By Todd Travis
Before even stepping foot into the halls of Cascade High School, Delaney Quinn has begun to make strides toward success as a high school student and cheerleader. Her hard work and dedication in middle school has ensured that. Academically, she maintained straight A’s throughout the year while taking advanced classes. As a result, she earned her membership to the National Junior Honor Society and acquired 7 high school credits. Students, like Quinn, who acquire those credits are awarded with the Magnificent 7 award, meaning they earned 7 or more high school credits. Magnificent indeed.
As an athlete, Quinn has already earned her spot on the Varsity cheer squad. She will be the only freshman on Varsity. With her experience in competitive cheer and travel cheer, she earned the UCA All-American award two years in a row (2022-2023). This year, she helped her all-star team place third in nationals at the D2 summit in Greenwood.
It’s safe to say that Quinn has set herself up pretty nicely for her freshman year of high school. Still, there are some unknowns she is looking to explore as she enters this new stage in life.
Honor Society ceremony.(Submitted photo)
“One of my goals in high school is to figure out what I want to do for a career. I like math a lot, so that is something I’m considering going into. I also want to make it a goal to put myself out there a little more when it comes to meeting new people and making new friends,” Quinn mentioned.
Quinn considers herself to be introverted, although that might be hard to imagine considering her competitive nature and her involvement in competitive cheerleading. But after the highly social, highly energetic cheerleading competitions, she usually needs some time to be alone and decompress from all the social stimulation. She also has a solid friend group as it is, so even though she might not feel she is putting herself out there, she has a natural ease of making friends.
Outside of school, there is not a lot of free time for Quinn because of traveling cheer, but one thing she enjoys doing is heading to Chicago with her family to enjoy a country concert or to watch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
Even though she is just entering high school, Quinn already knows she wants to cheer when she gets to college as well. That’s not to say she is going to put academics on the back-burner, quite the contrary, actually.
“I know that I need to have good grades to accomplish this goal. When I first started cheer, I didn’t really care all that much about it, but when I got to fifth grade, I really started to enjoy it. If I want to do it in college, I have to stay focused academically as well,” Quinn shared.
Her competitiveness is another characteristic that keeps her focused both in school and in cheer. She doesn’t want to get beaten and she’s willing to work hard to be the best. No matter what path Quinn decides to take over the next four years of high school, she is primed to succeed.
