This year the Lakeland High School cheer team has been led by supportive coaches and encouraging captains throughout the season, one of those captains being Kerinsa Haselip.

Kerinsa has been on the LHS cheer team ever since her freshman year, only really knowing how to do a toe-touch jump ever since she was little thanks to her mom being a previous Lake City cheerleader and coach.

Ever since she joined the team in 2017 her skills have improved greatly, leading her to be one of the top athletes on the team.

Kerinsa’s favorite part about being on the cheer team this year is the stunting, and she says that she was able to “make more friends with the members and bond with the people that shared common activities and interests. Through the cheer team I found some good friends.”

This year has been the second year Kerinsa was chosen for captain, last year’s choice coming as a shock to her since she was a junior and she believed there to be multiple seniors who she thought were going to be chosen.

During her first year as captain, Kerinsa hoped to shape the team to win the state competition, and they had a good chance of winning. Unfortunately, after competing in districts and doing so well, the LHS cheer team was hit with the news of the state competition being cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak in April 2020.

This year, Kerinsa hopes to achieve the same spirit and have the team succeed in the district competition and win the state one.

While not only working hard leading the Lakeland cheer team, Kerinsa is also a member of the dance team, and she has also participated in many sports over the years like volleyball, cross country and soccer. 

She is also working hard on her studies, hoping to go through a nursing program at Gonzaga University to earn a master’s degree of science in nursing to later become a nurse practitioner.

This year though, her main focus has been cheer and dance, and then after an unfortunate mishap during a dance practice, recovering from her knee surgery. 

At the beginning of the competition season, Kerinsa was unsure of whether or not she would be able to compete with her team in her final year of high school cheer since her knee seemed to restrict her from being able to perform. As the weeks progressed and she worked hard at physical therapy and taking care of it, her knee healed rapidly.

Now she is able to participate in three of the routines that the team does: show, sideline and stunt. 

When she learned she was going to be able to participate, Kerinsa was excited to be able to perform with her team in her senior year, having been “nervous to miss out on a lot of things and making those last precious memories with friends.”

Kerinsa Haselip is an athlete that won’t let an injury stand in her way of performing on the mat with her teammates. 

“She’s definitely a fighter,” says Cynthia Peck, coach of the Lakeland cheer team and also Kerinsa’s mom.

Many people are very proud of her and how she is “battling back from an injury that could be career ending. She is fighting back and recovering quickly, pushing her team to go on to districts,” Michelle Padilla puts in her opinion.

 Kerinsa Haselip and the Lakeland cheer team are set to compete at districts on Feb. 27, and then state a few weeks after that. Hopefully accomplishing the goal of finally winning state after so many years.