Courtney Hurst: Pea Ridge Cheer Setting The Standard | Varsity Vibe

After being a Pea Ridge cheerleader herself, Courtney Hurst knew she wanted to return to her hometown and continue being part of the Blackhawk family. 

Since taking over as Head Coach, she has grown the program into a State and National Championship winner. She sits down with Alyssa Orange to discuss how proud she is to see the program excel and what it's like coaching her daughter.  

Transcript

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Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Varsity Vibe. I'm your host, Alyssa Warrenton. As always, it is great to be with you. Hope your summer is going well. Hope you're getting out there, getting some sun, maybe having some vacation days and really enjoying yourselves during this offtime of high school athletics. Of course, we've got a lot to look forward to once August gets here, fall camp gets ramped up for football teams and all the fall sports around the state. But right now, everyone just kind of enjoying some downtime. Really excited to share the conversation that I had today with head coach for P Ridge cheerleading Courtney Hearst, taking over the program after being a cheerleader herself at P Ridge and really just wanting to be a part of the Blackhawks family, a family that has meant so much to her and her own family as well. She started off as an assistant coach and then became the head coach not too long ago and has done a really good job to continue to build P Ridge cheerleading into a powerhouse around the state. Not only have they won three straight state championships, but they've also won a national championship and they look like they are not slowing down any time soon. So I hope you enjoy this conversation with P Ridge cheerleading head coach Courtney Hurst. Let's kind of talk about where it all started. Um, I know that you you went to P Ridge and you went to the University of Arkansas, but uh getting into coaching and and wanting to coach, uh, where where did that initially start for you?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Uh well, I cheered in high school uh for P Ridge. And so I have generation rich roots in P Ridge. My family was one of the families that has long-standing generational traditions and like rooted deep in P Ridge. And so it was only natural, I think, to come back here and to give back um because of my family and just to uh continue that uh tradition, uh not because I had to, but because I wanted to. And then with that, you know, just carrying um just the pride and the loyalty of being a black hawk. And uh, you know, I loved being a cheerleader and just carrying that spirit, and I it was just natural for me to do that and to pick up the coaching aspect of that. And then so with that, I had the opportunity to come in and to coach. And so I did. And I came in and I I uh had a couple of years under a lady named uh Brenda Fuller, and she decided to quit coaching whenever her daughter graduated, which only made perfect sense. And so I took the program over, I think back in 20 or 2016, I think. And then we're just kind of off to the races, and at that time, um, competition just like competitive cheer was just beginning to uh take off, especially for Congridge. And so we were starting to kind of dabble in that at the time, didn't really know what to do. Um, and so we just kind of played around in that for a little while. Uh uh competition and then getting somebody to come in and do your choreography and to mix your music, it was expensive. We did a lot of it on our own back in the day, and we use a lot of local resources, and so uh we've learned over the years, um, you know, and we've also had great successes and a lot of support. And but we did a lot of it on our own. And so um that also helped, you know, us learn um how to coach better and how to to be hands-on and how to to do a lot of be self-sufficient, but then over the years, you know, to be more competitive, you have to have more resources and you know, and help put people in place um to help the program grow. Uh so with that, so I've just been um in the coaching scene for a while and then surrounded myself with people uh with like-minded uh uh goals and uh morals and values of coaching and and have created a small coaching team with me for successes on sideline and coaching uh competitively. And we've created quite a program. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Not saying that, you know, winning anyway is not sweet, you know, but to be able to kind of see how all the hard work and like you talked about, kind of doing things on your own and kind of very grassroots startup a little bit with the cheer team to see the success in the state championships and those trophies start to collect and you guys establish yourselves. That was one of the best programs in the state. Uh, how rewarding has that journey been for you?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

It's been very rewarding just to see the successes that have paid off uh for a lot of the kids to go cheer at the next level and for that to develop into scholarships to help them to go to college and to be successful and to uh be generational changers and um to get that college degree and to make a difference and to go on and to just to have a different level of education through the avenue of cheerleading. Also, besides just winning the uh the competitive level, just to have the success on the sideline and to develop those relationships and not only successful competitively to winning, because winning is great, don't get me wrong, but winning in life and to have those relationships where that you can uh have friendships afterwards, where that you are getting the text messages and the Facebook messages of hey Coach Hurst, I'm getting married, send me your address. I want you to come to my wedding, or I'm having a baby, I want you to come to my baby shower, or my, you know, those those are the those are the big successes of the continuance of um them still wanting to have a friendship, uh continuing relationship uh past the athlete coach, but more of a friendship continuation in life afterwards as well. Those are very sweet and dear to my heart.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yeah, I love that you bring up the fact that a lot of the girls that you've coached over the years have gone on to have scholarships and cheerleading because I think that that's something people don't think about sometimes when you think about sports and and where you know athletes are signing to go, but but cheerleading too now is is something that you can go and and have a career in on the collegiate level and get scholarships from. And I think that that's something important that a lot of people don't realize that that you can have a collegiate scholarship in cheerleading.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Yes, very much so, and they take very good care of you too, um, in that aspect as well. Lots of networking. Um, it is definitely a sport that is that you are very, very well taken care of, and just like any other uh collegiate sport when you when you put teams together over the years, um, you know, at this point, I'm sure it's competitive to just make the team in general.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Um, so what what do you look for when you look for these athletes to join your team? Um, whether that be on the competitive side or on the sideline side, like you mentioned, you know, what makes um a successful cheerleader to be on your on your squad?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

Yeah, so we're really fortunate that we have a lot of interests at P Redge. And it's actually pretty twofold because we have developed such a great uh competitive program and a great sideline program. And so with that said, we have uh two different options, if you will. So for sideline, we have the the cheerleaders that want to bring the energy and they want to bring the fun and on the the Friday nights at the games and they want to bring the stomp and the loud and the chaos um during basketball season. And there's some that have no interest in competition and they just want to make the memories uh for high school cheer. And we love that. We want to bring the energy, we want to bring the fun, and we want to make the memories. And then we have the ones that are competitively driven, and they are they want to bring the skill set, they have the tumbling, they have the jumps, they have the enthusiasm, the emotions, the facials, they understand the difficult uh stunt sequences, they get it, they understand trick stunts, trick flying, and all the the rubric score sheet. And then we have the ones that do both, and so they do the overlap and they just cheer. They cheer sideline, they cheer competitive, and that is what they do. And so we have some that do sideline only. We have some, most of them that are multi-sport athletes. I have varsity volleyball players, I have varsity football players, I have seven football players, like my co-ed, I have seven, I have like the pretty much the whole O-line, the um O-line men that are my um on my competitive team. And uh so they will, they're very competition driven. And then I have some that do both. And with that, you know, I will be able to send during competition season, I will be able to send a sideline team to uh our basketball games, and then while we're competing, and we haven't been able to do that in the past, but now we're growing, which is such a blessing because of the interest, and we're being able to have more students involved that we are we are able to have two kids. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

How fun has it been to watch it just grow in general and just be a part of it and and to be able to see um the enthusiasm and and you mentioned the growth over the years since you've been there.

SPEAKER_00 11:02

It's been quite a compliment, you know, like you just take something that you're just so passionate about in your hometown, and you just want to create a program that kids are just genuinely excited about and they just want to be a part of. And you know that when kids are excited about something and they are a part of something, it's so good for them. And whenever that they're showing up and they're just working, they're you know, they're showing up and they're accountable, and you know, they're working on that teamwork and they're working on all those soft skills, and you know where they are, and they're a part of something greater than themselves. You know, one, it's keeping them out of trouble, it's keeping them safe, and it's just so much better for them overall to grow. It's just such a big compliment, I think, and just to see the the growth and um the interest that the kids are having and the the things that they are doing in the community, and then the interest uh, you know, for um the community um is pouring into these kids, you know. The community reaches out and says, Hey, do you have a cheerleader that can come work with my my my kiddo on jumps or on tumbling, or hey, do you have a trusted uh cheerleader? Um, I need a babysitter for Friday night, you know, and so it's all of these opportunities that are fed into our program that our community sees. And so we're just using this avenue just to really cultivate these really great young adults, you know, just through the avenue of cheerleader, but just all of these character building. And so it's really a great just to see it come to life and just to grow, it really has just been it's just it's blessed my heart, really.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, and speaking of community, I know you guys recently had your cheer camp where you had, you know, a bunch of little girls in the gym. I'm sure it was organized chaos. Uh, but those camps are fun too. And as you mentioned, developing them as as uh leaders on and off um the competition floor. Um, how fun is it to be in those environments giving back to to the younger generation?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Yeah, I always tell my I always tell my my olders, I'm like, this is an opportunity to make that connection because you leave a legacy, you know, and what type of legacy do you want to leave? If you're always leaving something, so what type of legacy do you want to leave? These children may not remember their names, but by golly, they're gonna remember their face and they're going to remember how they felt. And you know, and whenever they see them out at the store or they see them pumping gas or they see them at the game on the Friday night, whenever the little girls are standing against the fence watching every move that they make, they're gonna remember them and how that they felt and how that they were treated. And so it's always, you know, what type of legacy do you want to leave? Like you hold that, you hold that, you know, in in your hands. And so it's just very important, you know, what type of tradition um and legacy are you wanting to pass down because they were once there.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Yeah. And it's been special the last couple of years being able to coach your daughter. How fun has that been?

unknown 14:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

So actually, yeah, for sure. So I have I have two daughters. I have one going into the eighth grade, and then I have one that's a senior. And it's been really nice. It's been really fun to coach, uh, to coach both of them, having one directly on my team. Um, it's been very sweet, you know, it's just something that we've been able to um, just a sweet connection that we've been able to share. You know, sometimes, you know, it's a little kind of, you know, um, you know, there's no special treatment given. I can promise you that. You know, it's it's light the fire and get it done, but it is something that I would not trade for the world. It's definitely a special memory that we will always have together for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Varsity Vibe. Really hope you enjoyed that conversation with Courtney Hurst. And I know that the P Ridge cheerleading squads have such a bright future ahead of them as they look for number four when it comes to state championships. And if you've missed any of the conversations that we've had here on the varsity vibe podcast, go check them out. You can just head to our YouTube channel and listen to any that you've missed over the last couple of weeks or months. And then, of course, if you listen to it on podcast form, you can check those out wherever you get your podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter as well. Just go to varsityvibearkansal.com and you can sign up for the newsletter. That comes to your inbox twice a week, keeps you updated on everything happening in high school athletics around the state of Arkansas, as well as make sure to follow us on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Facebook. Got great content for you there as well on all of our social media platforms. Once again, thank you so much for joining us here on Varsity Vive. I'm your host, Alyssa Orange, and I will see you next time.

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