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Sikeston graduate is new head coach of cheerleading program at SEMO
To say that cheerleading is in Megan Wagner-Anderson’s blood is an understatement.
The 2011 Sikeston graduate was part of a Bulldog cheerleading team that competed in Orlando, Florida; cheered for Arkansas State University and was a cheerleading instructor that took her to foreign countries to teach cheerleading. Now the former Sikeston standout is back home as the new head coach of the Southeast Missouri State University cheerleading squad.
“I’m really excited,” said Wagner-Anderson who took over the program in July. “It’s gone great. I have 21 athletes that range from Kennett all the way up to Ste. Genevieve.”
Wagner-Anderson said that the pandemic kept the SEMO cheerleaders from doing much last season, including competing in NCA College Nationals. But this year, it is full steam ahead as the cheerleaders are preparing for the first football game, which will be Thursday night at Houck Stadium when the Redhawks host rival Southern Illinois at 6:30 p.m.
“The first step is getting everybody ready for game day,” Wagner-Anderson said. “The biggest thing I’m trying to push is getting more involvement and participation in the stands. We have a really good new staff in the athletics department at SEMO and a good football team and the school is growing so my goal is to make sure we have as much support as possible for all of our athletic teams at SEMO.”
Wagner-Anderson said SEMO has a new band director that attended the University of Kentucky so there will be a whole new pregame for football than in year’s past.
“The atmosphere for our home football games is going to be completely different from tailgating to pregame throughout the entire game,” Wagner-Anderson said. “We’ve been working really hard to bring in all the spirit squads including the band, the Sundancers and the SEMO Cheerleading team for a better experience for our spectators.”
With a lot of local athletes on the squad, Wagner-Anderson wants the team to be out in the community more as well. And not just in Cape Girardeau. She said they will take part in things like the Cotton Carnival Parade and local district fairs.
“We will be doing a lot more in person, as it’s allowed, just to get our faces out there,” Wagner-Anderson said. “We want to get the whole community to know where our athletes are from.”
Wagner-Anderson was a member of the 2009 Sikeston Bulldogs cheerleading squad that competed in the UCA National High School Cheerleading Competition in Orlando. After graduating in 2011, Wagner-Anderson became a UCA summer camp instructor for high school and collegiate cheerleading camps and did that all through college while also cheering on the all-girl squad at Arkansas State University.
She worked with UCA for nine years and during that time she went to South Korea to instruct at a cheerleading camp there and also traveled to Australia in 2015 where she was an instructor at camps for a month.
Wagner-Anderson also met the International Olympic Committee as part of the movement to make cheerleading an olympic sport.
After graduating from Arkansas State, Wagner-Anderson took a job with Varsity in Memphis, Tennessee, the mecca of cheerleading. She also took a position as the director of program implementation of the IASF (International All-Star Federation) and created the first online coach credentialing platform for international coaches.
Wagner-Anderson, who is newly married to husband Jeremy, eventually found her way back to Sikeston where she was judging cheerleading competitions, including the Missouri Cheerleading Coaches Association. The vice president of MCCA just happened to be SEMO’s old coach and approached her about replacing him and she was interested.
“I wanted to do it and a couple months went by,” Wagner-Anderson said. “He referenced me in his resignation letter. It was a tedious four-month wait.”
Finally in July, Wagner-Anderson was named head coach and she hit the ground running.
“I never thought I’d be a head coach, because I was used to helping coaches coach their own teams,” Wagner-Anderson said. “Timing is everything. When I moved here the option presented itself and according to my boss I was the most enthusiastic and ready to take on the program.”
Wagner-Anderson said the co-ed team will cheer for all sporting events on campus. If they aren’t cheering on the sideline, she said there will be a percentage of the team that will be at the event cheering.
The squad has also already received a bid to cheer in the NCA College Nationals held in Daytona, Florida, April 6-10, 2022.
“With that comes extra practices and a lot of extra time and effort, but all my athletes are scholarship athletes,” Wagner-Anderson said.
Her cheerleaders have also been doing a lot with The Heel Apparel Company, which is owned by Sikeston graduate Gabe McClung. The company has a licensing agreement with SEMO.
“We’ve been doing a lot with our licensing apparel and kind of working with (McClung) on the field, off the field in every activity we attend,” Wagner-Anderson said.
She is also hot on the recruiting trail, looking for future athletes to fill the roster. She said they are looking at freshman to seniors in high school and there will clinics coming up in the future. She added coaches can reach her at mdwagner@semo.edu.
While Wagner-Anderson is busy preparing for the upcoming season, a quote from her cheer coach at Sikeston, Wanda Throop, still sticks with her.
“She said ‘never forget who are and where you came from,’” Wagner-Anderson said. “I’m happy to be back where I was raised and doing what I love.”
— Follow SEMO cheerleading on Instagram @semocheer.