Rising Star/South Georgia/November 2013
Katelin Stecz and Destiny Roe
Pine Grove Middle School
Valdosta, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Talented eighth graders stick together in sports and in the classroom
Pine Grove Middle School eighth-graders Katelin Stecz and Destiny Roe are inseparable. Seldom will you see one without the other. They cheer together, run cross country together, study together, talk running when they’re studying, and talk schoolwork when they’re running. The girls are ultra competitive but only against opposing teams, never against each other. To them, participation in athletics is an extension of their friendship, another avenue through which they can enjoy each other’s company. And given the number of sports they play, they certainly spend a lot of time together.The sports Stecz and Roe have chosen to play cover almost the entire year. They run cross country and track, and they cheer – both on Pine Grove’s brand new competition team and on the sidelines for the football program.
The girls grew up running and have logged thousands of miles over the years. Competition cheerleading is new to both. Pine Grove has never had a competition cheer team prior to this year. To prepare for their first season as competition cheerleaders, Stecz and Roe spent the summer training for the demands their new pursuit would place on their bodies.Competition cheering wasn’t completely new to Stecz. She had a little gymnastics in her background. Roe had never done any kind of gymnastics, tumbling, or anything similar. To her, everything would be brand new. One of the primary concerns with cheerleading in general but competition cheering in particular is the risk of injury. Cheerleading has one of the highest incidence rates of injury of any sport, male or female, and the injuries cheerleaders suffer tend to be more serious than those of other athletes. To reduce the ever present danger of injuries, the girls had to learn the right way to cheer.“We learned a lot this summer. It was very humbling. I didn’t know cheerleading would be this hard,” says Stecz.
Roe is a flyer who also spends time at base. Stecz is strictly a base. Neither position is particularly safe. The flyers are the ones who do the acrobatics. If they don’t come down properly or their bases don’t catch them correctly, both flyers and bases can end up with very serious injuries. Though she supported her daughter’s decision to cheer completely, Melissa Roe, Destiny’s mother, had plenty of concerns. “My biggest concern was Destiny getting hurt.
The girls have learned a lot and they have really improved. But both are 
runners and I don’t want either one to hurt an ankle, knee, or foot cheering,” she says. For the most part, the girls have remained injury free, with the exception of a few kicks to the nose and bruises.Pine Grove has three competitions on its schedule this season. The first was an 11-team competition at Lowndes High School. To say it was overwhelming for the girls would be quite an understatement. Competition cheer teams from all over South Georgia and North Florida were there. Pine Grove finished eighth. Nobody got hurt and it was a tremendous learning experience for everyone. “I thought it would be different. It was a lot scarier than I imagined,” says Stecz.The team took away a lot of positives from that first competition. “We hit every routine. We didn’t miss anything and we didn’t drop anyone,” says Roe. The girls have truly excelled in running. Both are accomplished runners in cross country and track. Cross country in particular gives them the opportunity to hang out while they train and compete. When they are running, they make sure to stay together, even during races. Stecz and Roe have an understanding – one will finish a step or two ahead of the other in one race, and in the next, the other will finish in front. “They are always running together.
In their last few meets, they finished seventh and eighth, and fourth and fifth. They encourage each other and never leave each other behind,” says Melissa Roe.Their two-mile personal bests are one second apart: 12:34 and 12:35. “We want to have fun, relax, and set new PRs. We also like to stay in the top five,” says Stecz.Destiny Roe and Stecz are excellent students who are as attentive to their schoolwork as they are their athletics. School comes easy to them, though there are times when they have to buckle down and hit the books. When those times come, they simply do whatever it takes to finish their work. “They study together and talk about school work all the time. They feed off each other and are perfect for each other,” says Melissa Roe.When the girls reach high school, they both say they would like to continue running and cheering. If that is not possible and they are forced to make a choice, they will cross that bridge when they get to it. For the time being, they are learning their new sport and working on getting faster at their old one. They are working hard, improving each day, and enjoying every minute of it. Just like friends should.
Katelin Stecz and Destiny Roe are two of the top cross country runners in the area. Their talent for running extends to the track as well. Last year, Roe won region in the 800 meters and finished third in the mile while Stecz finished fourth in both events. They both run the 800 meters, the mile, and the 4×400 relay. This track season, they hope to be even faster.
Favorites:
• Sport you wish you could play
o Katelin: Soccer
o Destiny: Soccer
• Person to meet
o Katelin: Gabby Douglas
o Destiny: Usain Bolt
• Pepsi or Coke?
o Katelin: Pepsi
o Destiny: Coke
• Superpower
o Katelin: Fly
o Destiny: Invisibility
• Place to travel
o Katelin: The world
o Destiny: Brazil
• Food
o Katelin: Steak
o Destiny: Strawberries
