It all started with a single wish. Trevon Holt wanted to learn how to do a backflip. The Bixby senior figured the best way to accomplish that goal was to learn from those who had already mastered it.
Already a successful member of the Spartan football and baseball team, Holt landed the backflip in no time and elected to add a third sport to his resume: cheerleading.
“I asked some of the cheerleaders if they could teach me,” recalled Holt. “And it was like, ‘Hey you got this far in 30 minutes, you should think about doing cheer with us.’ I decided I didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity that I’d regret later, so I decided to go for it.”
Once he decided to give it a try, he went to head football coach Loren Montgomery to see if he minded trying two sports during the fall season.
“I went to him with Coach (Stephanie) Blackwell, our cheer coach, and I told him this was something that I was interested in doing,” said Holt. “He said as long as it didn’t come between football and I stayed healthy, he was okay with it. He was really good about it.”
“I went with him to talk to Coach Montgomery to see how we could work it out,” recalled Blackwell, who is also the Director of Athletic Programs at Bixby. “We understood that football came first. I wanted to know how I could get him and how we could work it out and have him make the team.”
Bixby has been ranked number one in Class 6A-II all season long and Holt has been a key contributor to the team. He’s intercepted two passes from his starting safety position and recently had a big game at wide receiver against Booker T. Washington, logging six catches for 137 yards and a touchdown.
“Our athletes, we want them to play multiple sports,” stated Montgomery. “This is one that could conflict with football, but Trevon is a responsible young man and does a good job working around our schedule. We encourage him to go compete.”
It takes quite a competitor to keep up with Holt’s schedule. As soon as football practice is over, he quickly changes and immediately heads to cheer practice. In fact, he’s one of five guys on the cheer squad, including four on varsity.
“We’ve won three co-ed state championships,” said Blackwell. “This year we have two soccer players, a football player, a golfer and a baseball player.”
After a few months of competing in cheer, Holt has discovered there are some similarities between the two sports.
“Everything in cheer is about technique, as well as on the football field,” remarked Holt. “It’s not always about the strength of the guy. It’s about finessing how you do it and which technique that you use. It’s a lot of the same things.”
“It’s definitely harder than I thought it would be,” added Holt. “There’s always something new popping up, different skills coming up that you want to try. It’s always interesting.”
Holt had the opportunity to compete with the cheer squad at the OSSAA Large School Co-Ed State Cheer competition in October, as well as the OSSAA Gameday Cheer competition in early November. He plans to cheer during basketball season until baseball season begins.
“Everyone’s very supportive of me,” said Holt. “Sometimes the guys will give me a hard time, but they support me through everything that I do. If this is something that interests somebody, I’m always there to encourage them and to say try it.”
The Bixby Spartans play their final regular season game this week when they play host to district rival Muskogee live on Yurview Cox Channel 3 on Friday, November 8th at 7pm. This Ford Game of the Week will also be streamed live on Yurview.com.
