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In the spirit

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

Ali Hutton will start college the same way she’s ending high school – with spirit.
The Rural Retreat High School senior and co-captain of the school’s cheerleading squad found out last month that her cheerleading career isn’t over just yet.
Ali secured a spot on the Emory & Henry College cheerleading team, ensuring her winsome smile will brighten up the morale of fans for another season.
“I was so excited,” Ali said about finding out that she had made the squad. “I met my mom and my sister in Bristol and I wouldn’t tell her on the phone. When I got there I started to look real sad and I was like ‘Mom…I made it!’”
If cheerleaders are supposed to be positive representatives of their school, it’s hard to imagine that E&H could find someone better than Ali to fill the role.
She said she plans to spend plenty of time in the classroom during the next four years as well, with medical school her long-term goal after she obtains her planned biology undergraduate degree.
With a 4.01 high school grade point average thanks to the multiple dual credit courses she has taken at RRHS (including four this semester: calculus, biology, English and international business management) Ali received E&H’s John Emory Scholarship.
According to E&H’s Web site, the $13,000 John Emory award goes to United Methodist students who have strong grades, ACT /SAT scores and leadership activities.
Ali is a member of Rural Retreat United Methodist Church.
“She’s really charismatic,” said Kara Hunt, Ali’s cheerleading coach at RRHS. “Ali’s really not your typical teenage girl.”
Tragically, Ali also had deeper concerns to deal with during her high school years than most of her peers.
Her father, Donnie Hutton, died suddenly at age 51 in January 2006, midway through Ali’s sophomore year.
“She could have been really bitter about it,” said Debbie Hutton, Ali’s mother.
Instead, Ali’s upbeat spirit refused to be stifled.
“She was definitely a rock and really strong through that whole thing,” Hunt said, adding that Ali handled the tough times “amazingly well.”
“She’s filled in for her father,” added Hutton, who is legally blind.
Hutton said cheerleading played an important role in giving her daughter an outlet for her emotions.
“It kept her focused on something,” Hutton said. “It kept her grounded.”
Because of her experiences in high school, Ali said she’s learned to seize the moment.
Despite being a cheerleader for years in elementary school and middle school, Ali didn’t try out for the team her first year at RRHS, saying that at the time she thought it might be more fun to be just another student in the crowd.
Ali, though, quickly realized that her preferred place was leading the cheers from the sidelines, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Becca Smith, who was a RRHS cheerleader a decade and a half earlier.
“I used to tell everybody when I was little that we were twins,” Ali said with a laugh at the absurdity of the statement considering her and her sister’s age difference. “I always wanted to be like my sister.”
Ali eventually joined the cheerleading team her sophomore year – the same year Hunt became the squad’s coach – and soon became one of the group’s leaders.
In addition to being named a co-caption for her senior year, Ali also received the squad’s Alecia Jenkins Memorial Award for the 2006-07 school year.
Back in the fall, Ali said she decided she wasn’t going to make the same mistake of giving up a year of cheering during her college career.
“I really regret not trying out for cheerleading my freshman year of high school and I still regret it today because the friendships I’ve made through cheerleading have just been amazing,” she said. “As soon as I found out the day [of the E&H tryouts] I was like ‘I’m doing this. I’m not missing out on anything.’”
To prepare for the April 5 tryouts, Ali said she practiced her jumps every night for three weeks and developed a cheer incorporating “Wasps,” the mascot for E&H’s teams.
After the tryouts, Ali said the team’s captain instructed the hopefuls to call her voicemail after 5:30 p.m. to hear the list of people who made the squad.
Although she felt that she had turned in a good performance, Ali said her confidence in making the team faltered as she heard name after name read without hearing her own – all the way to the very last name.
“I was just sitting there listening and I was like ‘I didn’t hear my name. It’s not there.’ And finally it said ‘Ali Hutton’ and I was like ‘oh my goodness,’” she recalled. “And I called back like three times just to make sure.”
Hunt said she was confident all along that Ali would make the team, but still was “ecstatic” when Ali sent her a text message letting her know she had made the cut.
The coach added that Ali is her first cheerleader to continue with the activity at the college level.
“She learns really fast, super fast,” Hunt said. “I don’t know if I’ve coached anyone who learns as fast as she does.”
In addition to being skilled at the technical aspects of cheerleading, Hunt said another one of Ali’s strengths is her “gentle leadership.”
And, of course, her famous grin.
“She’s got an awesome smile,” Hunt said.
“She just has that winning smile,” Hutton concurred. “Ali is known for that smile.”
When asked if she planned to try to watch Ali cheer at E&H next year, Hunt responded, “Heck, yeah,” and Hutton said she hopes to be at all of her daughter’s games.
“I think she’ll have her own cheer squad in the stands to watch her cheer,” Hutton said. “She’s just an amazing girl.”
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .