Kast gets big lift with state cheer coach award

SHAWANO - Mary Kast, Shawano Community High School cheer coach, took home the Coach of the Year Award from the Wisconsin Association for Cheer/Pom Coaches (WACPC) at its state cheer competition in Watertown in February.

Coaches, current and past team members, parents, administrators, Shawano’s high school athletic director, boosters, and family nominated Kast for the honor by submitting news articles, letters of recommendations, profiles and photos in the fall of 2019.

A panel of administrators, guidance counselors and cheer/dance coaches selected her. According to the WACPC, one element to earning the Coach of the Year is being enthusiastic and dedicated to making their program fun, safe, and educational for each member.

In writing about Kast, Lisa and Georgia Eggert, who are involved with the cheer team, said, “Mary enjoys the challenge. She finds coaching opportunities when things don’t go as planned. Mary feels we all learn more about ourselves when things go awry. She cannot remember every win or state placement but she can remember the times when she had to lead her teams through adversity, challenges and disappointments.”

“I was totally surprised and a little speechless. Actually, I was glad I didn’t have to make a speech,” Kast said. “Competitive cheerleading is really addicting. I don’t know how else to say it.”

The key to the success of Kast’s teams as been in finding the balance between creativity and athleticism, she said.

Confessing she can talk about cheerleading all day, Kast said her teams aim to be as entertaining as possible every time they take to the floor for their 2½ minutes in the “cheer routine” or “game day routine” categories.

She takes pride in having a top-rated program.

“You don’t need to be a Division 1 school to be competitive,” Kast said.

In Shawano, incoming freshmen have had little experience or even exposure to cheering in contrast to other cities with programs for younger children, she said.

“It’s a sport that we have to teach really from the beginning to try to become competitive every year,” she added.

Kast has been a cheer coach for 18 years, starting with four years at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano. She applied for an assistant coach position when her daughter showed an interest in cheerleading. The first Sacred Heart competition was all it took to get her and her daughter totally hooked in the sport, she remembered.

The school took first place in the competition but Kast also remembers their peer teams chose Sacred Heart to win the spirit award for good sportsmanship and school spirit that season.

Kast has been coach of the SCHS varsity coed cheer team for the past 14 years. Kast added coaching for Green Bay Elite three years ago.

“All they do is competitive cheerleading,” she said of the private Elite program.

She enrolled her daughter in the Elite program but also took advantage of the learning opportunities for her coaching.

She has emphasized good sportsmanship as a core element of her program. Kast noted that is also a part of what she called “the cheer community where no one wants to see another team fail.”

When her daughter wanted to continue to cheer at the high school level, Kast first had to create the program, offering to do it at no charge. After overcoming some resistance and then footing the bill for team uniforms, her first year attracted enough attention that she had 60 students turn out for the following year’s tryouts. Cheering became a letter sport in its second year.

The high school became coed in 2010 when a transfer student, who had cheered for his previous school, wanted to try out. Kast agreed and SCHS has since competed in all coed divisions at competitions.

SCHS has multiple state placings and has advanced 12 times to state finals.

Kast’s athletes who have gone on to cheer at the collegiate level include Christian Krueger, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Payten Marohl and Alli Raddant, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh; Mariah Ruehle, Kale McHugh and Hayley McHugh, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; Brandon Bolin, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point; Adrianna Lonick, University of Minnesota; and Elseana Panzer, St. Catherine’s, Florida.