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MaKinlea Foster of Chambers Academy signed with Southern Union for cheerleading on Wednesday morning. The senior made it official in front of friends and family inside the school’s gym. 

“I was so excited for her. I’m so proud of her…she just went to a clinic and the coach actually grabbed her up the first day and said, ‘We want you to sign you’,” said Kelly Cole Gaines, Foster’s mother. 

Foster said, despite loving cheer, she was hesitant to pursue it at the collegiate level. 

“I originally didn’t want to, but a friend of mine, Gabby Lamb from last year, she had signed for cheer, and I’ve been talking to her about it,” Foster recalled. 

After seeing a posting about the clinic, Foster promised her friend she would “give it a try.”

“And that first day, I loved it. I immediately felt like I belonged there,” said Foster. 

Southern Union is in many ways a good fit for Foster. Her grandmother worked for the college for almost two decades, and her mother attended. The senior said that with it being just down the road, it was an easy choice, regardless of a cheer scholarship. 

She credited Chambers Academy for getting her ready for the next step.

“They’ve helped to push me, they’ve pushed me to do my college classes online, that way I get more college experience,” Foster said.

For cheerleading, she highlights her coach, Laurie Phillips. 

“Ms. P has made sure that any opportunity I wanted, she let me take it, no matter if they’re stunts, just getting sharper, working on everything,” she explained. 

It seemed to work for the senior, who was named as an All-Star and UCA All-American. 

Foster hopes to study and go into nursing. But, before next Fall, she is soaking up her final days at Chambers. 

On what she will miss most about the school, Foster said, “the close friends and family, because the whole school is basically family.”