Cheer Choreographer Adds to Reputation
by Jennifer Birkland - Staff Writer - Brentwood Press Posted on February 17, 2006
	Photo courtesy of Jennifer Murphy
Behind every successful cheerleading squad is a great choreographer who knows how to put all the right moves to music. For the past several years, far East County's finest have been looking to Brittani Summers for direction. The result is a continuous stream of first-place trophies.	A trio of high-flying routines created by Brittani Summers helped the Legends All-Star cheerleaders earn three first-place finishes at a UCA competition at the Oakland Coliseum last month.

Summers, 20, helps the Liberty High cheerleaders reach the national championships each year with her high-flying routines. She works with the East County Youth Football cheer squads that continue to go bigger and more extreme, and she even finds time to choreograph middle-school routines. But these days, Summers is focusing the majority of her attention on her latest project, the Legends All-Star program.

Started last year to give cheerleaders ages 4-16 an opportunity to compete in the off-season, Legends is an amalgamation of experienced athletes and newbies with lots of potential.

“It's a great way to keep all the girls together after their other seasons end,” Summers said. “They can keep cheering and learning new things.”

After graduating from Liberty in 2003, Summers joined the Star Struck All-Stars, a college team out of Modesto. With 14 years of cheerleading experience, she's known around town for having the most innovative routines.

“They're really fun to dance to,” said Lauren Murphy of the Silver squad.

For Summers, choreography is just something that happens naturally.

“It's taken a lot of years to be able to do it,” she said. “I just listen to music and the routine just comes to me.”

Last month the Brentwood native brought her Legends All-Stars to a United Cheerleading Association competition at the Oakland Coliseum. All three of the program's squads took home the first-place trophy and the Grand Champion banner in their divisions and the Silver team even got to perform during halftime at a Warrior game.

“It was really scary at first,” Lauren, 12, said. “We heard all this yelling and screaming right before we went on so you could tell there were a lot of people there. But once we started performing, it was really fun.”

Next up for the Legends All-Stars is a UCA competition in Sacramento. In March it's off to the national championships.