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Galt High’s Temple takes cheer to a higher level
Talented tumbler makes Riverside cheer squad
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Photos by Paige Lampson
Providing the foundation for a higher level in the pyramid, GHS cheer captain Tiara Temple serves as a hitch on the left side.
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By Paige Lampson
Staff Writer
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Galt High School cheerleader Tiara Temple has been tumbling, dancing and cheering since she was just a little girl. Who ever knew that such abundant energy could be turned into a lucrative chance at a college education for a still exuberant young lady?
For all of Temple’s hard work, she has been accepted to University of California, Riverside, where she will attend to study, and join the cheer squad in the fall.
Not just a talented cheerleader, Temple is also a stellar student who holds a 4.2 grade point average, and who is also well liked by her peers, being crowned homecoming queen for 2008.
Temple’s cheer career started in first grade, when her mother sewed together a cheering skirt for her. Even then, the skirt said “Galt” on it.
She went on to cheer for the Galt Chief’s youth football team, now called the Junior Warriors, and although she tried other sports, such as volleyball and soccer, she said none of them fit quite as well as cheerleading.
“It just came naturally,” said Temple.
On Galt High’s squad, Temple served as both a flyer, the person that goes up in the air during a stunt, and as a base, the position that helps support the flyer.
Temple enjoys both positions, though she said nothing beats getting tossed up into the air.
“It’s the closest thing to flying you’ll ever get,” she said.
Temple couldn’t make it to UC Riverside’s cheer tryouts; however, the video she mailed to the school’s coaches was enough to earn her a place on the squad.
Next year she’ll have to juggle her schoolwork, cheer and a job, something she’s anxious about.
“School will definitely come first,” she said.
Temple aspires to be to a pediatric nurse.
Last summer, Temple interned at Shriners Hospital, taking care of severely injured children.
She said, although some of the children had severe burns and spinal injuries, they could still smile and were happy just to be alive.
“It makes you realize how lucky you are,” she said.
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