Senior Spotlight
Soft-spoken Cook found her rhythm through the art of cheer
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
Hailey Cook remembers sitting down in her first-period class back in the fall of 2020 trying to comprehend it all. Longer hallways. Older students. Kids driving themselves to school.
On top of that, things were still a bit crazy following the COVID-19 pandemic that had locked down most of the country just five months earlier.
Four years later, Cook knows what people have whispered to her for years — don’t blink before it’s over.
“It (high school) went much faster than I thought it would,” she said. “I don’t think it hit me that it was all over, especially with cheer, until our last (basketball) game. Everything else, I was perfectly fine with.”
That afternoon in Searcy, as the final seconds ticked away in Alma’s second-round playoff loss to Little Rock Parkview, Cook knew what was coming.
“As the buzzer went off, I started crying,” she said. “All season I was like, ‘Oh, we’ll have another game.’ That hit me hard because I knew another game wouldn’t exist.”
“Hailey is incredibly passionate about cheer and is the perfect example of what an Airedale Cheerleader should be — respectful, kind, and encouraging,” Alma cheer coach Christy Law said. “Our cheer program is lucky to have many athletes who are dedicated like Hailey. The effort they put into practice pays off when they hit the competition floor.”
Hailey Cook didn’t become a cheerleader to spread smiles to her classmates. Law saw that from the beginning.
“I’ve had the privilege of coaching Hailey for five years,” Law said. “ We’ve formed a close relationship in these five years. I remember her always being shy and quiet as a middle school cheerleader, and now she has blossomed into an incredible leader on our team. I’m going to miss having her on the team next year, but I am excited to see what she accomplishes in her adult life.”
As she grew older, Cook embraced the ‘competitiveness’ of it all.
“Just the sport itself, I love being able to perform and the skills I had worked so hard for,” Cook said. “I like being supportive of all the people in school. There was one year when we went to some events that weren’t traditional sports; that was my favorite year. I love showing up and supporting people, especially when people aren’t expecting it.”
The oldest of Hillary Hunter and Andy Cook’s three kids, Hailey said she embraced being the oldest of two younger siblings, Mikayla and Hunter.
“There’s a lot of pressure to be a good example for them, but also be a lesson to them at the same time,” Cook said. “I felt like a role model for them, and once I got older I felt like a caretaker. I would babysit them when my parents had to go out, or I would take them to school.”
Back in 2020, when Cook began to navigate the hallways and mesh with those around her, she became stronger while juggling multiple extracurricular activities.
“I feel like in some ways easier,” she said. “Everybody talked about how hard homework would be, at least for me, but I’d also say it was a little more challenging in other ways, just because it’s a bigger environment and everybody is set in stone. It’s kind of hard to navigate that.”
Cook said she hopes to work in the medical field after college.
“I’m not entirely set yet,” she said. “I might end up doing something in chemistry or biology and be a lab assistant.”