Four members of the cheer ‘quad squad’ are four-time champs

Four Notre Dame students who just graduated last month are leaving behind many friends and teachers; they also are leaving behind a legacy of athletic success never matched at the school.

Caroline Hauck, Grace Mackey, Jenny Redoutey and Anne Seyferth are heading to college in the fall — Hauck and Seyferth to the University of Michigan, Mackey and Redoutey to MSU. Besides an education in academics from one of the state’s top high schools, the four also are taking to college an education in hard work, teamwork and perseverance — qualities that ultimately led them as team members to participate in an unprecedented four straight state championships in cheer for NDP. 
 
Note: Cheer team member Sarah Nantel, also in the Class of 2017, came in as a transfer her freshmen year and was ineligible to compete due to the MHSAA transfer rule. 

“Being part of the group that has earned four state championships in a row is pretty indescribable,” said Seyferth, who is leaning toward a biology major at U-M. “Every year was a harder and harder battle, but having people who were there from the beginning made the journey a little easier.”
 
The fourth in Grand Rapids
 
Notre Dame Prep came into the 2017 state finals as the three-time defending champion in D-3 with Richmond finishing second the last two years. Last season, the Irish scored 775.48 points to Richmond’s 765.86. In 2014, Notre Dame defeated Comstock Park to win the state title. Richmond was state champion in 2012 and 2013 and finished second to Comstock Park in 2011.

On March 4 at the DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids, it came down to the two teams who met in districts and again in regionals. But this time, the final results were flipped as the Irish, coached by Beth Campbell, led wire-to-wire and finished off Richmond with 781.56 points to win the school’s fourth consecutive competitive cheer state championship.
 
“It takes a lot of discipline to do it one year, let alone four,” Seyferth said. “But the people I have met and the memories we made together made the difficult times so much easier and 100-percent worth it. I am lucky to share this bond and incredible experience with these three other girls.”
 
Unmatched
 
For Campbell, the past four years of championship trophies with Notre Dame were the best of her now 19 years of coaching.
 
“The time I spent with this group of seniors was the most exciting of all,” she said. “Most would think it was because of all the winning, but I can assure you it was not. There is no greater joy for a coach than to watch athletes set, reach and surpass goals, whatever they may be!”
 
Campbell said this group of four came in as freshmen hoping to make the team and left as four-time state champions and “legends in the cheer world.” 
 
“For four years, these girls did everything I asked of them,” Campbell said. “They sacrificed time with family and friends to achieve our goals. Their achievements are unmatched in the history of the school and they have set a bar to which all athletes can aspire.”
 
Grace Mackey said even though those achievements finished up way back in March, it still doesn’t feel real.

 “It seems like it was only yesterday that I was a freshmen and didn't even know what ‘states’ meant,” she said. “It's crazy to think that most high school athletes don't even make it to the state finals let alone win it four times in a row.” 
 
It’s all still unreal for Jenny Redoutey, too. 
 
“Knowing that I was one of the cheerleaders who’ve won a state championship all four years of high school continues to be surreal. Since my class was a part of the first state championship winning cheer team for Notre Dame, we were able to learn from the example of the upperclassmen before us and experience the level of drive and discipline that it takes to just get to a state championship.”
 
Not without the coach
 
And just getting to the states, noted all four girls, would not have been possible without their head coach. They also said that if not for the intangibles their coach brought to every practice and game, there likely would not have been even one championship, let alone four. 

 

 “Coach Beth has been one of the biggest role models in my life for the past four years, next to my parents,” said Hauck, who will be entering U-M’s pre-med program in the fall. “She has taught me dedication, how to set goals and accomplish them, and countless other life lessons. I feel so lucky to have been a part of Coach Beth’s team because it feels amazing to look back on all we’ve accomplished with some of my best friends.”
 
Seyferth said she too owes nearly everything to her coach.
 
“Coming in freshman year, I was nowhere near ready to be on a varsity-level team,” she said. “But Coach Beth saw the potential in me and turned me into something I would never have thought I could be. When you spend upwards of nine months of the year with someone almost every single day, they are bound to have a massive impact on you. Coach Beth did just that, and I am forever grateful for it. I would not be the person I am today without the opportunities and experiences she gave me. We were so lucky to have someone who cared about the team as much as she did. None of our accomplishments would have been possible without her.”
 
Redoutey, who will be studying public affairs and international relations at MSU in the fall, also is effusive when discussing her coach.

“Coach Beth has been such an amazing influence to me and has helped me to become the person I am today. The love and dedication that she pours into the NDP cheer program is unbelievable, and I am incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to have her as a coach for the past four years.” 
 
Strive for five?
 
Campbell soon will begin work on the 2018 edition of Notre Dame’s competitive cheer team and hopefully a fifth state trophy. But she still cannot get over what the last four years brought to her and to her team, especially the “quad squad,” which included Hauck, Mackey, Redoutey, Seyferth as well as fellow seniors Sarah Nantel, Brooke Ringler and Katie Boncore.
 
“Joining the NDP cheer team mere months after a crushing state finals defeat, those freshmen in the summer of 2013 had wide eyes and high expectations,” Campbell said. “Over the next four years, they rose to every challenge put before them. They worked harder than they could have imagined and they grew up to be senior leaders who refused to lose their last time on the mat at what they would come to call ‘home,’ The DeltaPlex in Grand Rapids.”
 
Campbell added that the seniors on the team achieved more than they expected as freshmen that first summer but no less than they expected when they walked into the gym every day to compete.
 
“Their smiles bright, their tucks stuck, and their bows held high, those five girls walked away four-time MHSAA state champions,” she said. “And I couldn’t be any more prouder of them.”

---

Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
 
Follow Notre Dame on Twitter at @NDPMA.
 
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.