With the majority of last year’s squad returning this fall, and the addition of a handful of talented freshmen, Coach Wes Wooley is looking forward to another successful season cheering on the Flying Dutchmen basketball team to another winning season.

Integral to the squad’s success will be an experienced core group of veterans, including last football season’s Most Valuable Athlete, junior, Karly Annett of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Most Improved, junior, Alex Stradel of Muskegon, Mich.

Elected by the squad as captains for football season are juniors, Karly Annett, Laurel Mattice of Woodland, Mich., Alex Stradal, and senior, Olivia Haines of Gowen, Mich.

The Hope cheerleaders came together the first week of August to return to the largest regional college cheerleading camp in the country sponsored by Universal Cheerleading Association (UCA) in Milwaukee, Wisc.

The Hope squad, comprised of four men and ten women, joined over a thousand cheerleaders representing colleges and universities from all over the Midwest and beyond, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Over four days, the squad worked on new skills, honed their safety technique, came together as a team and competedtt in competitions with routines learned at camp. As one of just a few NCAA Division III colleges in attendance, the Hope squad participated in camp competitions in a very competitive Small Coed Division which consisted mostly of Div. I universities.

Despite their lack of experience and smaller squad size, Hope earned a second place trophy in the Fight Song competition, as well as blue ribbons in every evaluation in which they participated.

With only senior, Olivia Haines having previous college camp experience, this very positive outcome in Milwaukee represents a substantial accomplishment and a prominsing future for the Hope Cheerleading program.