Movement sciences senior has a lot to cheer about

Having suffered multiple injuries during her two years on the Vandal Spirit Squad, Gracie McClendon decided that the team needed to tweak their training to help them stay healthy.

As a senior majoring in movement sciences, she knew that strength training and understanding biomechanics in cheerleading — and how that led to safely and effectively performing routines like building human pyramids — was the best way to keep her teammates off the injured list.

As this year’s team captain, she gave herself the assignment to provide that instruction while continuing to build on the program’s success established in national competitions during the past two years.

Through captaining the team and her educational program, she also confirmed her career goals — she wanted to help people stay healthy.

“Both my parents worked in the medical field so I always kind of thought I would go into some kind of healthcare,” McClendon said. “I’ve always had an interest in health sciences. I like helping people stay healthy and active.”

Making an impact

McClendon, originally from Gig Harbor, Washington, cheered at both California Baptist University and Washington State University before being contacted in 2024 by newly hired U of I Spirit Squad assistant coach Dawson Murphy.

Murphy, who knew McClendon through his choreography work at Gig Harbor High School, was hired by Spirit Squad coordinator Katie Doman specifically to increase U of I’s presence in collegiate competitions.

“The cheerleaders have been doing a great job during athletic events, but we weren’t devoting a lot of time toward competitions,” Murphy said. “Now that we also focus on competitions, we’ve been pushing them a little harder — rewiring their brains to think about competitions as well as game day.”

Extra work means more repetitions. It also means increasing the possibility of injuries. While interning at the Student Recreation Center (SRC) this semester, McClendon saw an opportunity to keep herself and her teammates healthy while exploring a possible career in athletic training.

After the Fall ’25 semester, McClendon became a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. During the Spring ’26 semester, she began teaching an Intro to Fitness class at SRC, which is funded by a grant through the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Nutrition and Women’s Health.

McClendon, who is applying for occupational therapy graduate programs, is also personalizing workouts for her teammates.

“I’ve added a lot of things to our workouts specific to cheer, like exercises to strengthen ankles and wrists,” she said. “Cheer involves a lot of high-impact strain on muscles. The fewer injuries we have, the more successful we’ll be.”

Cheer champs

The Spirit Squad’s focus on competitions appears to be bearing fruit. The Spirit Squad recently returned from the 2026 USA Spirit Nationals and Collegiate Championships in Anaheim, California where they took first place in the College Game Day Fight Song category. Last year, they were champions in the Show and Situation Sideline categories.

Not bad for a group that’s only been entering competitions for four years.

The Spirit Squad’s winning Fight Song routine featured performers being held up by teammates, pyramids and multiple jumps. McClendon’s training for her team focused on strengthening muscles that allow them to handle these high-impact routines flawlessly.

“Gracie has been able to connect the team’s activities to concepts in biomechanics and sports performance,” said Joshua Bailey, associate professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. “She knows how the body responds to physical activity and how the body absorbs loads during landing and jumping. She’s been able to explain that to her teammates to keep them healthy.”

McClendon is also showing that participants in cheer are just as athletic, and therefore just as prone to getting injured, as those playing traditional contact sports.

“Injury risk in some of these non-contact sports is not really getting much attention,” Bailey said. “But the muscular strain and the distribution of force in the routines they do is just as much as in contact sports. I consider them to be student-athletes even though they’re not in the Athletic Department.”

Murphy is glad he was able to bring McClendon to U of I — for her own development and for the impact she’s had on the Spirit Squad.

“I think the team is better for her having been here,” he said. “With her training sessions, she’s left her mark and put us on an even playing field with other cheer teams.”

McClendon is glad she took a chance on coming to a university she had never heard of prior to being recruited by Murphy.

“I never would have thought about U of I, but I’m so glad I made the right decision,” she said. “I’m very grateful for my time here because I feel like I’ve definitely been set up for success.”