Business Spotlight: Something to Cheer About

Matt Harris has spirit.

He’s been in cheerleading since 1995, cheered in college at Southwest Baptist University to All-American status and coached the Missouri State University Cheer Squad the last year.

Today, he owns and operates Elite Athletics LLC, a cheerleading training gym for competitive teams and area universities. EA serves as the cheerleading training gym for Evangel and Drury universities, along with Harris’ MSU squad.

Harris got into the business in mid-2014, when Doug Lutz wanted to unload his Springfield Elite Cheer & Dance. The cheering school was struggling and Harris, who was familiar with the program, took it over from Lutz with no capital outlay.

Harris quickly rebranded as EA Cheer and invested a few thousand dollars in equipment upgrades. Even though student volumes doubled to finish the year, the business recorded less than $20,000 in 2014 revenue. Harris says the potential is to at least double the financial and student output.

His first step is merging with Galaxy Elite Cheer in Republic, a competitor but one that largely serves cheerleaders in western Greene County. The two outfits each train about 50 students.

EA’s 8,000-square-foot gym is on the east side of town, near Cherry Street and U.S. Highway 65. With a May 1 expected closing date for the no-cash merger, Harris and soon-to-be business partners Jeff and Pearl Harth are searching for a centrally located gym.

“We’ll have a bigger talent pool,” Harris says, noting the Harths will handle administration and he’ll focus on coaching. “We’re looking at some locations now. We have time to look for what we want.”

One key aspect is an extra 10 feet of ceiling height. EA’s gym has 20-foot ceilings, and Harris says 30 feet is optimal to practice basket tosses and other stunts.

“It sounds really high, but it’s not when you start throwing people in the air,” he says.

The parties are combining assets and clientele to build more competitive teams and raise their skill levels.

Harris says EA coaches currently work with five competitive cheer squads, with full and limited travel programs. Teams are judged in levels 1-5, and competitions range from the Midwest Nationals on Feb. 14 at the Branson Convention Center to annual high school nationals at Disney World in Florida.

Harris says EA will arrange for nine traveling competitions this year.

The sport is growing, according to the Universal Cheerleaders Association. A record 12,000 cheerleaders from 645 teams participated in nationals Feb. 7-8 in Orlando, Fla. The competitions are airing on ESPNU and ESPN2 beginning in late March.

“It’s a changing sport,” Harris says.

He’s quick to point out collegiate cheerleading is a serious sport and, typically, guys and girls are equally involved. Each of the 10 guys and 10 girls are on scholarship at MSU.

The recent rise in popularity might be attributable to popular cheerleading movies, such as “Fired Up!” and the “Bring It On” series. However, Harris defends the stereotypes often explored on the big screen.

“Movies usually reinforce stereotypes on the sexual preferences of guys and the way people perceive cheerleaders. Most of that’s not true,” he says.

At MSU, cheerleading is under the athletics department, and he says team members are held to the same practice and academic standards as other university athletes. His team puts in two-hour daily practices for conditioning and skills. Football game days might keep the team busy for up to 12 hours, with pregame festivities and maybe a volleyball match afterward, and basketball is usually a three-to-four-hour commitment on game days.

During the school year, he says the MSU squad averages at least 20 hours a week in practices and games.

At Drury, head coach Ashley Parnell has led the team to two Top 10 finishes at UCA College Nationals, and last year, the squad placed third in the World University Competition.

Evangel coach Kevin Kolstad says he was brought on last year to rebuild the cheer program he participated on as a student in the late 1980s. Evangel’s coed cheer squad has had up to 30 members, and it’s currently at 23.

“I felt the program had really declined,” says Kolstad, who runs a local Frontier Adjusters insurance office and was originally brought in to consult on how to rebuild. “That led to a job offer.”

The team practices a couple hours a week at EA and is gearing up for an upcoming National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competition.

“Cheerleading is a big draw,” Kolstad says. “Universities are smart to build any of those programs, because ultimately that’s tuition.”

Before the collegiate level, most cheer on traveling teams.

Individuals on EA’s traveling All-Star teams pay $100 monthly tuition to participate in required practices. Harris says private cheer lessons also are available, for $40 an hour, as well as individual tumbling classes, at $40 per month.

EA employs about a half-dozen cheerleading coaches, including Harris’ wife, Heather, and a few tumbling coaches.

“The core is training teams, but also that includes individuals to be on the teams based on their skills,” he says. “It’s kind of like gymnastics with its different levels.”[[In-content Ad]]