Last Sunday Omaha beat St. Thomas 85-75 in the Summit tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Mavericks had 4 straight losing seasons but won 22 games this year to make the 1st NCAA tourney in school history. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Omaha cheer captain Madison Thurber about heading to med school and seeing her team make the NCAA tourney.
You grew up in Valley, NE, and began your college career at Nebraska: why did you decide to transfer, and what made you choose Omaha? My decision to transfer was incredibly difficult. I had always wanted to cheer in college, but I felt drawn to Greek life as well. UNL has a larger Greek community, which led to my decision to initially attend Nebraska. During my freshman year, I became incredibly active in my sorority (Kappa Delta), holding leadership roles as a social chair and alternative panhellenic delegate, but ultimately I felt like a large part of my life was missing. Over Thanksgiving break during my sophomore year, I began talking with my parents about the idea of transferring. They were slightly hesitant to the idea, but I was able to show them the strengths within the UNO pre-med program that made the transfer almost a no-brainer. The program centers around an incredible pre-medical committee with an 85%+ acceptance rate into medical schools for sponsored students. Knowing that medicine was my dream, I knew that I needed to get to Omaha. I had a very close friend who previously cheered at Omaha, and she encouraged me to try out. I spontaneously emailed my current cheer coach to ask about open spots on the team. She originally said no, but later reached back out asking for a bunch of different tryout materials. Within a week of my submission to her, I was offered a spot on the team, received my acceptance letter from UNO, and made the transfer official.
You graduated last May with a degree in Molecular and Biomedical Biology and minors in Medical Humanities and Chemistry: how did you choose those subjects? Medical school has always been the end goal for me, and much of my degree is related to that. I began studying biology and quickly realized that I was not at all interested in ecology. At UNO, we offer an “MBB” which is a biological sciences degree more focused on human or animal biology (as opposed to fungi/plants). My MBB major and minor in chemistry fulfilled the prerequisites for medical school applications, but Medical Humanities was more of a “for fun” minor. I got to learn a lot about different cultures, religions, and backgrounds that varied from my own. My favorite courses were definitely gerontology and world religions within this minor.
You have been captain of the cheer team for the past 2 years: what is the key to being a good leader? Being a good leader lies heavily in being able to anticipate the needs of the team and leaning into the strengths of each member. Not everyone responds the same way to leadership, and it has to be altered sometimes to be received effectively. This season, I have really liked chatting as a team to help get us all on the same page during big events like camp and nationals. We really do not use that “captain” role unless at games or talking to different event organizers. At practices, we all act as leaders within our stunt groups to keep progressing on our individual skills.
In addition to cheering, you worked in a neurological research lab and the UNO Honors Program: how do you balance your work on the sideline with your work outside the arena? I constantly am planning ahead. Typically, I know what I am doing every day down to the hour for the next two weeks. Each day, I have a mental list of things I need to get done, and I cannot end the day unless I have completed the list or made a plan to tackle it another day. Everyone on my team is incredibly busy as well, so it never seemed bizarre to have incredibly limited free time. One of my teammates has her own business, and almost all of us are planning on completing some sort of graduate program.
Last summer you took your MCAT and were accepted into medical school at Des Moines University: how many years is med school, and what is the post-graduation plan? Med school is 4 years, followed by a 3-5 year residency program depending on your specialty. Residency could also be followed by a fellowship program depending on individual interests. I plan to move to Des Moines in July, but I do not specifically know what field I want to pursue: I really enjoyed shadowing anesthesia and OBGYN.
The Mavericks had losing seasons during each of the previous 4 years and started this season 4-9, but in conference play Coach Chris Crutchfield’s team flipped the switch and went 13-3 to earn the #1 seed: what kind of expectations did you have in mid-December, and how did that change by the time the conference tourney tipped off? Honestly, mid-December is a big preparation period for UCA nationals, and that is where a lot of my thoughts were at that time. While I cheered at every game, I remember the season feeling very similar to that of previous years. I was always excited to cheer for the team despite the losses because I got a front-row seat to the passion/personality of each player. It was more memorable to watch them enjoy playing than the score at the end of the game. It was not until right before nationals that I started to understand what their success was mounting up to be. I remember hearing one of the social media interns for the team say, “These guys are something special: I have never seen a team come together and click so well”, which really resonated with me. Everyone on campus started to talk about the winning streak, and I watched the team rise higher and higher up the rankings. All of a sudden, my friends from other schools were texting me about how incredible the team was and mentioning March Madness. In previous years, we felt so lucky just to win a game and stay 1 extra night as a team during the Summit League Tournament. This year, it felt completely different driving to the tournament with a higher probability than needing a 3 at the buzzer to stay more than one day.
In the Summit League tourney your team won 3 games in 4 days including the title game over St. Thomas last Sunday: what did it mean to you to see them win a title, and what was the reaction like when you got back to campus? I do not have enough words to describe the feeling of watching the clock tick down to the final minute and realizing Omaha was still up by a good number of points. I think that was when it started to hit a lot of the players as well, and I could feel the energy radiating off the court. A lot of the guys will come into the facility late at night when the cheer team practices to get in extra shooting practice and run drills, so I have seen little snippets of how hard they have worked all season to get to this point. Omaha is a pretty tight-knit community within athletics/academics, and everyone on campus was radiating pride over the win. The guys are absolutely incredible individuals and so deserving of the support that the Omaha community is giving them.
How does your school decide who gets to go to the NCAA tourney, and what will it mean to you to see your group doing its thing in front of a national TV audience? A lot of the travel is based on seniority, stunt groups, and availability. The group traveling is mainly graduate students/seniors. However, we do have a couple underclassmen attending the tournament to ensure a /successful stunt group. This will be my second time cheering at an NCAA tournament: I cheered at the volleyball tournament last year, but I am so incredibly excited to be able to do it again. During the Summit League Championship game, our team members who did not travel with us were sending videos of us cheering on TV to our group chat and really hyping us up. I could not ask for a better group of people to cheer alongside all year long, and I am really grateful for the support they constantly provide.
Does your squad have anything extra-special planned for next week? We are all very excited for the selection party that is happening on Sunday! However, we have a really busy week leading up to that point. The NCAA travel team had an extra practice this week to focus on gameday stunts and content. Additionally, a group of us will be cheering at the NCHC conference tournament on Friday night. It is a big week for Omaha athletics, and we are so grateful to be along for the ride!
Any predictions for next week? I do not want to give any predictions because I am very superstitious about it. I will not do certain cheers while certain players are on the court if they missed a shot while I was previously doing that same cheer. I have had the same pre-game routine since I joined the team, and I stand by its success. It is a little crazy…but I have to do my part to ensure their success.
