HART – Nora Chickering became the third Oceana County athlete in the last six months to commit to a D1 college athletic program, signing her commitment letter to the University of Michigan Wednesday, May 7.
Chickering, a star for Hart’s all girls competitive cheer team, will attend UofM in the fall where she expects to join the Wolverines’ cheer team. While the university doesn’t offer athletic scholarships for cheer, Chickering did receive an academic scholarship to attend.
Chickering plans to study secondary education as a Wolverine.
“(Getting an academic scholarship) was a challenging thing to do,” Chickering said. “All of the hard work really paid off. (I’m) a student-athlete, not just an athlete. Hart offers dual-enrollment college classes, so I’ve been taking those and every hardest offered class to prepare me for Michigan.”
“I’m hoping to bring all my tumbling skills (to Michigan’s team). I’ve worked really hard to get to where I am. Not everybody can do the skills that I can, so hopefully that helps bring in some extra points or overall appeal.”
While at Hart, Chickering helped the Pirates win four West Michigan Conference titles along with two district titles. The Pirates also advanced to the regional tournament all four years of Chickering’s high school career, winning one regional championship.
“It’s a huge accomplishment and a real honor to be able to go to any college, let alone the University of Michigan,” Nora’s dad Jesse Chickering said. “She’s worked hard since she was a young girl and she’s been in gymnastics since she was five or six years old. That’s a lot of dedication.”
