By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Munford senior Shelbie Crum has seen her share of football and basketball games.
As a member of Heather Gill’s Cheer Squads, Crum and her teammates have rooted for several athletes who have signed college scholarships for the next level. Well, May 2 was Crum’s turn to be behind the table with her parents. Paula and Chris joined their daughter on the Munford High School campus to witness her making it official she will be a part of the University of Tennessee at Martin All-Girls Cheer team starting this fall.]
“Going into looking at colleges, I wanted to go somewhere with a good agriculture program and Martin has an amazing agricultural program,” Crum noted. “It was between there and Mississippi State. Mississippi State was just too far from home. I am the only child, I want to be able to stay close to my parents and Martin is not that far. I still wanted to keep my cheer career going so I ended up going out to Martin’s cheer clinic to see if I liked it. The coach reached out to me and told me to keep going.”
While at Munford Crum was a member of the Key Club and FFA. She served as a veterinarian intern and that has shaped her career passion. When Martin Cheer Coach Amber Minton gave her the offer to her dream school with an added pert, Crum couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
“Going to Martin Cheer is the perfect fit for me,” she said. “Just being able to still cheer. It’s important to me because my mom did it when she was in high school and I am trying to follow in her footsteps. I want to keep it going. She stopped in high school and she wants to see me keep it going. I’m doing it to make her happy. Plus it’s been a dream of mine to cheer in college since I was little.”
Mom Paula cheered at Craigmont but didn’t pursue it to the next level. Once she saw her child develop an interest and joy from the sport, the family became committed.
Shelbie started cheering at the age of 4 and spent time doing competitive cheer with then Memphis Elite. The hours on the mat and on the road heading to Florida, Chattanooga, St. Louis and other places developed a special relationship between her and her mother.
“It’s help us bond a lot with her helping me with my tumbling, stunts and what is different to do,” Shelbie recalled. “I always compete against her trying to get better at tumbling than she had. I try to rub it in her face a little bit to make her mad. It’s just us to be closer – the sport.”
While mom served as mentor and coach, Shelbie’s biggest cheerleader was her dad.
“He’s been my support because I am his baby girl,” she said. “He pushes me and encourages me. If I am down he’ll come in there and talk to me to help me out.”
The investments made by the Crum put their daughter in position to reach her dream and pave a road for those who suit up for Friday nights and every basketball game.
“It’s really special and very special to me,” she said of her achievement. “Out here you always get told cheer is not a sport, it’s nothing. To know I can get a scholarship for cheer and all the younger girls underneath me now know they can all get scholarships pushes me. I’m just happy they can look up to me and know cheer is an actual sport. And you can get a scholarship for it.”
Crum said through the additional encouragement of Coach Gill, she believed in herself to reach this milestone. Now she wants to motivate those at Munford and throughout Tipton County who cheer to dream big.
“They should take it more seriously because it can take you so far in life,” she concluded. “You can get more money for college. You can get more money in general if you want to do it. Just taking it more seriously is a big thing because you’re not just there to look cute the whole time.”
