MARYSVILLE – In more than 20 years of coaching cheerleaders, Gayle Goudsward at Marysville-Pilchuck High School has had only a couple girls make nationals. This year, two made it – both sophomores.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, Maggie Schassler’s only been doing cheer for one year. Teammate Jenna Allen, the other Tommie to make it, started cheer when she was 8.

At a recent cheer camp at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, about 20 teams and 400 cheerleaders participated. Seven Tommies were nominated to try out for the 25-member National Cheer Association All-America team. For Marysville Getchell, 11 girls were nominated, and senior and head captain Eden Au Nguyen was selected.

“Getting the title of All-American was surreal,” Eden said. “Partially because they had announced the wrong school at first, so I thought I didn’t make it, and partially because I had been nominated the past three years I’ve been to camp and never made the team.”

The three were selected by scoring high in: jumps, rallying the crowd, tumbling, loudness, precision and sharpness of motion technique. They all have to come up with the $3,000 to attend the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Houston, Texas. Even though they are so young, Goudsward said it’s no fluke her girls were chosen. “They’re both good,” she said.

Goudsward has known Jenna for years. “I went to her Little Tommies camp,” Jenna said of Goudsward.

They also know each other from Kellogg-Marsh Elementary School, where they were teacher and student. Jenna got her experience on all-star cheer squads out of the area.

“There wasn’t youth cheer like there is now,” Goudsward said.

The coach said Jenna’s mom told her she would have to keep coaching until Jenna was in high school.

“I told her I’d be long gone,” Goudsward joked.

She went on to say that what Maggie lacks in experience she makes up for with athleticism. The Tommie has quite of bit of experience in gymnastics.

“She has a lot of ability,” Goudsward said.

She continued that Maggie has improved so much in the past year, gaining a lot of confidence.

“She wouldn’t talk” when she first started, the coach said. “Now I can’t get her to quit.” Both of the girls said they think being a cheerleader is fun. “I like being close to the field and involved,” Maggie said.

Jenna added, “If feels good standing in front of the students and getting them excited for the team.”

Eden said her mom, especially, is surprised about how well she has done in cheer.

“My mom always jokes about how I’m really clumsy and trip over my own feet (which is true, I sprained my ankle once walking on flat ground),” Eden said. “She never expected me to be able to dance and jump like I do, much less get recognized for cheer.”

Eden excels at the jumps, finishing third at the camp overall. “My hope is to get tumbling under my belt and join the University of Washington cheer team,” Eden said. “It’s super easy to put the work into a sport if you’re passionate about it.”

Ashley Bayha, the head cheer coach at MG, said she was very proud of how her young team did at cheer camp, considering out of the 21 girls only a handful are returnees.

“The girls really shine at camp,” she said.

When she first started five years ago, there were 16 girls who tried out. This year there were 47. Bayha was never in cheer herself; her background is in dance.

She also is pleased that the girls trying out come from many different backgrounds: ROTC, color guard, basketball, track, softball, etc.

“Cheer is like a new world for them,” Bayha said. “They’re from many different social groups.”