It started out as just a fun thing to do but tumbling turned into cheer and now Muskogee High senior RayLeigh Yocham is ready for her final year to do that. “I grew up playing softball and when I would go to my position in the outfield, I would do some tumbling, so my mom got me into tumbling classes. I had some older cousins that were cheer leaders, so I quit softball and used my tumbling skills to get into competitive cheer when I was seven or eight. On the one hand it was nice because mom took me to practice and to all of the competitive meets. We traveled all around the country and had a lot of quality time together,” said RayLeigh. “But that last year the travel just got to be too much and so I quit my sophomore year to concentrate on school cheer and academics. That year the football team won the state championship and that was certainly the highlight of my high school career. To be honest, I really didn’t understand football, but the excitement of that game got me more into it.” Then came a setback. “We were doing a cheer stunt at the pep rally before the first football game last year. I was the backspot and the girl we were holding came down hard on my shoulder. I couldn’t do anything during football and finally had to have surgery done in November. The damage was more extensive than we knew, and it took me until just a few weeks ago to get released to cheer again. My goal this year is to regain all of my strength and skills and be a part of our OSSAA competition this fall and be a good leader. I like helping younger kids because I remember when I first got to high school, I was really shy and quiet, so I want to help our younger kids who are like that get adjusted.” And RayLeigh is all set for what lies ahead after high school. “I’m the only MHS kid enrolled in the Classroom to Clinicals program at Connors this fall so I’ll get my pre-nursing certificate when I graduate, and a year and half later hopefully get my RN license.”
