Merrill Vandal of the Heart: 97-Year-Old Cheers Again After More than 80 Years
When you drive in to small town America, a sense pride welcomes you on the sign. High school championships are often a big claim to fame.
A high-kicking 97-year-old firecracker named Ilagene Doehring is putting Merrill, Michigan on the map.
Ilagene has caught the attention of thousands after a social media post of cheerleaders from Merrill High School paid her visit went viral.
“It was kind of a quick, thrown together thing," said Merrill coach Jena Glazier.
Glazier didn’t know what she was in for when asked to bring her team to cheer with Gene at Candlestone Assisted Living in Midland.
“We came here and she was cheering before we even walked in the door," said Glazier.
That’s because cheerleading is a big part of this little ladies life. Candlestone's Life Enrichment Director, Kati Roper, realized it early on. It's the reason why she invited the cheer team.
“Gene is always going around cheering, constantly, doing her high kicks. She’s dancing, singing non stop. She likes to share her story of being one of the first Merrill Cheerleaders,” said Roper.
“All the other schools around Merrill had cheerleaders, but Meryl didn’t have any. We didn’t Merrill to be left out, so we decided we’d take over and be cheerleaders,” said Ilagene Doehring.
An old grainy picture from the 1940’s proves it. It shows the first ever Merrill Vandal cheerleaders. Ilagene is in the middle.
“It was very difficult to find orange fabric, so the fabric we got was kind of more reddish that it was orange, but we made it. A friend of mine was a seamstress, she made our uniforms for us," said Ilagene.
The girls hit the ground running inside the old Merrill High School. It's now repurposed into an apartment complex right in town. Back then, they had no coach or planned choreography.
“We just got crazy and went out on the gym floor and started making motions until we learned how to do it," said Ilagene.
In a modern day uniform more than eighty years later, Ilagene made cheerleading look easy. She says she didn’t even bat an eye over being lifted in the air or keeping up with the latest cheer.
“Well, cheers don’t change over the years. You know this is pretty much the same," said Ilagene.
Now when people drive into a small town, maybe they’ll take a little time to listen to those who made the prideful signs possible.
Perhaps they'll show a deeper appreciation to the Merrill vandals who humbly steal our hearts like Ilagene.