Q: What is one of your favorite Pacer memories?

A: My favorite Pacer memory was getting to perform at Kidd Brewer Stadium my Junior Homecoming year. There was an issue with the lights on the high school field, so they had to transfer the entire game to App State! It was very surreal performing on that field and it was a huge adrenaline rush. Something about performing on the field that night made me decide I wanted to go to Appalachian for college which is why I feel it probably is always my go-to memory of Pacers! 

Q: Do you still keep in touch with any of your former teammates?

A: The Pacers I still keep in touch with were already the ones I was close with before joining. Unfortunately, I don’t stay in touch as much with a lot of the others. I keep up with their lives on Facebook, but that is about it. Cay Harkins, who was one of the former coaches, tried arranging various alumni things for homecoming in her years as coach, even bringing the alumni back to perform at games. While I know not all of us could arrange to come back for homecoming, I’ve always hated that there wasn’t anything for the alumni once we left to meet the new team girls and honor the team that literally developed us as women in high school. There are so many of us still in the area who cheer from the sidelines and perform Drumline when the music starts!

Q: What was one of your favorite routines to perform?

A: My favorite routine we ever performed was also my Junior year. We did a routine to the song 2012 and called the routine the Pacer/Mancer dance. We recruited some of our male friends to dance with us. We had multiple practices together and the routine was performed for our end of year show. It was so much fun getting to include the guys and they were such troopers! They did incredible and we always wanted to revive the Mancers again one day! 

Q: How were the Pacers perceived by the student body? 

A: I feel like the years I was in school, Pacers were starting to become well known and respected by their peers. I really believe that when I was a junior and senior, our routines began setting us apart from previous years Those were the years we were choreographing things ourselves and doing “break out” routines where we started off with a normal everyday song and then the song would break out into hip hop and the crowd would go wild. Everyone loved those routines and said they were the preferred routines over the normal camp routines we learned or kicklines and poms. We did it more and more and every time, it seemed to bring us closer to the student body because we were giving them what they wanted and what they enjoyed for their halftimes. 

Q: What years were you a Pacer and who was your coach?

A: I was a Pacer my Sophomore year (2009-2010), Junior year (2010-2011), and Senior year (2011-2012) where I was an Officer. Cay Harkins was my coach the first year and Laura Carson was the coach the two other years.