By Derek Smallwood
David Crockett High School senior Michael Litteral signed with Milligan’s cheerleading and dance team last month. On March 1, Litteral signed a national letter of intent to cheer and dance at Milligan. When he did, he became the first Crockett male to earn a scholarship in cheerleading.
Litteral has only his senior year as a cheerleader, but has had dance experience at the Gay Whitt School of Dance in Jonesborough for two years. Additionally, he has been instructing at the Erwin site this past year. “I went with my mom to watch my little sister dance in Jonesborough to learn the dance to help her at home. I showed up and Ms. Gay said she would like me to stay. I’ve stayed ever since,” he said.
Litteral had been homeschooled until this past year when he began attending Crockett. “I had no intentions of cheering at all. I wanted to play football. Then someone saw me do a back tuck off the wall,” he said. They started talking about cheering and the college scholarships available for cheerleaders. “I was like, wow!” he said.
Litteral intended to try to cheer and play football, doing the cheering later the school year for basketball, but the schedule conflicts forced him to choose. He chose cheerleading.
In addition to the cheerleading, Litteral got involved in dance at Crockett. “I tried out for a senior dance group called Opus. Out of 110 kids only eight kids are picked. I was one of the four guys,” he said.
Litteral has been practicing with the squad already. “His strength will be a big help with the stunts,” said Brittany Chambers.
“This will be a great contribution to our team!” said Taylor Martin. “He is an outstanding athlete, who puts 150% into everything he does! It will definitely be an experience to have a male on the girl squad, but Michael’s optimistic attitude will be beneficial.”
“I was going to go to Tennessee Tech in Cookeville,” he said. “But when I met with the head cheer coach (at Milligan) the second time and met the girls, she named them all by name. None of the other colleges did that. That really grabbed me.”
Milligan cheerleaders also encouraged him. “Taylor would say, ‘You really need to come to Milligan,’” Litteral said. “They have really made it enjoyable.”
“You get something at Milligan that you don’t get at the larger schools,” said Whitt. “The professors will see that (he will) do well because of the smaller classes. He’s headed the right direction for sure. We belong to the Christian Church, so that’s my connection with Milligan.”
Litteral is considering a business degree or accounting and finance.
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