In the end, the flier took a flyer and it paid off.
Despite cheering for 14 years, Krista Keller was going to attend the University of Kentucky whether or not she continued to cheer.
An invitation to attend a UK cheer tryout changed things.
The University Heights Academy senior had attended some of Kentucky’s cheer clinics in the past. So she tried out, advanced through the process, and made the team earlier this month. On Friday, she signed to cheer for UK, becoming one of the few, if not the first from Hopkinsville, to be a Kentucky cheerleading squad member.
“I got a trial bid for UK and they emailed me and told me to come to open gym over Spring Break,” she said. “Tryouts were a three-day process. Three got cut on the first day. One got cut the next, and eight of us freshmen made the squad.”
Krista’s diminutive stature and tumbling ability make her the perfect candidate to be a flier – the one at the top of the pyramid.
It’s a technique she honed at Bluegrass Cheercats before returning to cheer her senior year at UHA. The Cheercats recently finished fifth at the national competition.
“I just love it so much. Just being in the air, always tumbling. It’s just something I’m really good at and I just always loved it,” she said.
Krista said she grew up watching older cheerleaders Sydney Hennigan, who cheered at Purdue University, and Madison Alder who did the same at Western Kentucky University.
“I really looked up to them because they were able to make it to the next level and they gave me tips and helpful things to make me I stick out to colleges,” she said.
As she addressed the student body at UHA during Friday’s ceremony, she knew there were probably some younger girls with the same cheer aspirations she had.
“That makes me feel really good about myself. It makes me feel like I can be a role model to them and be someone they can look up to. I’ve been in those shoes. I’ve been that little girl.”
Krista said she plans to study medical diagnostic sonography at UK with the goal of becoming an ultrasound tech.
