THE UK DREAM

 For Corbin High School senior a dream has come true. Alissa Sebastian will be a University of Kentucky cheerleader next fall.

“I’ve dreamed of being a UK cheerleader since I was a little girl,” Sebastian said Monday. “It was amazing because I never really thought I would make it for cheerleading there, but I have always been a big fan of UK.”

Her success as a cheerleader began she was eight years old and she started gymnastics at Damar. “Darrin and Kevin worked with me and I did their all-star team for four years,” she said. Sebastian cheered on two squads most of her high school career according to former cheer coach Toni Carloftis.

“She has lived cheerleading all of her life,” said Carloftis. “She cheered four years for an All-Star squad at Damar and was on the Corbin High School squad all four years in high school.”

She didn’t cheer with the All-Star squad this year, so that she could devote her time preparing for a chance at a spot on the University of Kentucky squad. “I had to go to Lexington for private lessons with the guys about every Thursday and Sunday,” said Sebastian. “They would help me with stunts.”

Before she could even become a UK cheerleader she had to be invited to tryout. She got that invite back in the fall and things began to fall in place. “You attend different clinics and they told you whether you get invited or not,” she said.

Tryouts for the national champions began April 15 through the 18^th and more than 400 girls and guys from across the United States began the elimination process. “It’s a really long process, they cut people each day. We all had to walk out of the building and they posted the numbers of the ones that got cut.”

“Each day I had my mom (Charlotte Smith) walk up there and see if my number was up there because I was afraid I got cut,” Sebastian said. “The last day of the tryouts, they kept everybody.”

Of all the Kentuckians that have the dream of cheering for the Wildcats’ football and basketball teams only a handful make the two squads. This year there were 51 selected to the Blue and the White squads with only 17 from the Commonwealth. That includes Sebastian and Michael Culver, a former football player at Whitley County.

“The only difference is the blue squad cheers for the men’s basketball team and the white cheers for the women’s team,” said Sebastian. “Both squads cheer at the football games.”

Sebastian wants to learn to manage her time once the fall semester starts. “There will be a lot of practices, a lot of games and I want keep my grades up, so I will have to learn to manage my time.”

“It was really stressful those four days of tryouts,” said Sebastian.

“She is very talented,” said Carloftis. “I knew if she stepped out of the box and decided to tryout that she would make it because she is very talented. She is an excellent flier, an excellent dancer and stunt cheerleader.”

“She will fit right in with the cheerleaders at UK,” added Carloftis.

Sebastian will experience plenty of new things being a UK cheerleader and the first is flying. “Our camp is in Wisconsin and I’ve never flown before,” she said.

She credits her parents, Charlotte and Steve Smith for pushing her in the right direction. “They knew I really wanted this and they kept pushing me,” she said. “They knew I was good and they knew I could do it. They have always been there for me.”