There are no finer coaches and no finer people in charge of our young people around here than the cheerleading coaches at Stevenson (Jill Freitag) and Antioch (Robin Gwinn) high schools.
It’s not surprising that their teams won championships at Saturday’s IHSA sectional meet hosted by Lake Park in Roselle – Stevenson winning in the large-school division and Antioch prevailing in the middle-school division.
Of course, lots of coaches are big winners in lots of sports.
What makes these two special is the obvious passion they have, both for the sport, and for their squad members. The team goal obviously is to produce the best routine possible and win a state championship. But, it’s also to produce good kids.
Freitag and Gwinn have done both, and have done so for a long, long time.
A tip of the Stevenson and Antioch caps go in their direction, and while we can’t actually root FOR them at state because that would be rooting against our other area teams that qualified, we can root for them to perform to the best of their abilities.
If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
I want to congratulate all the medium varsity squads, and say thank you for such a solid representation of Lake County! Stick it, ladies!
While I do not know Jill Freitag or Robin Gwinn personally, their reputations as solid coaches is obvious. Both Stevenson and Antioch have a great deal of talent.
But talent isn't the only thing that counts in cheerleading. Heart, passion, and pride play a key role as well. And there is no better coach for instilling these values in her team than Linda Norman of Zion-Benton. My daughter cheered at Zion all 4 years and for Linda her junior and senior years at ZB. Those teams qualified for State because Linda taught them how to "Put Their Heart In It." When you think about it, what more important value could she have given these girls? I can't think of a single one.