Jackson County cheerleading head coach Leslie Letterman comes from a family of athletes who played for the Blue Devils.
Letterman grew up with all brothers around the same age. Letterman began her passion for cheer as her brothers played sports. Letterman said during her time studying the sport of cheerleading, she discovered her love for other sports.
“I had to be very versatile,” Letterman said. “I had to know how to shoot a basketball, know how to throw a football correctly. So I was always into sports and cheer, I guess I didn’t really know it at the time and it was there but I didn’t know it till later on.”
Letterman cheered all four years while playing basketball at Jackson County High School. After graduating from high school, Letterman became an assistant coach for the Lady Blue Devils cheer team. Letterman coached as an assistant for one season before being named head coach. Letterman said during that season, she tried to learn the schedule and routines as best she could.
“It’s definitely tough when I first started this, all three of my kids were younger,” Letterman said. “They would have to go with me to all the ball games. Granted, they loved every minute of it at the time.”
Letterman has coached at Jackson County since the 2018 season. Letterman said she hoped her kids would follow in her footsteps while cheerleading.
“Even when I was little, I loved cheerleading,” Letterman said. “When my brother played middle school sports, I would go out with the middle school cheerleaders when I was younger and kind of sit in the gym with them and even get to cheer with them when they were at the Fox Middle School building so [the passion] has always been there.”
Letterman currently has three kids, with two of them playing different sports. One plays football at Jackson County, while another plays basketball.
