BY BRYCE PHILLIPS

STAR STAFF

bryce.phillips@elizabethton.com

Elizabethton High School senior cheerleader Chelsie Isaacs has decided to continue her career in the high-flying and gravity-defying sport. In front of teammates, friends and family, the cheerleading base committed to cheer for the ETSU Buccaneers at a signing Thursday at EHS.

For Isaacs, it is bittersweet to leave the school she has called home for the past four years, but she is ready, she said.

“I am definitely ready to turn a new stone,” Isaacs said. “I can’t wait to experience college and to see what it has in store for me.”

The future Lady Buc is not to sure what she wants to study at ETSU, but she us considering a major in social work, citing the fact that she likes to help people. And during her time as a Lady Cyclone, Isaacs participated in many fundraisers for a variety of causes.

“I love people,” she said. “I love to help, and anything I can do the lend a hand to someone else, that is what I strive to do.”

Isaacs has been cheering since she was little girl, and ever since she started, the sport has drawn her in.

“When I was little, I just loved the thought of being a cheerleader,” she said. “I just fell in love with the sport. It consumed me.”

Many may think cheerleading is easy, but, according to Isaacs, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“It takes dedication,” she said. “You have to be really peppy. You have to be able to put yourself out there in front of a crowd, and just smile and cut up and have fun.”

“You also have to be able to commit to teamwork,” she added. “Because being able to work in a stunt group and being able to get along with a whole group of girls, because you know how girls can be, can be difficult.”

Isaacs, who has spent most of her cheer leading career lifting flyers in the air, can attest to the claim that cheer leading is one of the most dangerous high school sports.

“You have stunts that fall and hit you in the face,” she said with a laugh. “You have to learn to get back up and wipe the bloody nose or hide the bruise. You have to get back in the saddle and keep going for it.” Before she could join the ETSU cheer squad, Isaacs had to go through a two-day try out.

“You just go in there cheer in front of judges,” she said. “You just have to give it all that you’ve got. They just see if they like you, and if you make the cut, you make the cut.”

During her time at EHS, Isaacs cheered under coach Susan Dugger, and Dugger said she could not be prouder of Isaacs.

“She has worked really hard,” Dugger said. “I have really seen her progress over the last three years, so I’m am really excited that she has chosen to cheer here at ETSU and to make that commitment.”

Isaac is very grateful to have cheered under the leadership of Dugger, she said.

“She is a great coach,” Isaacs said. “I could not have done everything that I have achieved without her.”