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BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
While attending an Elizabethton Cyclone basketball or football game over the last four years, more than likely one has noticed a young lady that has helped to keep the Cyclones pepped up especially when she does one of her tumbling runs.

That young lady was Sophia Paulson as the athletic young lady had the uncanny ability to do numerous summersaults springing from one to another with unbelievable speed and agility.

On Tuesday, Paulson was rewarded for all her hard work when she signed a National Letter of Intent to continue her cheering at Milligan University as a Buff cheerleader.

It was like coming home for Paulson especially since her mother, Ronda, had spent so much time coaching the cheer squad at the school until founding the Isaiah 117 House for foster children.

Paulson had always said that she wouldn’t cheer at the school until she took several visits to other schools including the University of Tennessee and deciding that nowhere felt like home as much as Milligan did.

“I love the atmosphere there,” said Paulson on her reasoning for signing. “They are faith-based teaching and I am really excited to be cheering there.

“It really feels like home because I grew up there. I feel like I know a lot of professors there and its super close to home which I like.”

Paulson will be studying Social Work at the school in part because of being involved with her mom’s non-profit.

“I help mom a ton with Isaiah 117 House and I have learned to love the foster care system and I want to help with that as much as I can,” Paulson said. “So with my degree in Social Work, I want to become a caseworker someday.”

Paulson added that cheering for Elizabethton has been an awesome experience especially working with her cheer coach Mrs. Ellis. She said she would miss her friends and cheer teammates from Elizabethton but looked forward to moving to the collegiate level as a student and cheerleader.