Welcome BACK!
Greetings Alumni and friends of the cheer, dance, and mascot teams making up the spirit program at The Ohio State University.
We are excited to share current events and updates on each team inside this newsletter to keep you informed on all the exciting growth taking place in our program.
Dance Senior Spotlight
Morgan Kamins
Hometown – Lake Zurich, IL
Major – World Politics
Year on team – 4th year
Favorite OSU Dance Team memory to date – Getting to be the first to rush the field after beating Michigan in double overtime last year!
Favorite skill – Turning
Favorite food – Cheesecake
Favorite class at OSU – The American Presidency
Favorite game to date – Football – OSU v. Michigan (2016)
Plans after graduation (if you have any at this time) – I’ve taken my LSAT and plan to pursue Law School post graduation.
Dance News
Hello Alumni and Program Supporters!
As many of you know, we started our season preparing for UDA College Camp which we attended in early August. Our preparation looked slightly different this year as we decided to bring a Home Routine this year. We started the process by bringing our choreographer, Doug Burkhardt, to Columbus and the team learned the routine. In addition to cleaning this routine we worked our usual gameday camp prep. At camp, the team delivered a phenomenal performance and placed 1st in the Home Routine Competition… what a start to our season!!
Upon returning from camp our focus has shifted to preparing for GAME DAY! We are working to perfect all of the material with our new members and create routines for our Grassy Knoll Performances. In addition, we start to focus on our fundamental dance technique as a team to ensure that we will be ready for Nationals Choreography in October. We are looking forward to getting back in the ‘Shoe for that first Buckeye Victory!
Go Bucks!
- Melissa McGhee
Mascot Spotlight
Gabe Gemberling
Hometown – Canton, Ohio
Major – Construction Systems Management
Year on team – First
Favorite memory – My favorite OSU cheer memory thus far was the tryout process. The entire experience was immensely foreign to me. However, I love a good challenge. It took creativity and time. I used all the information and advice I could possibly obtain to construct the best skit I was capable of creating (On a college budget). Luckily, tryouts were scheduled the same week of 3 of my midterms. It was hectic, but a memory I will remember for the rest of my life.
Favorite skill – Carpentry
Favorite food – Tacos
Favorite class – Entomology
Favorite game to date – Men's volleyball semifinal
Plans after graduation – Currently, I am still two years from my graduation date. However, this past summer I worked for Ryan Homes in Columbus building a total of 17 homes from excavation to final walk through. I thoroughly enjoyed working in residential construction but have bigger plans. What I am most passionate about is working in commercial or heavy civil construction after I graduate.
Mascot News
Hello alumni and friends!
Since our last Brutus update, the year continued to get better and better for Brutus and company. Our teams activities focused on fulfilling the programs vision of:
- Making Brutus a visible prominent figure.
- Engaging people and his surroundings in a creative and entertaining way.
- Leading all communities he interacts in with professionalism and servitude.
This summer has been one for the books. The team has been extremely busy with events LITERALLY all over the country. We began early with a transition period in April between the 16-17 team and the 17-18 team. Each guy was paired up with a "Big brother" from the previous team and had the opportunity to shadow them on events for several weeks. They served as their handler and got the opportunity to see the veteran group in action at a variety of different event types. They used this time to observe, ask questions, and learn the do's and don'ts of becoming a great mascot. Then once they were deemed ready, the roles were switched and they got in costume for the first time since tryouts. The transition was the first of its kind under my tenure with the program. It was an idea proposed by members of the 2016 -2017 group and it went really well helping to drive the success being had with our 2017 - 2018 group. The summer was highlighted with:
- Weddings around central Ohio
- Community Service/ Involvement Events
- Corporate Sales Meetings
- 2017 Big Ten 10k in Chicago, Illinois
- 2017 Big Ten Media Days in Chicago, Illinois
- A commercial shoot in Pasadena, California at the Nissan Heisman House with 3 other mascots and Heisman Legends
The new guys handled it all with such class and ease; all the while helping to define what goals our program was looking to achieve this year. We entered the 2017 UCA mascot camp in the Wisconsin Dells with the goal to be recognized as one of the best if not the best program in the country amongst all of our peer institutions. Although we only had one returner, our team executed flawlessly. We made great friends with over 20 different mascot programs from around the country including our national competition rivals, Aubie the Tiger from Auburn, and Goldy Gopher from Minnesota. We left camp closer as a team and ended up coming in 2nd in Camp Champion voting and 1st in the Leadership Award vote. To give you perspective, the leadership awards are voted on by every team at camp and it is given to the team that " you would want to be on, if you weren't on your own team" The amount of pride I had coming out of camp was indescribable and the maturity shown by our team was amazing. Needless to say, we have a TON of momentum going in to this year and the requests keep on coming. For the month of September alone, we have 56 appearances (Sporting/Non Sporting) scheduled with more piling in. We are working with the guys to accept and deny the right ones and they are doing great. I am working as we begin to settle in on offering some opportunities for our alumni to get together and just bond a little bit more. Stay tuned to the Facebook Group and your email for some unique opportunities to get together.
Hope we continue to make you proud and build on the legacy all of you have established.Never hesitate to reach out and as always
GO BUCKS!
- Ray Sharp
Cheer Senior Spotlight
Journey Ramey
Hometown – Sunbury, Ohio
Major – Speech and Hearing Sciences
Year on team – 4th year
Favorite OSU Cheer memory to date – (event/ nationals/ camp/ ect) - Competing at UCA College Nationals in 2017. The routine that year was my favorite routine so far with the skills and choreography from our coaching staff. In addition, it was also the most difficult routine we have done and it was such an honor to be a part of that team. My other favorite memory is beating Michigan at home last year in double overtime and rushing the field!
Favorite skill – Arabian 1/2 basket
Favorite food – Pizza
Favorite class at OSU – Anatomy
Favorite game to date – The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans against Alabama
Plans after graduation (if you have any at this time) - To move to Texas with my fiancé and start Graduate School for Occupational Therapy in the Fall.
Cheer News
Greetings Alumni and friends of the program!
Wow did summer 2017 fly by! I sincerely hope you had a wonderful time and did some exciting things wherever you are located.
The cheer team has been busy and we started the 2017-18 season in June with our first training week. During this time we focused on building upon our culture and growing as a team. We were able to work with the ARC- Adventure Recreation Center and have some team building activities that fostered growth in several different leadership categories. During this week the team was able to continue learning material to be used throughout the season and begin training partner stunts, basket tosses, tumbling, and pyramids.
The team had over a month off and returned to Columbus in late July to begin preparing for UCA College Camp in Wisconsin as well as a routine to be performed at Buckeye Kick Off. Buckeye Kick Off is a pep rally for the freshman class where various members of the athletic department and student life relay some important messages to the freshman along with performances from the band and the cheer, dance, and mascot teams! This was the earliest the cheer team has ever done a 2:30 routine since the switch from quarters to semesters and it is exciting to showcase the athletic abilities of the entire team at such an early time in the season.
The team had a very successful UCA College Camp experience continuing to grow as a family, learn some new material for the upcoming season, and perform a sideline, a band dance, and a 30 second timeout performed to music. We were fortunate to take home first place in the B1G 10 division and win the leadership and most collegiate awards. We are anxiously waiting the start of the football and volleyball seasons as we focus on maintaining traditions set by all of you, create new ways of enhancing the fan experience, make an impact in the community, and showcase our athletic abilities in pregame performances.
We look forward to seeing many of you at the alumni reunion for the UNLV game.
GO BUCKS!
– Ben Schreiber
COACHES
Head Cheerleading / Spirit Squads Coach
Ben Schreiber
Head Dance Coach
Melissa McGhee
Head Mascot Coach / Assistant Event Coordinator
Ray Sharp
Assistant Cheerleading Coach / Event Coordinator
Siobhan St. John
Assistant Dance Coaches
Pat Carmichael
Lauren Burns
Credits:
Tony Rotundo/WrestlersAreWarriors.com