All-American girl

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Summer Egly has no fear.

Wearing a bright-yellow sports bra and black Nike shorts, the Cardinal Mooney senior stands in the center of the blue gymnastics floor with her hands by her side.

After a few quick revisions of the upcoming stunt sequence, Egly glances toward her partner and smiles — a silent cue that’s she’s ready to fly.

Quickly, Egly does a rewind, or back tuck, into the open palms of her partner, Gene Honrath, who extends Egly into the air above his head in one fluid motion.

Hovering some 10 feet in the air, the Lakewood Ranch resident tucks one leg up and raises her arms into a tight V. Honrath tosses Egly from one palm to the other while she completes a series of calculated movements with her arms and legs.

Egly never loses her focus or her smile, for that matter, throughout the duration of the stunt sequence.
Whether cheering in front of thousands of screaming fans or attempting a competitive stunt for the first time in the comfort of the gym, Egly feels completely at home while cheerleading.

“I’m not scared in front of people,” Egly says. “It’s the one thing that I’m good at. Cheerleading is just my thing.”

Egly’s enthusiasm and drive to push herself to the next level have propelled her throughout her cheerleading career and are traits that ultimately landed her a spot among the nation’s elite.

Over the summer, Egly tried out for All-American status during a Universal Cheerleaders Association camp. Egly had to perform a dance, a cheer and her best jump and was then judged on her performance.
Following the tryout, Egly was named an All-American and invited to participate in the 2014 London Varsity Tour, which included a weeklong trip to London and the opportunity to walk in London’s New Year’s Day parade with 500 other cheerleaders.

“I was really excited,” Egly says. “I thought I had a good chance of making it, and it was a really good opportunity.”

During the parade, Egly and hundreds of cheerleaders from across the nation cheered through the streets of London, stopping at six grandstands along the way to perform and take pictures with fans.

A former gymnast, Egly took her competitive level to new heights when she decided to join her first cheerleading squad in the sixth grade. Egly cheered for the East Manatee Bulldogs alongside some of her close friends for one season before moving over to All-Star cheerleading.

Egly spent a few seasons competing with the Brandon All-Stars, with whom she went undefeated and won five national titles as a freshman.

“I just loved the intensity of it,” Egly says. “Everyone was really dedicated to it and everyone on the team got along really well. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Egly also began cheering for Cardinal Mooney as a freshman and has been a fixture on the varsity squad, cheering for both football and basketball, ever since. It was at Cardinal Mooney where the former base, or the person at the bottom of the stunt pyramid holding the other girls up, started flying for the first time.

“I just (enjoy) everything about it,” Egly says of stunting. “I love being thrown up in the air and doing new stuff that I’ve never done before. Partner stunting is just something completely different.”

Egly cheered her final high school football game Nov. 15, before preparing to participate in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time. Egly was one of 800 senior captains and co-captains from across the nation who participated in the experience.

The girls spent about 20 hours practicing, before hitting the streets of New York City.

“I always thought it would be cool to go and be a part of that,” Egly says. “It was really cold, though, and there were people everywhere.”

Egly returned home to finish cheering her final basketball season at Cardinal Mooney, which will come to end sometime in February depending on whether the Cougars advance to the playoffs.

In addition to cheering for the Cougars, Egly also trains twice a week at Rock Solid, in Tampa, and once a week at Dynasty Elite, where she works on tumbling and stunting. She also works out twice a week at Athletic Edge, in Lakewood Ranch, to improve her strength.

Egly hopes her training pays off in April when she tries out for the University of Alabama co-ed cheerleading squad. Egly, who already has been accepted to the Crimson Tide’s business school, is one of 60 girls expected to try out for 11 spots.

During the two-day tryout, Egly will be asked to perform a roundoff back handspring full, a back handspring back tuck, a toe touch and a standing tuck in addition to a series of elite-level partner stunts. Egly already has all of the required elements with the exception of the second half of her full, on which she’s working.

Now, it’s just a matter of preparing and enjoying every minute of the experience, because any fear and nervousness this All-American may have had disappeared a long time ago.

“Being a college cheerleader would pretty much mean everything to me,” Egly says. “I always thought it would be so cool to do.”

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].