Head Coach: Emilie Ashenbach (6th season at CUNE; 2nd season as head coach)
2024 GPAC/NAIA Qualifier Finish: 5th/8
2024 All-GPAC: Brianna Hoyle; Shelby Timmerman.
2024 Average Competition Score: 80.72 (21st in NAIA)
2025 GPAC Preseason Poll: 6th
Outlook
Head Coach Emilie Ashenbach and the Concordia University, Nebraska Competitive Cheer program believe they are headed in the right direction after finishing the 2024 season in fifth place in the GPAC. The process of building upon school record scores and a first-place claim at last year’s Dordt Invite is well underway. The Bulldogs bring back six athletes who earned spots on the 2024 GPAC Championships competition roster, including veteran leaders in LaCole Anno and Lauryn Stanley.
Now in her sixth season within the program, Ashenbach is preparing for her second year as head coach for competitive cheer. Each year, Concordia expects to raise the bar while competing in a strong conference that sent Midland and Northwestern to the 2024 NAIA National Championships.
“I thought last year went really well,” Ashenbach said. “They did exactly what I asked them to do each competition. The goal for this year is building off where we left off and fostering that team mentality. We want to keep hitting our goals and getting those scores (of at least 80 in every competition).”
Over six routines that counted towards the official NAIA scoring system in 2024, the Bulldogs averaged a score of 80.72, ranking 21st nationally out of 72 NAIA cheer programs. The 84.13 achieved at the annual Concordia Day of Duals represented a program record for a single competition. Concordia hit the 80 mark in five separate routines with the help of GPAC All-Conference award winners in Brianna Hoyle and Shelby Timmerman. The first all-conference honoree in program history, Timmerman is one of three seniors that have departed from the 2024 competition roster.
Returners from the 2024 GPAC Championships include juniors Anno and Stanley, as well as sophomore Kaylnn Jeardoe, senior Lexi Mack, junior Ara Maxwell and sophomore Mya Stover. There is also a youth movement taking place with seven freshmen having joined the program this past fall semester. In other words, the pieces are still being put into place.
Says Stanley, “We’re taking the experience of the athletes we have already and are helping our new athletes coming in learn everything we have learned. We’re all still adjusting to it a little bit, but good things can come from change … We have to come to practice and get to work every day. We have to get everything perfect because that’s how we’re being judged. That’s part of our sport. It takes repetition on the things that we’re learning.”
When the season officially gets started in late January, the experience will be a completely new one for freshmen like Fremont, Neb., native Rhiannon Van Osdel. It will be the first time Van Osdel has been judged in a cheer competition. She admits that there will likely be some nervousness involved. Van Osdel leaned upon older teammates to help ease the anxiety.
Said Van Osdel, “I really like the girls on the team. They are very encouraging and very patient. They know how to push each other in a very respectful and kind way. Sometimes we all get in our head and that’s okay, we’re only human. We just help each other get through it, and I think that’s really important … I’m really excited to see it all come together. It’s been a lot of work trying to master all the stunts and everything.”
The 2025 schedule features five competitions prior to the GPAC Championships. Friedrich Arena will be home to two of the most significant competitions across the entire NAIA cheer and dance landscape. The Concordia Day of Duals will be held on Feb. 8 while the GPAC Championships will be staged in Seward on March 7-8, marking the first time the conference competition has been hosted by the Bulldogs. Ashenbach hopes her team can feed off a spirited home crowd at the GPAC Championships.
The goal is to make a push for a conference finish that puts Concordia in the running for a national championships appearance. There will be a lot riding on two-and-a-half minutes of performances at the conference championships. As Stanley says, “It’s only like a two-and-a-half minute routine, but it’s two-and-a-half minutes of constantly doing something. It’s a lot of repetition and a lot of teamwork and trying this thing, and if that doesn’t work, we have to try something else. I think we have a pretty high potential. I think we all know that as a team. We’re still striving to hit where we think that potential is.”
Added Van Osdel, “I’m most excited for the competitions and the memories I’m going to make with my teammates. I’m really close with my teammates here and I’m excited for all the memories we’re going to make together.”
Concordia will have a better idea of what it is capable of on Feb. 7 when it is officially scored for the first time this season. Until then, the Bulldogs will rally around a theme that will help focus their efforts throughout the whirlwind months of January and February.
“Our theme this year is ‘built different,’ and we’ve really tried to home in on that,” Ashenbach said. “I’m really excited to see what we put out there as a team. I think it will be really good. We have a very young team right now. For a lot of people on the mat, this is their first time, but I think it will be good.”
Added Ashenbach on the team’s expectations, “Of course, we want to reach for nationals. I would also like for us to place top three at conference.”
The first event on the slate is the Concordia Invitational Tournament in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Jan. 25. The complete 2025 competition schedule can be found HERE.