WALDOBORO — There has been a debate about the fact if cheerleading is a sport or not. If you watch the Medomak Valley cheerleader squad and take a minute to watch them with an open mind, the answer to that question becomes quite apparent.

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the word sport is defined as "a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other."

Using that definition cheering falls into two categories, sport and entertainment. When you see a squad on the end line of a basketball or football game cheering, that is entertainment.

When you send cheering squads to the Augusta Civic Center or the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor to compete against other squads, it is a sport. They keep scores, they must follow the rules and a winner is chosen. How is that not a sport?

With all that aside, if you take that minute to watch the Medomak squad perform their competition routine, the first thing you will see is these boys and girls are very athletic. Many of them during the fall and spring seasons are star soccer, track and softball players, where their athleticism is never questioned.

Tuesday night at halftime of the girls varsity basketball game, the squad, led by first year head coach Heather Simmons, put their routine to the test, showing the crowd what they would be doing on Monday, Jan. 19 at the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championships.

While the routine still had a couple of very small glitches that the team will be working on all week to correct, it was a winning performance that incorporated stunts, dance, flying and tumbling.

The Medomak cheering team is anchored by five seniors, Taylor Griffin, Shania Melvin, Paige Russell, Olivia Ryan and Ashlee Wilson. Other members are juniors, Cassidy Dever, Stephanie Hill, Megan Linscott, Amanda Poland, Gabrielle Ruano and Casey Wagner; sophomores, Courtney Ducharme, Deven Dupuis, Megan Libby, Gage Ruano and Hannah Smith; and freshmen, Ashley Kenniston, Samantha Pelkey, Adrianna Wadsworth and Megan Wright. Head coach is Heather Simmons, mascot, Jared Mank and manager Disiree Reed.

Coach Simmons is not new to coaching cheerleading, just to the task of head varsity coach.

"I have been coaching since 2002 but this my first year as a head coach," said Simmons.

Being new to the head coaching ranks, Simmons has not seen a lot of this year’s squads and really has no idea what she will see, she only knows how she feels about her own team.

"I have not seen a lot of our competitors yet so it is hard to gauge us compared to others at this point in the season," said Simmons. "I know that we have a talented team with a unique routine and if we can execute we should do very well."

Based on what they showed the crowd Tuesday night, this is a team that while competing in their sport, they could, and should, do very well.

Click here for a photo gallery from their routine.

Ron Hawkes can be reached at hawkesnews@gmail.com.