Insight
After Cambridge’s second-round loss to Lincoln Christian at Pershing Auditorium on Friday, cheerleader Carrie Jones consoles her boyfriend, Brian
Holtze, in a hallway outside the locker room.
Cambridge
Continued from Page 1
nament. Cheerleaders, band mem
bers, students, teachers, parents,
grandparents, aunts, uncles and other
loyal fans composed the entourage
that traveled down Interstate 80 on
Wednesday and Thursday.
“Everyone expects you to win,”
says Tim Ommert, a senior on the
team. “If you get beat, you don’t meet
everyone’s expectations.
They know what it’s like to win.
The boys’ Basketball team finished
the regular season undefeated, anni
hilating 23 teams before it was
through.
Elm Creek was first to fall. Then
another and another and another and
another.
Next on the list, Elwood. That
team was no match for the Trojans,
who scored 111 points and held their
opponent to only 66.
The streak continued as Cambridge
devoured yet another team and an
other and another.
The Trojans faced their biggest
challenge up to that point at a tourna
ment in Kansas, where they played
bigger teams from bigger schools.
Even those teams couldn’t stop
them. Cambridge conquered Hoxie,
Kan., St. Francis, Kan., and finally
Oberlin, Kan., its toughest opponent
yet.
Coach Del Schoenfish said the
Kansas victories boosted the boys’
_ confidence to a new level.
“The kids finally realized, ‘Hey,
we’re not too bad. We can play with
anybody, and we can beat anybody.”
After that, the Trojans were invin
cible.
They slaughtered eight more teams
before meeting their biggest rival in
subdistricts: Republican Valley.
Cambridge sneaked past its rival
by only seven points, but that was
enough.
“We don’t like losing to them at
all,” says Carrie Jones, 17, one of
Cambridge’s seven cheerleaders.
“They get pumped for us and we get
pumped for them.”
After the victory against Republi
can Valley, only one team blocked the
Trojans’ road to the state tournament:
Grant.
Cambridge stole the trip to the tour
ney by two points in overtime.
Tim says the fans helped the Tro
jans edge past Grant.
“We were tired in overtime,” he
says. “Something from the fans kept
us going. Every time we were on de
fense, they started chanting. They were
in the game with us, cheering as loud
as they can.”
The Cambridge boys’ basketball
team follows a legacy of winning in a
town where sports are king and com
petition is a way of life.
In the last 1 1/2 years, Cambridge
has won six state championship titles.
The girls’ basketball team won its
third straight championship title last
weekend, setting a state record with
73 consecutive victories.
Earlier this year, the undefeated
football team brought home the Class
C-2 championship trophy.
In addition to the girls’ basketball
title, the Trojans claimed titles last
year in track and volleyball. They were
runners-up for the state golf title.
“We don’t like to lose,” Carrie
says. “It’s okay if you have to. You got
to lose sometimes.”
But in Cambridge,that doesn’thap
pen often.
“Everyone in our school has pres
sure to be competitive, to win,” Carrie
says.
About 90 percent of the students at
Cambridge High School participate in
sports.
Though Cambridge students excel
in other areas, including academics,
chorus and band, they are most known
for sports.
In Cambridge, sports are a big deal.
So big that the teachers won’t
schedule homework for athletes on
the day of a game.
So big that school administrators
call offclasseswhenoneoftheirteams
plays in the tournament.
So big that loyal fans save money
all winter to make the trip to the tour
nament.
“If our boys don’t win state basket
ball, I don’t know how we’ll handle
that,” Carrie says. “I mean, they
haven’t lost a game all year.”
***
But the tournament is more than
just basketball. It’scomingtoLincoln
to have fun, to be away from home, to
find adventure.
After the opening game, the Cam
bridge cheerleaders are ready for a
night on the town. After checking into
their room at the Hampton Inn and
freshening up, the five cheerleaders
pile into their red Suburban and head
to Rock ‘N Roll Runza for dinner.
From there, they’re off to Gateway
Mall.
Though they have traded in their
orange, black and white cheerleading
uniforms for jeans and sweatshirts,
the signs on the windows of the Subur
ban and the 38-county license plates
give them away.
The words “Honk for the Trojans”
and “Trojan cheerleaders” are taped
on the back windshield in orange let
ters. Signs reading “Take state Cam
bridge Trojans #1” decorate the side
windows along with orange paper cut
outs of the cheerleaders’ names.
Tonight, Tonya Ralston, Bobbie
Pace, Jenny Miller, Carrie Jones and
Lynette Phillips aren’t thinking about
basketball. On the way to the mall,
they giggle and gossip. John
Mellencamp’s song “Wild Nights”
comes on the radio and the girls pause
in mid-conversation to sing a line.
“Does anybody have orange and
black nail polish?” one asks.
“I do,” another responds, “at home.”
“Why didn’t you bring it?”
At the mall, the cheerleaders sepa
rate from their adult sponsor, Karen
Gottsch, and immediately go into
Claire’s to examine the merchandise.
“Hey Phil, get this,” says one of the
cheerleaders to Lynette as she holds
up a pink scrunchee used to pull long
hair back into a pony tail.
“Oh yeah,” responds Lynette, 17,
who has short brown hair.
Tonya, 17, a slim blonde with shoul
der-length hair and hazel eyes, puts on
a pair of sunglasses.
“Are they me?” she asks, taking a
chewed-up straw out of her mouth to
talk. “Should I get them or not?”
She studies herself in a mirror, then
makes her decision, “Yeah.”
The girls move quickly from store
to store.
“Geez Louise, I’m getting very
warm,” Lynette says as she takes off
her black and orange jacket that pro
claims Cambridge as the 1994 C-l
state girls' basketball champs.
“Are we gonna go roller skating
tonight,” Lynette asks as the group
walks through Lemer.
“No,” her friends respond. Know
ing how much Lynette wants to go
roller skating, someone in the group
tries to reassure her “There’s tomor
row night.”
“But what if we go home tomor
row?” Lynette asks.
“Why would we go home tomor
row?” another responds defensively.
“If we the L word,” Lynette says
quietly.
“Yeah, the four-letter L word,”
another echoes.
***
Back at the Hampton Inn about
9:30 p.m., basketball team members
lounge in the lobby.
After their victory, the team
watched another Class C-2 game,
which would determine the Trojan’s
opponent in the semifinals. It would
be Lincoln Christian.
