When the final buzzer sounded and the student section erupted, it was not just the players in uniform celebrating the Van Buren County High School Eagles’ trip to the regional championships.
Front and center, as they have been all season, was the Van Buren Eaglettes cheer team, lifting the energy inside the gym to another level. At the helm of that spirit is head coach Candice Brewer, who is in her second stint leading the program and her seventh year overall guiding the squad.
Brewer said moments like this are exactly why she returned.
“It is fun and exciting,” Brewer said. “We [loved] the sisterhood of being part of the cheer team and the community that we built there, and I also loved how hard we worked and how proud we were of what we accomplished.”
That same pride was on full display as both Van Buren basketball teams punched their tickets to regional and a subsequent spot in subsectionals, backed by a cheer squad that has spent months preparing for nights just like this.
“That work ethic that I learned as a cheerleader is what helped me through college,” Brewer said. “It’s helped me through my career. it’s helped me as a wife and a mother, so I think cheerleading gave a lot to me and that’s one reason I wanted to give back to young athletes so that they can gain what I gained from cheerleading.”
Brewer said she describes her team as coachable, focused and committed, qualities that mirror the basketball team’s gritty postseason run.
“Those are just all the components for success, not only in cheer, but in life,” Brewer said. “They’re accomplishing really good things. They’ve accomplished some new things we haven’t done before so we’re really excited to show that off and show off their skills and their talents.”
The cheer season kicked off alongside basketball’s opening tip, and since then the squad has worked relentlessly behind the scenes. During the offseason, they polished crowd-leading chants, sharpened dance routines and mastered advanced stunts designed to energize the gym at pivotal moments.
