them for it."
Janes expressed some concern for Taylor competing in acro-tumbling, because she "radiates personality," something that goes against the objective, cut-and-dry nature of acro-tumbling. Janes hopes Taylor picks up cheer as well to let her personality radiate.
Debbie Hartman, Taylor's coach at Champs Central, thinks Glenville State is a good fit for her. Hartman said she thinks it's a good place to start if Taylor wants to go to a higher level.
"I think sometimes when kids come from smaller schools, they need to go to a smaller college first and just test the waters," Hartman said. "She may want to go somewhere else later, but I think it's a good start for her and it could be a good fit."
Taylor plans to join the Criminal Justice department at Glenville State and focus on field forensics. She hopes to go into forensic investigations, seeing it as a good way to help people.
Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548
