MANSFIELD — During Ja’Bre Jones’ first week of tryouts for the Mansfield Senior High cheerleading team in 2015, veteran adviser Kim Brookins could only stare and shake her head.
“I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know if this is going to work,’” Brookins recalled. “He had a lot of enthusiasm, but not the skills because he had never cheered before.”
Three years later Jones has earned a competitive spot on the cheerleading team at Bowling Green State University, where the Tyger senior will major in sports medicine or physical therapy. His is a story of determination and hard work.
“I wanted to do something different, something that would challenge me,” Jones said of his sophomore-year decision to try to join the all-girl cheer squad. “I was a mess at first. But I am super competitive. I always set higher goals for myself. I want to be one of the best.”
Brookins credits Jones with helping to create an exciting new technique for the cheer squad, while breaking down many people’s perceptions that cheerleaders have to be girls.
“Ja’Bre created a lot of excitement about cheerleading,” Brookins said. “We went from having maybe 25 coming for tryouts to about 75. And we have another young man coming out next year.”
But she agrees that, at first, Jones was a mess.
“He was an excited young man,” she said. “I was interested in him, but I had never worked with a guy. He had no cheer experience at all. I talked to him and said, ‘If this is what you want to do, then get with it.’ The girls were already years into it. They were a little frustrated because he wasn’t coming on fast enough.”
At some point that first summer, Jones said, “a lightbulb went on.”
“My voice changed. At first, nobody could hear me. (Brookins taught him to cheer from his diaphragm, not from his throat.) And I worked hard on my jumps. I think the jumps were the only thing that got me on the squad.”
By summer’s end Jones had Brookins’ full confidence as a member of the varsity cheer team.
Jones and his cheer mates added routines to be more entertaining. He developed his own moves, including a standing back handspring. Tyger fans loved it.
“On some Friday or Saturday nights, Facebook postings would say, ‘The Tygers lost the game tonight but the Tyger cheerleaders won the cheer battle,’” Brookins said. “I would see people in stores or on the street who would say, ‘That young man is wonderful.’”
Jones also is a member of an all-star competitive cheer team that has traveled to other states. He was part of the team that traveled to Orlando, Fla. this weekend
Jones tried out at Bowling Green on April 21, the same day as the Senior High prom.
“I did tumbling, competed in a mile run and cheered to the school fight song,” he said. “Then I had an interview with cheer squad alumni and coaches.”
Jones had to leave Bowling Green by 3 p.m. to get back to Mansfield, pick up his tuxedo and get ready for the evening. He was on his way to prom when he got a text message congratulating him for making the squad.
“We will meet again in June,” he said. “They warned us upfront that anyone who doesn’t maintain their skills will be cut right then and there. I’ll keep up my skills.”
Jones credits Brookins with guiding him toward success.
“Ms. Brookins was very understanding. She could be cutthroat,” he said with a laugh, “but she knows what she’s looking for. She won’t waste her time giving you false hope. She definitely helped me.”
Speaking from her own background as a Tyger cheerleader and 18 years of cheer coaching experience, Brookins has no doubt Jones will be a standout at Bowling Green.
“Ja’Bre’s legs are very strong. He has the attitude, the strength and the technique to do it the way you are supposed to do it,” she said. “He is one of the best I have ever had.”
