Senior MaKenna Curry is a varsity cheerleader for football and competition, and she is the student athlete of the week of August 25.

MaKenna started cheering when she was seven years old. She said, “My mom has [been] a big part of my cheer career. Ever since I started she has pushed me to do my best each and every day.” Former coaches have also been an important part in MaKenna’s career. She said one of her coaches was “insane” about perfection. MaKenna said, “When we did our whole routine, if you missed a motion, dropped a stunt, busted or omitted a tumbling pass, then you got whatever he was holding in his hand at that time thrown at you.” She said her team learned to never mess up unless you wanted a nice huge bruise.

Since MaKenna is a part of both football cheer and competition cheer, she usually doesn’t get home until 9 pm. She said, “[School has] been really hard to balance out because I practice right after school and then another following that one. [It’s] basically a 13-hour day and then I proceed with my homework, which I don’t get done until around 12 a.m. or 2 a.m.”

Makenna said her favorite season was last fall between the record breaking football season for varsity football, and the competition cheerleading team winning the state championship. MaKenna said, “The football team was great to cheer on and the competition team was amazing in general. Both teams were a great support when anyone was down, and everyone was very close to another. We are like a family.”

She said her favorite moment from last season was listening to the announcer say that McIntosh had won state. She said, “It was the best feeling in the world knowing all your hard work paid off.”

MaKenna plans on attending Kennesaw State next fall to major in nursing. Her dream job is to be a neonatal nurse. In the future, MaKenna hopes to live somewhere else other than Peachtree City because she wants to be able to see a new scenery, but she said, “My parents will live here forever, so I will be around occasionally.”