A Valpo Life in the Spotlight: Amanda Facer

A Valpo Life in the Spotlight: Amanda Facer

Amanda Facer, the TCA competitive cheerleading director/coach at The Courts in Valparaiso, is a Northwest Indiana native who grew up in Hebron where she attended grade through high school and was active in cheerleading. Amanda continued her education and cheerleading at Ancilla College in Plymouth, Indiana where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, with specialization in family studies.

Amanda and her husband moved to Valparaiso six years ago where she then started a family and accepted the position as the TCA cheerleading director/coach at The Courts two years later.

“I have coached all-star competitive cheerleading for about ten years now and have experience coaching tumbling and gymnastics, as well,” stated Amanda.

From the time frame that Amanda has been the TCA cheerleading director/coach the number of girls involved in the program has grown exponentially.

“We started with two to three teams of thirty girls to now having six teams with a total of around eighty cheerleaders between mini, tiny, youth, junior, and senior levels.”

On top of coordinating and coaching six teams, Amanda also started up a special needs cheerleading team, which is something she is passionate about because she has a daughter with Down syndrome.

“Our special needs team practices once a week for forty-five minutes. The team makes a cheerleading routine, just like all of our other competitive teams, and we go to competitions, mostly around the Chicagoland and Indianapolis area, and they perform their routines,” said Amanda.

Many helping hands dedicate their time to make the special needs team possible.

“I have two fabulous coaches that coach our special needs team, as well as a great system of parents that are always helping out and doing things. Also, a handful of the senior-level cheerleaders volunteer their time by being buddies with a special needs cheerleader and work with them and help them throughout their routine, or will be there as support for them.”

All the help from the coaches, parents, and the buddies are the backbone of the special needs team, which has made it such a great and wonderful activity for the cheerleaders on the team.

“We definitely could not do it without the coaches, parents, and the buddies. This whole process of putting the team together and watching it grow has truly been an awesome learning experience,” stated Amanda.

Amanda keeps very busy with not only being the TCA cheerleading director/coach, but she is also a preschool teacher as well at the Valparaiso Nazarene Church.

Outside of her work, Amanda enjoys running, spending time with her friends and family, and being with her husband and children.

“I just ran the Chicago Marathon, which was my first time running a marathon, and it was an amazing experience. Prior to the marathon, I was really busy with training for it,” said Amanda.

Amanda’s favorite part about being the TCA cheerleading director/coach at The Courts is being with all of the cheerleaders.

“My favorite part about being a cheerleading coach for TCA would be getting to see the kids every day and hopefully being a positive role-model for them, making friends with them, and just making sure they are having fun.”

If you would like to learn more about the TCA Cheerleading teams, visit https://thecourtsofnwi.com/cheer/.