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FEATURED ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Addie Reeves, North Putnam
Addie Reeves is a senior cheerleader at North Putnam. She won the Outstanding Senior Cheerleader competition at last summer’s county fair.
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Banner Graphic: The routine that you did in the county fair cheerleader competition looked very difficult. How long did it take to put that together and practice it?
Addie Reeves: “I started out with kind of looking at other girls’ routines that I had seen in the past. One of my previous friends [Samantha Atwood] has been one of my inspirations, and she won. Jacy Holtze from North Putnam also won one year. I thought I had to win it, and I went to one of my former coaches [Alicia Laflin]. She came up with some things, and I came up with some things. My main goal was to make it my own. I wanted to do some things that would make it more about me than just focusing on my skills. I wanted to make the judges remember me. I was really hoping they would. I knew I had nailed it, but I knew that a girl from Greencastle [Layna Robinson] is a great cheerleader and I knew she would be hard to beat.”
BG: The routine looks difficult because you are saying a cheer while doing a variety of gymnastics moves (cartwheels, flips, somersaults, etc.). What is the most important thing — what you say or what you do?
AR: “It’s both. The outstanding cheerleader senior award is more about you, your personality and confidence. You want to display those in your cheer. You want to show your tumbling and your skills, but they want to see how outstanding that you are and that you love to do your cheer. It’s difficult, for sure. Over the summer my coach did a really good job of conditioning us to yell while we were moving, and so we can talk loudly enough. During our routine, we actually look at the crowd and ask them to yell while we’re tumbling.”
BG: You were originally in the class of 2019, but you are graduating next spring a year early. What are your plans for after that?
AR: “My classes have been super hard since my freshman year, and I have been ahead on credits my whole career. I looked at it, and I was only going to need to take a couple of classes my senior year — so I just decided to take them this year and graduate. I hope to go to the University of Southern Indiana next fall. I’m not sure I exactly what I want to major in, but I really am leaning toward psychology and getting a master’s in early childhood psychology.”
BG: What other sports do you or have you participated in?
AR: “I plan on being on the dance team this year, and I ran track my freshman year. I am thinking about doing that again.”
BG: What kinds of things do you do when you’re not at school?
AR: “I work at McDonald’s, which takes up a lot of my time. During the winter, to keep me occupied since I don’t play a sport, I manage the boys’ basketball team. That’s a lot of fun. I have a horse that I show in 4-H, and I am constantly at the barn with him. I listen to all kinds of music, and I definitely like watching shows like ‘Shameless’ on Netflix. I watch movies, but no certain kind.”
BG: What is your greatest fear?
AR: “Spiders. Every time I see a spider I want to curl up in a little ball and cry.”
BG: What are your favorite and least favorite foods?
AR: “My favorite food is cookie dough. My least favorite would have to be broccoli.”
BG: What is something you have never done before that you would like to do someday?
AR: “Skydiving. I love the thrill of rollercoasters, and I would love to experience that in the air. Once I did something at an amusement park where I was dropped in freefall on a bungee cord or some kind of cable, and that was amazing.”
BG: Do you have any other pets besides the horse?
AR: “I have two cats and three dogs. My cats are mixed breeds, one named Mitty and one Patch. I have two mixed breed dogs named Izzy and another named Barkley. My favorite dog is a golden retriever and husky mix, and he name is Daisy. She looks like a blonde fox. They are all rescues.”
BG: Do you plan on returning to live in Putnam County someday, or do you plan to live elsewhere?
AR: “I want to travel and go to a few different places. I feel that for some reason I will be drawn back to Indiana because of the slow pace. I was born in North Carolina, and I would like to go back down there at some point, then hopefully come back to Indiana.”
BG: Besides the cheerleading contest, what have been some of your other highlights at North Putnam?
AR: “I haven’t really been involved in that much, but one of the favorite things I have done is coming in early or staying after and talking to the teachers. Mr. [Joseph] Cialkowsky is my favorite teacher ever, and he is like my ‘life counselor’. Other kids in the classes love him too. I enjoy the time we spend together talking and communicating together. Mrs. [Kate] Skirvin is almost like a mom to us. The teachers have been the highlight of my time at North Putnam.”